Nando's Reading - Oracle Centre — Restaurant in Reading

POST COVID REVIEW

My girlfriend and I dined here yesterday evening, in the Oracle Riverside complex.

Upon arriving at the restaurant we were met by very friendly door staff advising us of the new QR-code-accessed bookings system. We entered our details, and awaited our table.

Around 15 minutes later the text came through, so we walked in and were shown to our table.

The waiter explained very clearly that due to social distancing laws, we would order at our table via the Nando's website. We would then have the food, drinks, cutlery and napkins brought out to us. We then placed our order.

With the table still empty, our starter arrived, which was Halloumi sticks. We had no cutlery still (not that we needed it specifically at this point), but no drinks or napkins.

We sat there with messy hands for 10 minutes hoping our drinks/napkins would arrive soon. To our surprise dinner was then served. We were confused, as we had no cutlery, napkins, or drinks, but we had our dinner.

The waiter seemed confused when we questioned about the cutlery, once she understood my concern she told us someone would be coming with our cutlery/drinks & napkins soon.

Another 5 minutes passed, with our food sat in front of us, but no cutlery to eat it or napkins. Still no drinks.

I grabbed the attention of another waiter, I'm quite desperate now, asking if we could please have our cutlery and napkins as the food was starting to cool down. The waiter didn't seem that fussed about the situation and once again told us that "it's coming".

At this point now the food is no longer piping hot, and i'm just considering going into my mashed potato and chicken thighs with my bare hands, as i'm absolutely starving after a long day at work.

As our cutlery is finally brought to the table, and I express how frustrated I am to the waiter, the manager catches wind of the situation and immediately offers to help. He offered to put our food back under the grill to reheat it, however as we are both immeasurably hungry at this point we decline his offer as we just want to eat.

He later revisits and apologises for the situation, and gives us another plate of broccoli as ours was completely cold by the time we had cutlery to eat it.

Nando's is a fantastic food chain throughout the UK and one of my personal favourites, however they are just not fit for purpose under these new restrictions right now. The restaurant’s infrastructure was well thought through, but in the end very poorly executed.

The waiter staff don’t seem to act with common sense, as simply putting the cutlery out on a tray when prepping our table would have prevented all of this...

REGULAR MASH NOT ON CHRILDRENS MENUS JUST PAY THE EXTRA!!!! Well as long as your not expecting Nando's to try and cater for your needs or treat you as an individual customer queue up. After a lovely evening at Nando's in the MK Stadium a couple of weeks ago I decided to go back to the Reading Riverside Nando's BIG MISTAKE!!!! After a disappointing meal at this less that helpful restaurant before, I don't know why I put myself through the humiliation of eating there again. Inevitably the staff handed over the KIDS MENUS and the Kids made the same choice as their previous visit a few weeks prior, including asking for regular mash. When I visited the Nando's at MK Stadium the staff were extremely accommodating so I went to the till confident that I could swap the sweet potato mash for ordinary mash. With two young kids with additional needs who are on the autism spectrum eating out is never easy. But Nando's like to make sure they use my CHRILDRENS DISABILITY to squeeze the extra cash out of me. Even after I politely explained to the manager that we have done it before and that actually what your suggesting is that I buy two extra sides of mash and eat the kids ones myself which actually I couldn't manage so they would of gone to waste and they won't be able to eat a side of mash plus a side from the kids menus and the whole point of the kids menus is that actually the portions are perfect for the kids, I was advised to visit a different Nando's. So what this boils down to is the Manager on duty may or may not accommodate me depending on how they are feeling and she basically didn't feel like it. The restaurant was quiet the kids were waiting patiently and actually I can pay for food that's going to be wasted or go and try and get my kids to choose from one of the other side dishes they are not going to like. Really Nando's is it soo hard to change the mash for the kids? Well I walked out, even McDonalds will let me customize my food, in fact I could take my hard earned cash in to every establishment on the Riverside and get a meal taliored to the girls tastes so that's excatly what I did. NANDO CUSTOMER SERVICE IS AVAILABLE IN EVERY RESTAURANT IN READING SO WHEN YOUR STAFF HAVE HAD SOME TRAINING YOU MIGHT GET MY CUSTOM BACK BUT FROM NOW ON IF I TAKING MY FAMILY OUT WHICH WILL COST BEST PART OF £100 I WONT BR SPENDING IT IN YOUR...

《A restaurant managed by a group of self-important individuals who clearly lack an understanding of customer care》

On Tuesday, our group of four visited the Nando's at Reading Oracle for lunch at around 12:15. At the time, the restaurant was only a quarter full. We attempted to order a family platter using the QR code menu, but the system indicated it was out of stock. We then tried to order two full platters, which were also out of stock. Assuming there was a system error—since it seemed improbable for a chicken-centric restaurant to be out of chicken—we went to the counter to place our order. A man in a shirt informed us that chicken would not be available for another 30 minutes and asked us to place and pay for our order at the counter before returning to our table to wait.

We reviewed the menu again but couldn’t find anything we wanted out of the chicken platter. Additionally, since we needed to catch a flight after lunch, we decided not to risk waiting any longer, especially as we had neither eaten nor drunk anything. Therefore, we decided to leave. On our way out, we politely informed a man in a red T-shirt at the cashier that we were leaving because there was no chicken platter available. To our surprise, he angrily responded, "Didn't we tell you it's just a 30-minute wait? Just 30 minutes!" I explained that we needed to go to the airport and didn’t want to risk waiting. After that, I did not want to hear any more unreasonable responses, so we left the restaurant, which had no main dish available, lacked customer service, and was managed by arrogant staff.

Despite the restaurant’s failure to provide its primary dish, the manager and staff showed no remorse. Instead, they blamed us for not waiting. If the manager and staff had been more courteous and reassuring, we might have chosen to stay. After all, there are plenty of restaurants in Oracle, and Nando's chicken is neither essential nor free. I fail to see why the manager and staff believe customers are...