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Milton Keynes - Kingston Centre - Ryan Review
How Helpful?:
Number of Visits:
This was my first visit
How Busy?:
Up to 10 minute wait
Date of Last Visit:
Friday, March 28, 2014
Time of Day:
Weekday Dinner
Comments - Stand out in our monthly competition! What did you eat? Unique aspects? Parking/transport tips?:
This Nando's is located on the Kingston Centre retail park. It's anchored by a big Tesco Extra along with M&S, Boots, Next and plenty of other shops. Nando's is in the new foody bit in the same block of units as Giraffe, Chiquito and Frankie and Benny's. It's a good few miles away from MK Central and any train station, so one to reach by car - and there are well over 1000 free parking spaces too.
I arrived here for a very late lunch at about 6pm and it was full with a few minutes wait for a table. It has plenty of tables (over 50 inside and out), but unless you get into a booth (there are three to the left of the front door and 8 or so at the very back) you'll find yourself into a bit of a squeeze into all the other tables/bench chair sets... especially if there a lot of parties of two (or one) in...
With this being newest opened Nando's, expectations were high for the decor, especially as AYlesbury just down the road was decorated so nicely... but I'm afraid it just wasn't quite there. The right-side wall has some very large and bright convas paintings running all the way down the restaurant and the feature wall to the left of the entrance has some very bright and vibrant decoration... but aside from that, this really is quite bland. There is a lot of wood, which I am sure is reclaimed or whatever, but with so much wood panelling on the ceiling, walls and fixtures - it makes it feel like an old Nando's. All the seating upholstery is the "older" red cloth and the glass jar lightshades didn't really light the whole of this restaurant up very well.
It gets even more plain when you go to the toilets. The stairwell is pretty large but all of it is painted in battleship grey and there are no paintings or plants or anything to be seen. The toilets are very normal too - again just like walking into an early Nando's.
As for the food, it came in just under 15 minutes and was distinctly average. The chips and rice portion were both on the smaller side and neither were piping hot. The chicken was also a bit on the lean side and although it was cake in sauce on the outside, it was pretty dry on the inside. Lots of table sauce was needed to juice this one up!
Staff were in absolute abundance but doing as expected to get the tables turned around.
Overall, this really was quite average.
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