Nottingham - Cornerhouse - Ryan Review

After a half-marathon in Derbyshire - what better way to round the weekend off than a Nando's in the only Midlands branch I hadn't yet been to!

This Nando's is located in the Cornerhouse complex (by the Royal Theatre) and is also just a couple minutes walk from the other City Centre branch at in the Market Square/Place. This means it's very easy to get to by train (Nottingham train station is half a mile walk away) and tram - and also within a 10 minute (max) walk from most car parks. The Castle and the caves are also a few minutes walk away - with a Cineworld being located inside the Cornerhouse complex also.

On this occasion, I parked by the Castle on one of the plentiful parking bays on the side of the road. (I parked in Castle Boulevard.) Parking in these bays on a Sunday is only £1 for the first two hours and then 25p for every half hour afterwards. An evening charge from 8pm-8am Monday-Saturday is a flat £1. All of these bays are pay and display and allow payment by phone. There are other car parks, such as Broadmarsh multi-storey, Trinity Square multi-storey, St James Street and others. The evening rate and hourly charges vary so check before you go (and the NCP ones are quite expensive).

Arrived here at about 1:30pm and it was about 3/4 full so no wait for a table, nor to order - and the food came in just under 15 minutes.

This restaurant is very easy on the eye and full of colour and is nice and bright. There is plenty of different lighting styles, including an array of sticks suspended above the booths on one side, a couple of large purple chandeliers and also lots of theatre style lighting too. The ceiling various throughout as well, including a wicker style basket above the entrance and large wooden clad panels.

There is lots of artwork too. Facing from the front, on the right hand wall are 12 large and brightly coloured (some very nice) canvas paintings and on the left hand wall another 5 or 6. There's also a very good seating mix - six booths running along the wall on the left with bench/tables running along the right hand wall and plenty of tables/chairs all different sizes in the middle. There is also an upstairs seating too - which is mainly table/chairs but bright multi-coloured chairs.

The food was superb as well. A very generous portion of chicken which was very well cooked indeed. Smothered in sauce, piping hot throughout and a nice bit of charring. I was almost full just from this very large portion! The rice was also piping hot and towering over the side of the dish - and the only bad thing was that the chips were a bit soggy and not crispy.

Staff were pleasant enough but doing as expected.