St Christophers Place - Ryan Review

In the Surrey area again overnight - so would have been rude not to pop into Central London to this brand new Nando's. As others have stated, this is just a couple minutes walk from Bond Street tube station and with the various car parks dotted around being £5-£8 per hour inside the congestion charge, it makes sense to use public transport for this one.

Forst impressions of this one when you walk in are just how small it is. I have to agree with Blaynos and cannot give this more than a 3 for decor because of just how small it is.

Upstairs there are actually eight 2-seater tables with a further four stools under some very low bar-style seating in the window. These eight tables especially (and the staff had actually put eight different parties on these tables) are so very close together there really isn't even any elbow room and forget it if you want to get up and move your chair... The four stools in the window will also be given out as four separate tables as well - and I was put on one of these with a party of two girls and a chap next to me. (The chap turned out to be a thoroughly nice bloke and may one day be the first Saudi Arabian superstar footballer... if only he can shake off his knee injury - you heard it hear first!) I can imagine some people will find this a bit too impersonal but generally anywhere you sit upstairs then you may as well be sat on somebody's lap... that's a good excuse I suppose if you like the look of somebody...

Downstairs there is a tiny bit more room, but not much at all. At the bottom of the stairs as you head to the toilets, there is a booth underneath a low vaulted ceiling painted in purple with purple leather for the booth, which reminded me of the little private room in the Vauxhall Arch Nando's - only smaller. To the right of this is a small thoroughfare with a couple of 2-seater booths either side and then at the back is a section separated by some fencing with a few more tables in, which are also very close together.

The decor itself is not that bad. Lots of reclaimed wood on the walls, including a large blue/white diamond pattern on the walls upstairs, a good jagged pattern on the walls in that back section downstairs and lots more reclaimed wood on all of the five toilet cubicles. The lights are also bright (downstairs especially) - and, as said, you do have that private little vaulted booth... but overall, because everything about it just feels so uncomfortable, it's average overall.

Anyways, arriving here at about 8pm meant there was just a few minutes wait for a table (or at least a stool) to become free and the food then took just over 12 minutes to arrive - and it was definitely below average. The chicken portion was measley, very small with barely any meat on it at all. The little meat that was on it was cooked well enough but lacked any sauce at all. The rice was quite dry and the chips weren't crispy enough and a little soggy. The ratatouille was a good size portion and nice and hot - but the chicken was such a let down, it was definitely below average.

Staff were pleasant enough but doing just enough to keep trying to squeeze as many people in as possible...