Nando's The Brunswick — Restaurant in London

My partner and I are fans of Nandos, we tend to frequent their London branches often, usually Soho, Stratford, Bishopsgate, Euston etc. On this occasion, we were informed the wait for food at Euston would be 30 minutes but, keen to enjoy our usual Nandos we headed over to the Brunswick branch. After queuing at the door for a short while (odd, considering the number of staff available and free tables we could see but hey, it was rush hour right?) We were seated at the very front of the restaurant right next to the door and “greeting” desk for incoming customers. Despite the many remaining seats near us, we weren’t offered any alternative but after the waitress who sat us left, we quickly decided a dinner in our current seats would be rather unenjoyable.

We flagged down a passing waiter and asked if we could change tables. He agreed and even offered to wipe another nearby one down for us before a separate waiter stepped in, asking if we’d prefer to sit further inside the restaurant where there were even more seats. We agreed, followed him, sat down and began to order via the app. Quite literally seconds (and I’m not being dramatic here folks) before we ordered our food to our new table, we were just short of accosted by a rather frosty supervisor who informed us we couldn’t sit in this section as it was unavailable to customers due to a booking. (More curious to us, considering that nandos don’t do bookings? Or so we thought!) We apologised, and told her that we were sat here by a member of staff and were unaware it was not a free table. She hastily reiterated it was due to a booking they had and informed us she would move us, however now that the other tables at the front were full, we would need to sit outside, but not before we were joined by our original waitress.

I can only describe her expression as near-delighted, as she both sarcastically and aggressively informed us that we were seated on table one, exactly where she had put us, and that we couldn’t sit here. She had told us where to sit, she said. We again explained that we were seated there by a different member of staff after we requested to move, after which she seemed taken aback, clearly having assumed we had just waltzed through the restaurant and suited ourselves. The supervisor apologised and asked the waitress to move us, again, and walked off. We decided to move on, having lost our appetite and patience.

It’s one thing to have both staff and supervisors clearly unaware of the ongoings in their respective sections/restaurant but to boldly assume customers are in the wrong and speak/treat them as such is less forgivable. I can’t even suggest it’s just a staff issue as clearly supervisors have no qualm in speaking to customers rudely either.

Will we be back to nandos? Of course. Would we recommend or return to the Brunswick branch? Not a chance. Go to Euston, hopefully the wait isn’t long but at least you save yourself a game of...

Nandos can be very hit and miss and I feel it has fallen off over the last 10 years, but we had people with us who have never been to Nandos and whilst they are South African, Nandos is an important part of British culture so we thought whats the worst that can happen.

My wrap was perfect, today was a hit. Also, there have been some additions to your menu. One very good, one the opposite.

Watermelon Slushie Cocktail - This is unarguably the best slushie cocktail I have ever drank. At 8 quid or whatever for 200ml some might think that price takes the piss. I actually thought it was very fair it's a bloody good drink. Only feedback on that is places need to stop serving soft drink paper straws with milkshakes and slushies. It's unsuitable. My straw kept getting blocked so I just started drinking it from the glass. However, this is also testament to how well it's mixed, no flavourless ice left at the end after you sucked all the syrup out; it's so well blended and for that, I will pay 8 quid anyday. But please, serve this with a milkshake paper straw, not a soda one.

Fanta x Nandos seasoning - God awful. Who's idea was this? I didn't order this, two members of our 6-top did and one couldn't finish his meal because he couldn't get past the taste. I think this is someone trying to basically assume this will work because Duck à l'orange does. Yeah that's not the case here, Bigarade sauce is made with a specific bitter orange, fanta barely contains real orange as it is let alone the correct orange to make that work. Limited time thankfully and I doubt you will try this again.

Best Nandos I have been to in many, many years...

Made the mistake of visiting this branch the other day and experienced some of the most appalling customer services that I have encountered.

We taken to a table by a thoroughly fed up looking member of staff and given a table. There was no option given or indeed any query as to if we were happy with the table option which was odd bearing in mind that the restaurant was pretty quiet. Since we had been placed directly next to a full table, we took the decision to move ourselves to table directly opposite of the same size but still within the same area which had a bit more space around it. As soon as we did that, another member staff picked up our menus which we had carried across and slammed them back down on the original table and started berating us for moving. When I queried why we couldn’t move table she informed us that we had been given our table and had another go at us for moving. When I again queried why, she stated it was because the table was already taken. Since the table was empty, was no one else waiting, the restaurant was pretty quiet and, as far as I am aware, you cannot reserve a specific table in advance at Nandos I failed to see how this could be the case. I note at no point did she offer us any other table other than being really unpleasant and stating that we had been given a table. When I attempted to pull her up on her manner she got even more unpleasant.

Suffice to say, once we had recovered from the shock and embarrassment, we gathered our things and promptly left.

Complained to Nando’s via their website and didn’t even get an...