Swiss Cottage - O2 Centre - Marc Joss Review

I hadn’t had Nando’s in a month and a half as I’ve been living in France and was very much looking forward to a pleasant Monday evening visit at Finchley Road o2 Centre Nando’s during a long weekend back home. The visit started well as we were seated straight away (this branch gets notoriously busy on the weekend but this was a Monday) and we were also seated at the supposed best table in the house: the barrel! Had it not been so cold (complaints from other members of the party) and had the inexplicable, imminent problems not arisen, maybe we would have all felt lucky but this was sadly not the case.

The queue to order was rather long, maybe the branch was understaffed as business started heating up towards 8pm. I was told my order would arrive in 10 minutes which is always nice to hear. Shame the Nandoca who served me was unable to keep her word as 15 minutes passed and my food was nowhere to be seen. The full platter I was sharing with a friend did soon arrive and that feeling of immediate excitement hit as I was finally about to get my teeth into another Nando’s chicken. That feeling soon disappeared as I saw the state of the breast I had been given. It was by far the smallest breast I have ever seen in Nando’s and I have been to 86 branches and tend to go twice or three times a week. The wing did not make it on to the plate and it was also so dry that I questioned whether any sauce had actually touched it during the grilling process. Luckily my leg was ok and I started to eat it and hoped a Nandoca would soon come to check up on us and rectify the problem. The first Nandoca that came over looked at me after I explained the problem and shrugged her shoulders as if to say she didn’t understood what she was supposed to do. I then explained that I was not happy with the breast and would like another one extra hot. She walked off supposedly to ask the manager or someone of greater authority and never returned which didn’t surprise me. I then tried my luck with another Nandoca passing by and this time it was a trainee who did seem genuinely sympathetic but explained how she was just a trainee and couldn’t do anything about it. I then asked if I could speak to the manager about it but her reply was that the manager was busy taking orders. I was starting to get frustrated and said I didn’t want to wait as I was meeting some friends straight after and didn’t have much time (of course if the order had arrived within 10 minutes and correctly as expected, this would never have been a problem). The trainee Nandoca walked off and I then targeted the Nandoca who had welcomed us to the table and seemed higher placed. Luckily I was right and when she came over and saw the state of the breast, she immediately took the plate away and brought it back within a couple of minutes with a decent sized breast covered in sauce, finally! Obviously I did eventually get what I ordered but the fact that it took three Nandocas and caused unnecessary stress to get the job done is unacceptable in my book.

As for the other members of the party, one did not receive his food until 10 minutes after the rest of us and an acquaintance who happened to be on the table next to us ordered before us and received his food quite a while after which meant his wait for food was nearer to half an hour. To make matters worse he could even see his order on the side waiting to be dispatched for quite a while and had to actually point it out to the Nandoca. Another friend’s corn on the cob was completely burnt and the general vibe from the staff was not of the usual Nando’s spirit. I’m sad to say I can’t see myself coming back to this branch especially with West Hampstead
round the corner.