Manchester - Oxford Road - Ryan Review

Ryan's picture
How Helpful?: 
Average: 5 (1 vote)
Author: 
Number of Visits: 
This was my first visit
How Busy?: 
A few tables occupied
Date of Last Visit: 
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Time of Day: 
Weekday Lunch
Rating: 
3.38 / 5
Friendliness of Staff: 
3 (Not bad. Did everything I asked of them)
Speed of Service: 
5 (Under 5 mins - I had only just got back with my cutlery and sauce)
Quality of Food: 
2.5 (Average but needs more peri spice)
Decoration & Cleanliness: 
3 (Standard Nando's, nothing bad, nothing exceptional)
Comments - Stand out in our monthly competition! What did you eat? Unique aspects? Parking/transport tips?: 

Arrived at this Nando's at about 11:30... and I'm glad I did as by 12pm the whole place was rammed with a queue of four or five parties. It's located within the Univeristy district and with other tourist favourites such as the Manchester Museum nearby, you can see why this gets very busy.

There is parking on Chester Street in a multi-storey, but it's pretty expensive at £4/2hr, £8/4hrs and upwards from there, so it is definitely worth getting the train or tram+walking. Oxford Road train station is a few hundred yards walk away and Piccadilly Metrolink is about 3/4 mile walk away, so only 15 minutes walk.

Although no wait for a table for me, there was a bit of a wait to order as the tills went down for just over 10 minutes - but to save people waiting, the staff took the orders manually and then bought the bills over later on. Infact, the food came less than 5 minutes after ordering and it was all eaten before the bill came! Needless to say the staff were a bit stressed with this so did what was expected of them.

Fillet burger and chips for lunch and it was nice. The piece of breast meat was a bit on the small side and only filled the ciabatta by about two-thirds. The slice of tomato was huge and really showed how much smaller the chicken piece was! It was also marinaded well - but no spice at all. I know I've gotten used to Extra Hot, but this just tasted like mayonnaise! Definitely needed more peri-peri goodness. The chips were hot and crispy though.

The restaurant itself was a good size and certainly well catered for multiple large groups. Just to the right by the entrance were 6 or so small tables and then 6 or 7 large booths down the left hand side all set back fron the wall. As you continue down towards the back to the toilets, the branch opens up to a seating area with room for 15-20 table/chair sets or so. A couple of chandeliers suspended from the ceiling made up the main lighting, but overall, this was a rather plain Nando's - lots of beige paint of wooden fixtures, with not a whole lot of the walls, except for a few paintings above the seating by the entrance.

And one more note - you can book tables for groups of 8 people or more and order online for collection at this branch!

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