Poole - Ryan Review

Ryan's picture
How Helpful?: 
No votes yet
Author: 
Number of Visits: 
This was my first visit
How Busy?: 
Almost Full
Date of Last Visit: 
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Time of Day: 
Weekday Dinner
Rating: 
3.88 / 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: 
4.5 (Great - Very tender,piping hot, not at all burnt, dripping in sauce)
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?: 

This Nando's is in Poolites' "pride and joy" (ha ha) - Tower Park. There's plenty of still to do and see here: bowling, cinema, water park, amusements, LA Fitness and a whole host of other restaurants and one of the two 24 hour Tesco within a couple miles of each other!

The parking within Tower Park's allocated spaces is awful - there simply are not enough spaces to deal with even a small footfall, so, as with what seemed to be most other people, the party of three I was in parked on Tesco's car park and walked across (only a very short walk anyway).

It was pouring it down, so needless to say nobody was at the five or so outside tables - but I imagine they could be nice to sit at out in the summer sun. Inside it appears smaller than it actually is. There's wall where the refreshments/sauces/cutlery is housed and behind this wall is where all of the booth seating is (several booths). Infront of this wall (and so in the windows of the restaurant) is where all the table/chair seating is.

The booth seating is also where most (nearly all) of the artwork can be found and nice lighting. Some really nice pieces too - bright colours aplenty. The front half is quite sparce of paintings etc... BUT, there is a nice sculpted chicken inset into the wall! A little unusual!

Despite the branch being full, there was no wait for our party of three to be seated and no wait at the till either. The meal also came in under 10 minutes, which was great. Initially I was brought the wrong order, but this was replaced within seconds. The staff were friendly too - but nothing other than the initial hello and service.

Within our group there was a chap who was having Nando's for the first time for a while, after having had a bad experience... so it was a good job the food was great! He even said it was "really nice". My chicken was also very tasty - hot, spicy, moist... a little small though. Both the chips and rice portions were big and spot on as well. Very good.

The toilets were spotless, but as with Bristol Aspects, they were very dark due to being panelled in black/silver stone/clad. The light bulbs definitely needed to be brighter! AND... there was no handdryer, no paper towels and no toilet roll... and no paper towels in the sink by the refreshments either, so needless to say the napkins were being pounded.

Add new comment

(If you're a human, don't change the following field)
Your first name.
(If you're a human, don't change the following field)
Your first name.
(If you're a human, don't change the following field)
Your first name.

Plain text

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.