Stamford Street - Damien Review

Despite working pretty close to Stamford Street, I’d never been to its Nando’s before. This changed on Monday night when I suggested a quick bite at Nando’s as a joke, which resulted in us actually going there. Mid way between Waterloo and Blackfriars stations, this branch is probably easy to miss unless you happen to use Stamford Street as a through route. My girlfriend was worried we wouldn't get a table at 6pm on a work day, but needn't have been. The place was pretty much dead when we arrived. Most people in there seemed to be just waiting on takeaway. We got our choice of seats and were given menus (though there were no cocks-on-sticks in sight).

While the restaurant isn't the hugest, it is pretty attractive looking, inside and out. None of the décor absolutely jumped out, but what is there all works together pretty well. We ordered our meals separately, with no hassle, and the food took about ten minutes to come out. I wasn't all too hungry, so just went with a quarter chicken, two sides and halloumi. The breast quarter came out looking huge and dripping in thick peri peri sauce. I've seen a lot of Nando’s chicken in my time, and it’s rare that one quarter portion brings me to take out my camera for a picture. I’d ordered extra hot, and this abundance of sauce definitely made it as hot as I’d wanted. It’s just a shame that the creamy mash and corn on the cob sides that accompanied this were a bit dry.

The restaurant was very well staffed on this visit. The second it looked like somebody had maybe finished their food, a member of staff shot over to ask if they were done/if they wanted anything else. On a few occasions, this was a false alarm. The girls on the table next to us even seemed a bit put out by the question.

Other than the generally clean aesthetics of Stamford Street Nando’s, special note has to be made of the Dyson Airblade drier in the gents toilets, the most powerful I've ever encountered.
On our way out, we were wished farewell by not one, not two but four different members of staff, to the point of comedy. It’s nice to be reassured that not all London Nando’s employ mainly apathetic and borderline rude staff. They need to keep whoever does the recruiting for Stamford Street, for sure!