Nando's Basingstoke - Festival Place — Restaurant in Basingstoke and Deane

Covid has happened and we all get the changes. But Nando’s have taken the migration to technology too far. I love technology, my career has focussed on creating systems like the one Nando’s has created. It should have been a geeks dream.

So you turn up, scan a QR code to visit a website to book your place in a a virtual queue. The simple form fails. The staff blame the “signal”, no the signal wasn’t the issue the server error page arrived perfectly and quickly thanks to the good network connection.

Finally the virtual queue invited us back. Went in and was sat at a table. Another QR code. This time in the depths of Nando’s now I have little signal and the free WiFi they provide was exceptionally slow (Nando’s look up QoS and prioritise data to your online ordering over other data such as Tarquin watching Netflix on papa’s iPhone).

Ordered our food, drinks. Well the next 15 minutes was consumed giving my data, name, email and even requiring a confirmation email with code BEFORE being allowed to pay. The obvious enforced grab for my personal data which has no opt out was blatant. Had I know that before visiting I wouldn’t have gone in. My personal data and privacy clearly has a low value when I’m hungry. Well needless to say the confirmation email was blocked by my spam filtering. Panic set in, hunger, trapped in the inner depths of a Nando’s with no staff walking past. No choice for it, remote into works server, adjust the spam filtering to get a code just so I could complete the checkout.

Food ordered. Drinks arrived within seconds. Impressive. Then shortly after the main course gets dumped.

I’m not a regular with Nando’s but what I didn’t realise is when we sat down our table had nothing on it. So when the main course arrived and was dropped off I was expecting cutlery to follow. It didn’t.

Did I mention no staff walking past? 10 minutes before I could flag someone down. Chicken burger had slipped apart and my hands were a sticky mess. No napkins, nothing. Finger licking good with the sharp tang of the earlier hand sanitiser under the sticky Nando’s sauce with a chance of Covid. Delightful.

In summary, staff were distant. The technology designed to automate and distance caused a disconnection between staff and customers. The staff were attentive once their attention was gained. Remove the technology and those same staff would have been superb. This negative review is in no way aimed at the staff.

The collection of my personal details was excessive and unnecessary. I was booked in on the NHS app. Needing my details just to order food, a condition of me ordering food I wonder if that is even allowed under GDPR?! No opt in or out. I await marketing, I must remember to put the spam filtering back on for Nando’s domain.

Food was good. Starter needed longer in the commercial microwave.

Would I go again, no. If you don’t like spam then create a throw away free email account and setup a Nando’s account onto it in advance allowing time for confirmation emails to arrive so you don’t become a rude reclusive phone geek...

On 04/01/2025 we are at the Basingstoke, Festival Place Nandos.

This was delightful.

We ordered a medium boneless sharing platter with two large sides; peri chips and garlic bread. Plus drinks and a wing roulette.

The speed of the service was impeccable for our meal, especially considering how busy the place was. We actually sat with a table of 8 (all family and partners). We ordered at different times so expected a short wait between meals, this was fine.

The chicken was delicious. The breasts were slightly charcoaled which we don’t mind, but others might. They were however juicy, and this is at times difficult to achieve as it is a thicker cut and can often be somewhat dry, but not on this occasion. The thighs were top notch. In all, the only request would be for there to be a bit more sauce when cooking the chicken. Sauce on the side is never the same as marinated and cooked. Enjoyable nonetheless, 9/10.

The peri chips, very good. Not enough Peri salt for us, but easily fixed when asked how our meal was and they bought over additional sachets. We are possibly amongst the unique group of people that like the empty, crispy, hollow chips; the ones people often leave on their plates at the end of their meal. Not us. We’ve had days where 40-50% were cooked to this perfection (in our eyes). On this occasion, 10%, lowering our score to 8/10, but not to be misread, still unbeatable across most restaurants.

The garlic bread, two of four were unfortunately cooked slightly more than we had hoped, but not the end of the world. 7/10.

Drinks, sauces, wing roulette, can’t complain. Fanta chicken is a no from us, but we listen and we do not judge. I’m sure someone out there enjoys it.

Overall, 8/10. Succulent, speedy...

My first time coming to Festival place nandos , it will be my last time for sure with a manager anything like Matt.

I was in a queue & asked a nice young lady for a table of 2 , she said 20-30mins which weren’t the problem. The Problem started when i was waiting & noticed for quite sometime SEVERAL tables dirty, not being cleaned which was of course delaying people (like myself) that were waiting for a seat to order food. The manager ( Matt) then comes along & i asked him , why we are waiting, when there are tables waiting to be cleaned & that he is wasting not only their time but people that were waiting.. he then became VERY defensive, deflecting everything i was saying (which made me believe he thought i was right but just didn’t want to admit he was wrong) then , he had the cheek to tell me , that he is wasting his time having a conversation with me & walked off to the front desk doing nothing, not cleaning the tables , absolutely nothing , when several minutes later a poor young girl , had to clean all the tables herself , whilst again i watched Matt do nothing.

Matt , 1) should not be in a role working with the public & 2) should be sacked- if it was my company we would be (but thats just me)

Thank you to the people today that actually did do their job & made me comfortable.. unlike someone (matt) who when i was eating my food , went to every other table , ask them how their food was , but didn’t...