Nando's Exeter - Princess Hay — Restaurant in Exeter

My partner has never had Nando's so I had to expose her to chicken heaven! I have been countless times over the years. Firstly when I was walking to college and being handed a free breakfast roll, it was gorgeous! (that was yeeears ago). I have many memories with my friends going and love it! We entered the doors on a mildly busy night. There was no one there to greet us. Every time I been in no matter how busy or quiet it has been, I have always been greeted and shown to a table. We decided to wait a couple minutes. Still no one. I walk to the till and was greeted by a staff member. First thing they say is table number. As we hadn't been shown to a table I mentioned it. The staff member looked blankly at me and said "well, find a table and come back to order". We decided to take a table near the window. The next customer walks through the door... greeted by a staff member and shown to a table... The staff member just seemed to appear. Looked through the incredible menu, always never know what to get as it all sounds amazing! Decide to get the butterfly burger with peri chips. We get a starter of the beautiful and incredible olives! I can't go to Nando's without the olives! The garlic, mushrooms, peppers and olives, it's the best thing I have had! My partner got a new menu item which was chicken in a pitta halloumi, she absolutely loved it! Always go for the lemon and herb or mango and herb as the flavour is out of this world! The food is always so beautiful and I wish I could go more for sure! Always get a radler or bottomless drink! She is now a Nando's fan! Another I loved in Nando's was the sangria, that I had with some of my old staff member as a leaving do! Highly recommend Nando's!

Reedit since: Nandos unfortunately has dropped a star, its unfortunate to say. The things I loved from going in there prior are gone. Last visit a few staff members were so blunt, stand offish and didn't make you feel comfortable. They forgot our olives, ask for a staff member... they were lovely, however when I said about the olives, they never come back. Go to the till to mention it, they said they would be right over. Waited for 10 minutes. Asked yet another different member.. finally to get some olives! Are you serious? I love the food, however, I just didn't feel like most of them wanted to serve any of us.. makes you feel very...

We went in to the Exeter branch yesterday as have been to a few Nando’s and have enjoyed our meals. But this branch is one of the worst restaurants I have ever eaten in Went to order the gentleman behind the the counter couldn’t have been more unpleasant or unhelpful. His attitude was how dare we order food from him.After the hard work of ordering our food We sat back at our seats and the waitress bought 2 out of 3 drinks and 2 out of 3 sets of cutlery. We had to ask 3 waitress for our missing drink. Which we only got when 2 of the meals finally came out. When the food came our it was dry and bland. But not a single waitress/waiter came and asked us if our meal was ok ( probably knew it was so bad ) We went to the toilets. Which both the men’s and women’s were dirty. I even had to ask for toilet roll - can’t believe they don’t have in place the checking of toilets that other good establishments have The only time any one actually spoke to us was to explain they had no menus and we had to look at our phones and not even when we left. This has so put me off using a Nando’s again. I definitely wouldn’t be going back to that one and would tell others not to bother either. Not interested in customers at all just taking your money and getting you out of there as quickly...

Food is good, as per for Nandos, and always quick. Inconsistency in staff standards though. I've been 3 times in the past 5 months (so it's not put me off) but they seem off par with some of the basics I'd expect. Only 1 out of 3 times we got a check back on our food. 2 out of 3 times we got our full order of food (Olives were forgotten last time). 2 out of 3 times we got our drink glasses brought over (forgotten until we asked for them when our food arrived). You don't go to Nandos for the service, I know. But if they get these basics sorted then it would be more seamless, and probably cover their backs too (regarding checkbacks). Most people order on the app anyway so that reduces the time they have to spend with customers, but I'm sure there's still loads to do that they are having to juggle, but for some reason there's not much urgency or attentiveness - I don't know if they have delegated sections for floor staff but it comes across disorganised and may just need to be managed.

Overall, it's fine, it's Nandos, and that's why we've gone back again, but the point made by my partner is why do we keep going if there's problems....