Whitechapel - Pompey Ranger Review

Whilst up in London I headed over to this branch which is based on the ground floor of a modern building to the north of the “waste” on mile end road. It benefits with limited on road parking outside and is close to Whitechapel underground station, just turn left / away from the Gerkin when you exit the station. It also has a Sainsbury’s close by.
It’s a very light and airy store having glass walls forming a curve round the outside, there is a circular ceiling propped up by pillars. A real lack of art work though, I think the manager needs to get straight on the phone to central office and ask for some to decorate the store. The tills and serving counter are right before you when you enter, the toilets are right by the door to the left and were clean though a little drab. Then you lead around to the right to where the sauces, beverage machine and seating area is with many tables with wooden chairs around the windows and soft backed bench with tables round the centre. There was a good level of background music playing in a latin swing.
For a halal store the chicken wasn’t too bad though it is tougher than non halal stores I have been to, the sides were cooked fine. The staff were very friendly and certainly push secondary selling, I had 3 staff members check my meal was ok and they were very keen to clear my table despite the store being half empty. At one point I had to physically cling onto my rice bowl which I hadn’t finished as the waitress was trying to take it away, then a moment later another staff member was trying to take my plate. They were all friendly and smiling though.
One oddity was that the counter person put 2 napkins in my glass at the counter which I thought was weird until I got to the sauce counter and realised there were no napkins to be had anywhere, whilst I understand a desire to save napkins i can be a messy eater and like to know I can wipe up at the end!
The only major drawback I encountered with this store was a large family with 6 kids were sat on a nearby table and were too ill educated to tend to their screaming brat in his push chair who was hollering his lungs out for quite a while. Their credentials of being pikey was further shown when they were argueing with a staff member that they hadn’t had their card stamped the week before and the manager had said they would do it this week, and lack of imagination was shown in not knowing what day, time, meal or name of staff member their alleged stamp was owed from.