Nando's Rondebosch — Restaurant in Rondebosch

Decided to try this branch again after not having such a great experience a few months ago. Even more disappointing this time around. Ordered an extra hot whole chicken- wasn't just mild, it was verging on flavourless. Might have been somewhat saved with the addition of extra sauce, but for the entire meal, including three sides, we were only given one sachet of Nando's sauce to share. Not worth the trip from Woodstock, the long wait, nor the extra cost compared to some alternative flame grilled options.

EDIT: 3 weeks after emailing Customer Care as was the response form "the owner", I just received an automated response, and no feedback. Why bother providing the illusion you take customer feedback seriously?

EDIT 2: 26 July. After over three months, I get a call from a manager at the Rondebosch branch who apologised, but obviously didn't read my review, and spent much of the conversation trying to gaslight me and come up with nonsensical excuses to my experience (like the fact that flavourless "extra hot" flavour was due to "seasonality"). She finally awkwardly asks me to tell her what they can do to resolve the issue. I replied to her that was entirely up to them. She then offers me a replacement meal, and assures me I don't need to do anything more than come through to the branch, as she would have made a note of this, and they know what my order number and order was.

Several hours later, I try to call ahead to order, but was unable to reach them, but the call centre assures me the branch is open. When I arrive, no knows what I'm talking about. They were not taking orders from anyone due to their systems being offline for some time (due to loadshedding I assume), which means aside from wrapping up the orders they had, they were not assisting anyone ahead of me. It still took 15+ minutes to confirm that day manager definitely didn't leave a note, and further time to decide they would actually honour the offer.

To conclude- the manager on duty did try her best to assist once she understoof the issue, and once the order was confirmed, it arrived reasonably quickly. The food this time around was much, much better than my previous 2 experiences! That said...if offering me a meal replacement was meant to convince me to frequent their branch again, the overall experience has further cemented the idea that it's just not...

Yesterday for supper I decided I'll take my family to dine in at your Nandos restaurant in Rondebosh as we were in the area, Rondebosh has always been one of my favourite Nandos until a few months back, I also received terrible service which I never bothered sending a review because I'm one that accepts it could have just been an off day for the staff, anyway yesterday went down like this; I get to the cashier to place my order which took almost 10 minutes to do because she was faning herself with the Nandos menu whilst me giving her my order, I'm not sure if it was due to the Air-conditioning not functioning but constantly having to repeat a simple order: strips and rice, half chicken, wedges a roll and a juice and 2 cokes. We were seated for 30+ minutes waiting for this order ( bear in mind the shop literally had myself and another table dinning there 3 walking customer's waiting for there take away order) I walked up to the side counter asking for my food and sat and waited another 15 minutes waiting for my Wife's strips and rice which you're staff member had taken to the other table that never ordered strips and rice then your staff member saw his mistake took back the food from the dinee and wanted to hand me the eaten of strips and rice of which I had to demand them to make me a fresh strips and rice, I ended up eating cold food because I had to wait what was wild, is the fact your staff member was willing to give my Wife food someone had already eaten of. Anyways address your staff accordingly and it's unprofessional to stand and fan yourself whilst taking an order from a client and please fix the wobbly table top at the booth for four, a dinee is going to spill his/her drink because of the top...

What started as a disappointing experience turned into something unexpectedly decent — but only after some real frustration.

📉 The Bad (Round 1): Walked in for a quick Nando’s fix and got burned — literally. Garlic bread arrived burnt, chicken came out dry with no basting, and service? Non-existent. I was refused a plate, greeted with zero smiles, and left sitting in silence, completely unacknowledged.

I left frustrated and felt the vibe at this store was way off. A true letdown, especially from a brand known for bold flavours and friendly energy.

📞 The Recovery: After lodging my complaint, I got a call from the manageress, Andisiwe, who personally invited me back. Credit to her — she took full ownership and made an effort to turn things around.

📈 The Good (Round 2): Returned to the store, and though the greeting again lacked warmth, Andisiwe approached me with professionalism and we had a decent chat. She brought my order personally: 🍗 1/2 Chicken Extra Hot – steaming, juicy, and finally properly basted 🥔 Spicy Potato Wedges – crisp, golden and satisfying 🍏 Small Apple Capparinha – chilled and refreshing

This time, the meal hit the spot. Flavour was 🔥, portion was good, and everything arrived hot.

⚖️ Final Take: It shouldn’t take a complaint to get basic service, but I respect the effort made to fix it. The food redeemed itself in the second round — shoutout to Andisiwe for stepping up.

⭐ Rating: 3/5 Would I go back? Maybe — but only if I’m met with the level of service shown by the manager, not the staff on autopilot.

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