I hate to do this and be "that customer", but I am currently sitting in a Nando's in Hamilton, Ontario, and I have major concerns. I have dined at locations in Canada, the UK, and the US, and I don't remember the last time I've had such a poor experience. This is especially disappointing to me because this location is so close to home and convenient and I was really excited when it opened.

Right now, it is a Wednesday night, the restaurant is maybe 1/4 full, and not only have I received cold food that had been sitting under a heat lamp long enough that the bread for my sandwich is hard enough that I can't even eat it, but I have been made to feel like I am unwelcome to dine in at the restaurant on more than one occasion.

When I walked in to the restaurant, solo, I purposely walked to the host stand because I wanted to dine in instead of ordering takeout. After a number of minutes of standing there as staff walked by and ignored me, I flagged somebody down and asked for a table number so that I could place an order. That staff member looked at me, surprised, and walked me to a table, telling me that he saw me there, but didn't think I'd want a table because I was on my own. Okay, fine, that's a bit annoying, but alright. I came into the restaurant knowing what I wanted, so I walked up to the lineup for the cash registers to place my order and purposely stood in the line that was there and not the open register for "pickup orders only". The staff member at the pickup register called me over and asked for a name for my takeout order. I told him that I was dining in and gave him my table number instead. I waited, and waited, and waited for about 20 minutes (looking at the times that I sent messages to people on my phone to put together timelines) before the staff member who took my order walks up to me with my food in a takeout bag and looks surprised to see me sitting at a table with a dine-in glass with a fountain drink in it. He asked me if I wanted to dine in, which again I confirmed before commenting that it seemed like they didn't want me to eat at the restaurant. He responded that he could put my food on a plate or I could take the bag and go, but it was up to me. I reiterated again that I wanted to dine in, so he took my bag of food, dropped it off, then proceeded to seat two tables of customers and take at least one more order on cash before my food finally made it back to my table almost ten minutes later.

As I mentioned, by the time my food got to me, the bread for my sandwich was hard enough that it wasn't edible and the chicken was cold. To add to that, the sauce that I ordered was not on the sandwich.

When that same staff member came to the table to ask how everything was, I told him that I was very disappointed and I told him why. His only response was "somebody called in sick and sometimes you just have a bad day." He didn't offer to fix my sandwich. He didn't even offer to bring me a little cup of the mango-lime sauce that wasn't on my sandwich so that I could put it on myself. He essentially brushed it off by saying "we appreciate your feedback" and had nothing to say when I asked him if anything would actually be done about it.

I do enjoy Nando's, but doubt that I will be back at this location.