Soho Square - Adam Nicol Review

I’d been planning this trip all week, so it definitely wasn’t just to overtake Pompey Ranger… This branch is a bit awkward to find if you don’t know London well, you it’s a short walk from Tottenham Court Road station, you have to walk west along Oxford Street and take the first left, then the road to the right across Soho Square, and it’s on that street. I had a really good first impression of this branch, it wasn’t very busy upstairs, and it seemed to be empty downstairs. We got seated upstairs next to some people, even though there were plenty of empty tables for two on the other side of the room that I didn’t notice at first.

Friendliness of Staff – We only really dealt with one Staff member, he greeted us with a smile, asked if we’d ever been to Nando’s before, obviously I said yes but then he asked “Have you ever been to this branch?” and I said “No” so he proceeded to show us where everything in the branch was, I thought this was nice and helpful, though it did make me feel like a bit of a Nando’s Noob. He was very friendly though so 4/5 for Staff.

Speed of Service – Speed was a disappointment, we got seated immediately and served immediately but our food took about 20 minutes to arrive, which is terrible considering there were hardly any people waiting for food, also the people behind us who ordered a few minutes after us got their food before us, annoyed me a bit. They also took a lot of time to take empty plates from tables after meals, though our dessert was brought over quickly. 2/5 for Speed.

Food – The food was another disappointment, they had no Butterfly Chicken so I got Half-chicken extra hot with Peri-chips and garlic bread. The breast piece was huge with a lot of chicken on, but the skin on it was a mess and there was no sauce on it at all, so I had to use the extra-extra hot sauce to make it eatable. The portion of chips was tiny and only had a small amount of Peri-salt on. The garlic bread was very burnt, I usually like it burnt but it was so burnt it was all black and flavourless. They also didn’t have any chocolate ice-cream so I had to get the choc-a-lot cake which I didn’t enjoy. I’ll give Food a 1.5/5.

Décor – The décor was the best part of the branch. The famous huge red cock in the window was awesome. The coolness of the layout, with the downstairs and a bridge crossing over it, I really loved that. Unfortunately I didn’t get a look downstairs as it was barred off when it got close to closing time. I really loved the floor tiles which cover the front of the till counter as well and the walls which look like 3D cubes, they were cool. 5/5 for Décor because it’s sooo cool!

Overall, whilst the branch and single staff member were really good, the food and speed really let this branch down… I’ll probably return to this branch and hopefully it will perform better next time. 3/5 for this branch.