Nando's PERi-PERi — Restaurant in Ottawa

The food was ok but reasonably priced, the place was beautifully decorated with a great patio and location. However, placing your order is really inefficient and takes the worst qualities of both fast food and table service restaurants, and has difficulty handling a lunch rush.

The benefit of waiting in line at a fast food restaurant is that it is all, for the most part, quick. The benefit of a table-service restaurant is being able to socialize with your party while you wait to place your order and while waiting to receive your food. At Nando’s, you need to wait to be seated, then need to wait in line with your party to place your order (and pay), then have to grab your cutlery, and then go back to your table to wait regular restaurant times for your food. It’s strange to me that at a seated restaurant where your food is brought to you that you’d need to leave your table to get in line to order.

Out of the 45 minutes I was there for lunch, I waited 20 minutes in line. Hanging out in a line is never as enjoyable as being properly seated. Even if it wasn’t busy, this would still have been unenjoyable and awkward. Wait staff kept needing to walk through to deliver food and we needed to constantly be on the lookout to move ahead in line. It was a beautiful summer day and I spent almost half of that time waiting in a line indoors instead of on a patio in the breeze socializing with my friends.

If they don’t want to hire more waiters, a solution would be to have a QR code at the tables with a link to let people place their orders directly to the kitchen, so that way you can stay at your table and hangout.

The arrival of food also wasn’t coordinated. My meal arrived 10 minutes before the food of my two friends. They also forgot my side and then told me my meal didn’t come with a side, even though the menu is pretty clear about there...

I've never been more disappointed in service. Arrived at 540, was able to order quickly for myself, a friend, my partner and a toddler. And then our order was I think completely forgotten.

Finally, 45 minutes after ordering somebody came to ask us how the food was and we told them we hadn't had it yet. Then the manager brought part of our appetizer order but not the other part, and then we were told 5 minutes for food and it took another 10 plus minutes. All with the toddler who was melting down because at this point it had been over an hour since we ordered. Meanwhile, at least six other tables came in and were served in front of us. The manager that had been present all night mysteriously disappeared as we were leaving so we couldn't even speak to him.

No one offered an apology or even an explanation. It's very frustrating for a place that asks for tips up front and I tip 20% to then have absolutely atrocious service and literally be forgotten. When were the only table with a small child in the restaurant and it's very obvious what our order would be or that it was missing.

I wasn't even asking for a refund. I just wanted to have an apology or an explanation because this is just straight up atrocious service. Food was okay. My partner and my friend enjoyed their meals. The baby didn't eat much but it had been over an hour and he was too upset. My meal was extremely bland and boring and kind of cold by the time it came.

We also paid for two dessert tarts that never came.

Overall I'm not going to be back, and I would recommend avoiding this restaurant with a...

I usually do not leave bad reviews but this experience deserves it. It was crowded when I walked in. We were asked to prepay for the meal( including tip) and since there was no seating indoors we sat outside. After an hour passes with no service , I went in to check as to what happened to our food. I was informed that the food was almost done . After half an hour more, we decided to move indoors assuming that maybe because we were outside , they had forgotten about us. We informed 3 different staff that we were moving inside. After another 15 min wait, my kids were so hungry ( I had a 2 and 3 year old) that I requested they refund us the money and let us leave. At which point they mentioned to us that they were out of the corn( which we had ordered as the side for all our dishes) . And we were blamed for not letting them know we switched tables. We were asked to chose a replacement so we chose the garlic bread ( which we were told would be out in a few mins ) we waited another half hour before we were served a huge platter of burnt inedible garlic bread and the rice ( which I had begged for saying at-least give us that so my kids could eat).Eventually we got our main course after multiple requests. We didn’t get all the sides we paid for ,but we were too exhausted to wait/ argue so we just left. The only redeeming thing was among all the angry guests, the wait staff was sweet which is pointless when you spend 3 hours waiting for a substandard...