Nando's St Albans — Restaurant in St Albans

Went to Nando’s at St Albans yesterday afternoon. Ordered two bottomless drinks, a butterfly chicken and butterfly burger with all the sides.

We were seated upstairs. Told to order our food via QR code. Tried multiple times but it would not go through (this would have been the sign to leave!).

My wife used the bathroom - WHAT A COMPLETE DISGRACE !!!! As a food retailer, surely you understand hygiene is extremely important. After using the bathroom, I was worried about eating the food at the restaurant. You have an interactive type of business which means patrons are moving around your restaurant. I think you are going to find that if swabs are taken around the restaurant and sent for examination, you will be shut down. Filthy!

Left side Coke Zero dispenser spurted coke all over me. The right one was working. Food arrived. Butterfly chicken was edible, the burger looked terrible and was.I have small hands, I’m not expecting a double chicken fillet to be smaller than the palm of my hand. It was very dry! At a whopping £41 for chicken and chips, you really are better off going to the local chicken shop! We finished and left.

The team were very young, and perhaps a more experienced supervisor is required. Hygiene definitely needs to be investigated, and at these prices a cleaning attendant should be permanently on the premises.

I knew the original founders of Nando’s when I used to live in Ealing, their first outlet, and I don’t think this is what they intended for their great establishment to become, average food with small portions at very high prices, exact opposite of when they first started.

Their current owners, no doubt bankers, are laughing all the way to the bank at our expense, no more Nando’s for me. I can accept smaller portions at higher prices reluctantly, but not when the chicken quality is so bad, and it really...

We were a group of 7 and they put us upstairs. We were the only table upstairs. We made 4 orders. 1 drinks/3 food 25’ after placing the order of drinks no glasses were brought to us, had to go downstairs and ask for them and we were told that someone is bringing your food and will bring your glasses. Waited but nothing, had to ask someone that was on his break to get us some glasses upstairs. They didn’t know what bottle of wine we ordered and they had to double check. They didn’t know what cider we order and they had to double check. 1st food order comes all fine. 2nd order comes, perinaise was missing. 3rd order comes, coleslaw and salad was missing. We order another cider at the till, in order to get it straightaway but they said that someone will bring it to the table. 10’ later some comes and says sorry we don’t have anymore stock, you want something else or refund?we asked for refund. They gave us £4,75 in 20p coins, even though it was bought by card. The restaurant was not busy, the staff was not interested at all to make sure we got everything, they kept saying let me double check. Nice refurbishment with fancy sofas and everything but seriously you need to do something about the way you serve and take care of...

We dropped in with our two grandchildren who are 3 and 5 years old and the youngest was having a meltdown.

The bearded guy in charge ( sorry I didn’t get your name) saw that we were struggling and came over with some crayons and a Nando’s themed colouring in sheet. He promised a prize if they could find all the Nando’s logos hidden in the picture. This quitened them down brilliantly.

After the food arrived ( we ordered on a phone and the food arrived instantly) he noticed that they were messing around and not eating their food. He offered them a special surprise if they finished their meals. They started tucking in furiously and had soon finished then tracked him down to proudly show him their empty plates. He checked with us that it was OK and then gave them both free pots to fill from the bottomless ice cream dispenser. They were thrilled.

When we thanked him he a shared a picture of his own daughter and said that our granddaughter reminded him of her.

His kindness made what could have been a miserable challenging experience into a fun memory.

The food was standard Nando’s but this man’s kindness made the meal...