Milton Keynes - Xscape - Ryan Review

This Nando's is located on the Xscape section in Milton Keynes. It means it's very well sign-posted by road from quite a distance out but also means it's within the town centre and so near to everything. Milton Keynes Central train station is about 1.5 miles away, so a brisk 20 minute walk.

Within the Xscape centre itself there is a Hollywood Bowl (opening October 2013) and a Cineworld, along with many other eateries (Ask, La Tasca, KFC etc) and clothing shops you'd expect to find (Trespass, O'Neill, Quiksilver etc). There's also a SnoZone, Airkix and rock climbing and a few late night bars (such as SnoBar and Revolution).

There's a further Odeon cinema a few minutes walk from the Xscape and also a Tenpin bowling alley by the train station.

Parking is also very good. Lots and lots of reasonably priced parking throughout Milton Keynes - but the rates do vary between car parks. The parking at Xscape is split into red and blue. Blue is 30p/hour and red is 80p/hour, all car parks seem to charge from 7am-6pm Mon-Sun.

The branch is located by the main entrance (on the end - not on the side) to save walking round looking for it. It's also reasonably decorated. There are 60 cotton orbs dangling at all different lengths all with light bulbs inside creating lots of light. As you enter, the wall on your left just behind the waiting area, has 10 or so mid-to-large canvas paintings - but other than these there's not a whole lot of colour. The full length windows do have some colourful fabric blinds, but obviously if these are down there is less light coming in!

The layout is very accommodating for multiple groups at one time. In the middle of the restaurant are 6 square booths with a further three just up the first set of stairs (just a slightly raised section really). Plenty of other table/chair sets takes this up to about 35 tables in total. Toilets are up the (both sets of) stairs and very clean.

I arrived at about 7:45pm and the branch was half full, so not wait to order and the food came in 17 minutes. The staff were doing everything as expected.

The food was superb. My last Nando's at camberley was terrible - and so this was a very welcome relief. A moutain of hot, moist rice and a stack of hot, crispy chips were very well received! A nice portion of well marinaded, hot, moist chicken meant that stuffing my face was so much fun! This can only not receive a 5 on the fact the chicken portion could have been a little bigger - but it was truly delicious!