Nando's Baker Street — Restaurant in London

We have visited Nando’s on many occasions and have rarely experienced bad customer service until today.

The staff member at the door was friendly and seated us promptly. I had two young children with me, and they were hungry, so I wanted to order their favourite meals.

When I went to place our order at the till, I was informed that they had no chicken wings available from the Nandino menu. This was incredibly disappointing, as the kids' menu is already limited, and that was really the only chicken item my kids eat there. The staff member at the till admitted that the only other chicken option was chicken breast, which is dry and tasteless. She also mentioned that I should have been informed about this beforehand, which I wasn’t. Had I known, I wouldn’t have sat down, made the kids comfortable, and promised them a meal they couldn’t have. There was no empathy, no apology, and no attempt to rectify the situation.

I asked if, on this occasion, given that they failed to inform us in advance, they could offer a quarter chicken as a replacement. It was a firm no. Then, the manager, 'Rabah', was brought in, and he insisted that I either pay adult meal prices for my two young children or order the dry chicken they wouldn’t eat. Clearly, these staff members have no understanding of what it's like to dine with children. Their customer service was non-existent. The manager was dismissive, spoke to me rudely, and walked off. At this point, I was frustrated, but with two hungry children, I had no choice but to pay for three adult meals.

When the food arrived, while the chicken itself was fine (I ordered quarter leg pieces), the pricing felt extortionate for one adult and two young kids. On top of that, the broccoli side was overcooked and inedible, and the mac and cheese was rubbery, the entire portion stuck together in one solid piece. Neither was suitable for any person to eat, let alone my children.

To make matters worse, when I stepped away to refill drinks, I returned to find that our entire table had been cleared, including my half-eaten meal. At this point, I was completely fed up. A waitress did apologise and offered a replacement meal, but I just wanted to leave. I requested a refund for the meal they had taken away, and I could see staff members deliberating over it, throwing glances in my direction, which made me feel even worse.

This was just terrible service and a terrible way to handle the situation, completely unprofessional. The only reason I’m giving a (reluctant) two-star review is that the manager eventually agreed to refund 1 meal ( that was cleared away and taken before I was finished) and some of the food was edible.

However, this was far from the quality of service and food I’ve come to expect from Nando’s.

Parents, be mindful of asking what is/ isn't available with little ones.

Baker Street Nando’s, you need to improve your customer service and ensure that customers are informed of missing menu items *before they sit down and order. Ideally, don't talk about your customers right in...

Friday afternoon, a very hot day in Central London, my mum and I decided to make a stop in Nandos to get something to eat after a shopping. We wanted to eat in, we were told there was a 25-30 minute wait for a table. Considering we were tired from shopping and had 8 shopping bags with us, we were happy to sit down and wait. I made made a 17 minute trip to Boots to buy my mum some painkillers. When I came back I saw other people being seated who appeared out of no where. The host advised they had been waiting before us and it was 13 minutes until our table will be available. I began to look around the restaurant and there were several vacant tables - some where clean and some required cleaning. Yet we were still waiting. My mum began to get tired and feel faint as she has diabetes and low blood pressure, so I went to order a takeaway. The lady who served me on the till was nice and patient. However she didn't ask me if I had a Nandos card and I forgot so I missed out on a reward. There wasn't an option to have a code to add later either. And she didn't advise how long it would be for the takeaway. After 10 minutes of having placed my order, the host advised that our table was ready. So basically way after the time we should of waited. I went back to the lady at tills to find out how long the food would be, she advised me 15 minutes. My mum started to feel extremely weak (during this time no water or drink was offered to us as a good will gesture). It had been 25 minutes since i placed my order. I went to get an update from a member of staff and it was soooo hard to get anyone's attention. One lady came up to me quering my order, even though I could see our take away order ready and waiting under the light. The manager than approached me and I explained my experience, then the lady who I was talking to just casuallt walks past me to the front of the store and started packing our order. I went to her in mid conversation with the manger to ask why she would inform/reassure me that was our order. She couldn't give me a response. I started to pack our takeaway myself, which I'm glad I did, after noticing that 1 of 3 regular fries we ordered was half full. When we got home to eat the chicken is was extremely disappointing. The whole experience was a let down! I expected sooo much better. The lack of empathy from the members of staff besides from the manager just made...

Unfortunately I have no choice but to visit this branch as it’s my closest HALAL nandos. On every occasion I have visited I’ve had to wait ridiculous waiting times, considering it’s meant to be close to or matches as a fast food restaurant.

I’m not sure why they close downstairs or choose to open “half” due to having only one staff downstairs. What is the point? Is that their excuse for everyday? Why aren’t they hiring more staff or redeploying if they are struggling so badly?

They’re just choosing to turn customers away rather than focus on bringing the business happy and satisfying customers. But instead they’d rather advertise customers the waiting time of 40-50 minutes!! For a Nando’s!!!

I’ve waited over 20 minutes on every occasion to be seated. And eventually when I do get seated there’s issues with my order. They seem to have real staffing issues, lack of effort and no idea on how to upkeep customer service.

Something definitely needs to be worked on here, as I’ve received better service in Nando's much smaller than Baker Street, who are able to juggle the business.

I remember I was refused a table that I blatantly saw vacant whilst waiting for a table to be available.

After trying to get a reason as to why I couldn’t get a table, she finally gave us the table. She done so in the most rude manner with so much attitude. Not to forget, it was the worst table to seat at (front window seat) but I was so desperate to be seated after waiting so long. I’m not sure why she was so unwilling to let us sit there as people were blatantly telling her that they would rather wait then sit there and we were happy to take it. This was making everyone’s life easier, including her own.

I am again sat waiting for a table for just two of us, and yet again no sense of empathy or customer care. It seems they want to be deterring customers more than inviting them in.

“You do realise you will be waiting 40-50 minutes” “you are last on the queue”

Such negative and pessimistic behaviour and attitude here!

I’ll be trekking to Queensway, W1 (halal) from now on as I’d rather travel further and be ensured a table with less stupid waiting times and...