Nando's Dover - St James — Restaurant in Dover

Went here yesterday for an anniversary and couldn't have chosen a better place!

Firstly let's start with the venue itself, it's large with huge ceilings and very well decorated with a modern touch and plenty of seating for it's busier times. They had a nice area for click and collect orders so it was not to interfere with the people who wanted to sit in and enjoy their meal. With dim lighting, some comfy booths, a nice outside seating area and everything well spaced out to maximize the room, it was very comfortable to eat in and you could tell it was cleaned regularly unlike a lot of other average food eateries of late.

Next will be the food. Anyone who's ever visited nandos before knows it's a lot of chicken and spices but very filling! For a family of 4 the bill only came to £80 and with unlimited fizzy refills, starters, mains and desserts, you can't go wrong! I had a burger and the breast size would put a lot of places to shame because it was huge! Falling out of my burger kinda huge! The coleslaw was delicious and so were the fries. The choc - o - lot cake was also a huge favourite for me and my daughter who ordered the same and it was devoured within minutes of arriving. The children's menu (nandinos) may be some what limited in choice but my 2 picky eaters still enjoyed every mouthful so don't let the lack of options question if you should go.

Lastly the service, honestly this was my favourite part of the evening! The staff here are perfect, they are so accommodating and happy to go above and beyond for their customers that in my opinion, they deserve a raise or at least recognition from their head office. As I stated earlier we went here for a nice and chilled anniversary and I had called the venue prior to arriving to ask for an odd request. I had asked if any of the servers would be willing to sing "For he's a jolly good fellow" when bringing out our last course of the night, the dessert. And I was met with a can do attitude and a nothing is too much trouble kind of vibe. Absolutely fantastic! Everything went to plan and 2 servers actually sang for my partner. I got everything I wanted from here and I'm trying to convince my family to make this a monthly meal now whilst the weather is warm. I couldn't thank the staff here enough and they were all as discreet as could be in an open plan eatery.

So to recap;

Food - as good as it gets for nandos, which isn't disappointing

Venue - great, relaxed vibe, spacious and clean

Staff - best thing about the restaurant were the people in it. I've always believed that it's not just food to think about when you choose somewhere to eat but also the staff that create the magic whilst you're there and the lovely lady with the pinkish hair and the kind lad with blondish hair were by far my favourite!

Hope to be eating here more regularly and thank you for an...

We chose to order our food and drinks at the bar/counter, rather than using the mobile phone app. The waitress was courteous, polite and helpful. I paid for our drinks and food and returned to our table.

We were pleasantly surprised to see that our drinks arrived soon after, although noted that one the drinks was incorrect. My wife was served a can of white wine, rather than the glass of Cabernet Sauvignon red we'd requested. The waiter apologised and advised he would return with the correct order.

Moments later a waitress returned to advise that we had in fact ordered the can of white wine and that the Red wine was more expensive! We were a little bemused by this but assured her that red, rather than white was what was the dominant factor in the decision making process and not the price. We were then directed back to the to pay the difference.

Back at the bar, having had to endure the 'walk of shame' now that the attention of surrounding tables had noted the spectacle at our table, I was then abruptly informed that I had in actual fact ordered the can of white and NOT the Cabernet Sauvignon red. My wife only drinks red wine, so perhaps the waitress was right and I just wanted to pick an argument and ruin date night.

Drinks corrected, crisis averted, the food arrived a short time after. I ordered a Sunset Burger and chips, my wife had the Grilled Chicken Pitta Sliced chicken breast. A toasted pitta with Lemon & Herb mayo, crunchy slaw and mustard dressing.

The slaw was not delivered to the table and when I pointed this out, the waitress said "you hadn't ordered, it wasn't on the ticket." It was printed on the menu. Generally, when you read the contents of a menu, you do tend to expect that said listed items are indeed included in the dish that you're served. We didn't get the opportunity to point this fact out to the young lady in any event, as she tutted to herself and said "don't worry, I'll just get you some anyway."

Overall not really a great dining experience but we have a good sense of humour and the entertaining way in which the service was executed in such a surreal and unprofessional way was the only reason why I gave them a 2 star rating. I wouldn't...

When we arrived outside, and we could see there were a few empty tables, but when we entered we were asked if we could wait for about 15 mins, we said yes that's fine. Was then asked by the girl what the time was so she could enter it on her paperwork!(Surely having a watch would be good if your front of house, seeing to waiting customers?) We came back about 15 mins later, to be seated in the far left hand corner right by the staff/kitchen area. We were asked to wait a few minutes to order as there was a back log they need to catch up with!Unfortunately, where we were sat we had constant noise from staff going in and out the kitchen with plates etc and shouting across to each other over the loud music that was playing in there. We had to shout our conversation to each other every time the door opened, and why was there no music in the restaurant itself? Not that we would of heard it if there was! There was a wait for food, longer than normal when we have been in the past, but when the food came out it was nicely cooked, if a little smaller portions now. Part way through the meal about 9pm, the same front of house lady was going round every table, taking the sauce bottles away(she can put some in a little cardboard bowl for you apparently) because her manager had told her to start the close down. Well we then checked online to see if it was due to close and if we needed to hurry our meal, but No...10pm was stated closing time. We have been to Nandos a fair few times and like the quick service and the younger vibe it has...but will not be going back to this one, possibly no other restaurants if this is the way its going now!! It seems, as is the case in most 'Just Eat/Deliveroo' places now that getting deliveries out is more important than the customers sitting in the restaurant, who experience shoddy service because of it. Not happy at all, we felt like an inconvenience...