Nando's Bayswater — Restaurant in London

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to express my profound disappointment with the recent experience my family and I encountered at Nando's Bayswater Express on the 14th of October, 2023. Our visit was marred by a series of incidents that not only left us humiliated but also raised questions about the level of customer service provided at your establishment.

My family, consisting of my wife and three children, visited your restaurant for dinner. Upon arrival, we were surprised to find no one by the door, and there was no queue. Two empty tables were available, so I proceeded to the cashier to place our order. I inquired about the family meals and placed our order. I provided the cashier with our table number, which appeared to be in order initially.

However, the ordeal began when my wife asked me to leave our table, as a staff member began shouting and waving his hands in front of our children. This was because she had not waited in the designated waiting area. When I approached the staff member politely to discuss the situation, he repeated the same behavior towards me and gestured for us to move to the waiting area near the door, next to the sign. Regrettably, he seemed uninterested in our explanation that we had conversed with another staff member who had given us permission to proceed.

Additionally, despite having taken our order, our food was not served promptly, and we were not provided with the necessary tableware, such as forks. When we inquired about the delay, the staff member pointed us towards the serving table, which, to our frustration, was empty. This prolonged wait was particularly challenging for our children, who ended up eating with their hands.

At this point, the situation escalated further when we had to seek intervention from the branch manager. Fortunately, the branch manager was courteous and offered to serve our children chocolate cake as a gesture of goodwill. We, however, declined the offer as the damage to our dining experience had already been done.

The most disheartening aspect of our visit was the hostility and unfavorable comments directed at us by the staff. As residents of the vicinity, having lived just ten buildings away from your branch, we have frequented Nando's Bayswater Express before and have never encountered such hostile and unprofessional treatment.

Given that our visit took place on the 14th of October, 2023, a day when there was a significant presence of Palestinian supporters on the street, we cannot help but wonder whether this external event influenced our experience. It felt as though we were treated unfairly, as if we were outsiders in our own neighborhood. The treatment we received was reminiscent of a street altercation, an experience that was particularly distressing, especially in the presence of our children.

I can see in the questions that you require How much did we spend per person?, it sounds very corporate and how customers complaint will be valued..

Best...

Shocking service with undertones of racism.

Sister (NHS medic) has spent a long week vaccinating ppl... is exhausted and wants Nando's for dinner. We call to order, and are given a choice: Order in-branch and use the NHS discount (£4) but wait 10 mins for the food. Or order online and it'll be ready. Sister is tired so we pay the full price and order online. We call 5 mins before arrival to reconfirm ("yes its ready, come quickly, we'll keep it warm for you". We arrive and food is not ready - a computer glitch meant that while my sister was charged in full, the order never went through to the kitchen. Manager asks us to wait 10 mins while he resubmits the order.

At this point - we question whether he should be honouring the NHS discount (lets ignore the fact there was no apology for the computer error). Manager insists he can't (no reason given) but offers a free side (which we don't want). Sister now wants to make a point. So we ask for a refund on the initial order (since it didn't go through anyway) and then just started a brand new order in-branch, whereby the waiter gladly honoured the NHS discount. At this stage, the manager comes out, verbally abuses my sister (accusing her of being cheap, and taking advantage) which was witnessed by both staff and several customers and reduced my sister to tears.

The incident left me troubled - As a Nando's customer most of my life, I couldn't shake-off the feeling that what happened wasn't 'normal'. I did a scan of other experiences on google reviews and noticed generally this branch gets excellent feedback. But of the four 1-star reviews they've had in the past 12 months, 3 involved the same manager (Marco) serving customers with Muslim names. And since my sister wears a head-scarf - the whole experience now makes sense to me.

One might question why my sister felt the need to make a point and use the discount? After all, if she lives in Bayswater, does £4 really make a difference? For her it doesn't, no. But she knows how many of her NHS colleagues (nurses, cleaners etc) are paid minimum wage for whom it makes a world of difference. But I guess once everyone is vaccinated and life returns to normal, our NHS heroes who helped achieve this will be forgotten. Its sad that this happened on the day that the NHS broke the record for the most vaccines given in one day, and my sister - a hero in the truest sense - was part of that effort.

I strongly suggest someone at head office i) contact my sister to make this right, and ii) investigate whether there is broader racism at play in that branch. At the very least, I would suggest Marco is given some unconscious bias training before Ramadan starts next month (as its inevitable that he'll be serving more Muslim customers).

On the positive - Kudos to the waiter who initially dealt with us for his excellent...

Worst Nando’s to go to in London. Very awkward place too. Visited with my family yesterday 13/07/2025 6:52pm for our weekly dinner out. However, it was a really bad experience. My mum and my stepdad ordered through the till attended by a manager named ‘George’. They simply wanted to order and pay separately to earn points on (each) of their Nando’s account. First order went well but ‘George’ the manager wasn’t happy to give points to the second order and proceeded with the transaction. My stepdad wasn’t happy about this so he asked if he can get his points. ‘George’ then said he will refund the money. When my stepdad asked if the original order will be put through while doing the refund, ‘George’ rudely said NO. George was then adamant that my stepdad takes the refund and basically telling us to go. My stepdad was really upset and ‘George’ was becoming agitated and aggressive towards him. This went on for 5 minutes and George was embarrassing my stepdad in front of a lot of people making him look like a fool. We then moved on without the points given. ‘George’ was also rushing my mum and stepdad to make their order prior to this situation. After eating, we asked the host respectfully to call the store manager. However, the host told us to go call him ourselves… ??? We were stunned about this type of attitude. We have been going to Nando’s almost every week and we never experienced this at all in other stores. Food was as expected but the customer service was NOT Nando’s standards at all. They didn’t even come to apologise to us for the inconvenience that they caused. We didn’t get any check backs throughout our meal and they even got the...