Nando's Sydenham — Restaurant in London

An avid Nando's fan, this visit was so disappointing to me that I feel compelled to leave a few words. From an organisational stand point it felt like this branch was really struggling. I asked one of the workers if I could pay with cash, they didn't know, strange but no big deal. After they find out, I go to the counter to order however there seems to be no one assigned to taking orders, one poor member of staff was taking orders, answering the phone and taking glasses and such to the table. OK, no big deal, I'll just order with a QR code at the table. This meant I couldn't use my NHS discount, or specify breast for my partner's option for her order but she was starving and we needed to eat.

Didn't end there though, the longest I've ever waited for food in a Nando's followed, it was so long that the chicken came out cold! The coleslaw was oddly almost freezing and I had to trouble another member of the non existent staff for a glass for the drink I ordered that never came. I noticed signs around the restaurant saying "no bad vibes" which essentially was telling customers to behave themselves, however given my experience I think they would have happier customers if they were better organised.

The chicken, although cold, was tasty and the chips, although not crispy, just about had that classic Nando's vibe so thats why I gave it 3 stars, despite the overall subpar experience. Also I did like the sink in close proximity to the table. Nando's is best devoured with your hands so having a sink handy was pretty awesome. I hope this...

It's usually decent, but it's always totally different staff whenever I go in, nothing wrong with that per se, but I think it says a lot about a place when it has such a high staff turnover.

Food is usually fine, though more often than not they forget something or get something wrong, but it's addressed promptly.

The main issue I have is that they always strongly encourage you to order through the app - like, you want me to create a Nando's account and do all the legwork of your staff? No chance. I'm eating out for a reason. They have eased off on this push a little bit, and you can order at the desk, but for so long I'd have a constant battle with someone there about whether I could order at the desk. At first they would only let you if you were paying cash, even though they had a card reader at the desk. Clearly they had complaints about this.

Edit: I was in this branch again last week, and when I went up to the desk to order another drink, the guy told me I needed to order it through the app. I said I didn't want to, he responded "why not?". As I explained to the guy at the time, when I go out for a meal, I don't want to be required to register for a Nando's account and mess about with my phone just to order another beer. I think everyone needs to fight this push toward digitalizing everything -- I want to pay you for another beer with my food, don't make me...

This is the worst Nando’s ever in the history of Nando’s! They are rude and have no customer service training. My daughter and her friend went to Nando’s after school, my daughter waited 1hr 45 minutes for chicken wings and chips. Despite my daughter asking about her order numerous times they forgot to ring my daughters order through and their excuse was that they got busy and therefore her order was missed. When I arrived to pick up my daughter my poor she was starving - they finally brought out her order once I complained. The guy that forgot to ring through my daughters order began to argue saying it was my daughter fault because she went to the cash machine across the road, at that point his colleague stepped in and told him to leave and attempted to apologise and explain what really happened - which was totally their fault. He offered her some garlic bread because of the wait, but by this time my daughter wanted to go home and declined the offer. We will not be going...