Kingston - Ryan Review

Ryan's picture
How Helpful?: 
Average: 5 (1 vote)
Author: 
Number of Visits: 
This was my first visit
How Busy?: 
A few tables occupied
Date of Last Visit: 
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Time of Day: 
Weekday Lunch
Rating: 
3.25 / 5
Friendliness of Staff: 
3 (Not bad. Did everything I asked of them)
Speed of Service: 
4 (5 - 10 mins - Some conversation had begun)
Quality of Food: 
2 (Quite disappointing - seems rushed, may have some parts burnt)
Decoration & Cleanliness: 
4 (Very clean, newly furnished, impressive artwork and lighting)
Comments - Stand out in our monthly competition! What did you eat? Unique aspects? Parking/transport tips?: 

Stopped into this Nando's on my way back home for a late lunch and was pleasantly surprised to find an old tudor house that had been converted. What would have been the old back yard was now housed under a large glass skylight, meaning you can see the original exterior of the outside of the house (now inside) and think of days gone by!

This Nando's is on the High Street meaning it's a stone's throw from the Thames! This also means it's only half a mile walk from Kingston train station and just minutes walk away from a host of car parks. There was quite a lot of traffic around so I just parked in the first one the road signs directed me to - which was Ashdown Road. This was priced at 80p/30mins, £1.60/1hr, £3.20/2hr (generally £1.60 per hours) - so it could get pretty expensive. I did end up walking past The Rose Theatre which has a multi-storey by it, which was priced at £1.40/hr so a bit cheaper. Then, back by the train station is The Rotunda which has a David Lloyd Fitness, a Tenpin bowling alley and an Odeon cinema.

Arrived about 4:30pm, so no time to wait to be seated or queue and the food came in just under 10 minutes. This gave more time to check out this tudor house. There are actually a few tables outside down the side of the building, but I can't imagine it's very pleasant sitting on the busy road. There are around 20 tables downstairs, where only a few are circular or four seater, and the rest are all two-seater tables. Upstairs (mind your head as you go up!) are a dozen or so four to six-seater tables including a couple of booths too - and, apart from the low ceilings, generally a bit more space. Nicely decorated walls upstairs too as there are multiple canvases, with a patterned wall downstairs under the skylight and a further separating multi-coloured striped wall. The toilets were also tiled with an old style plush green colour, certainly making me think of the Savoy theatre's colours inside!

As this was lunch, I had a chicken fillet burger and chips and was a little disappointed with both. The fillet was quite small - so much that I could actually take a bit from either side of the burger and not touch any chicken. The chicken that was on there was barely warm and smothered in mayonnaise rather than peri-peri sauce (the second time this has happened to me recently!). The chip portion size was also quite small and were soggy and again barely warm. Shame.

Staff were polite enough, but just doing as you'd expect.

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