Birmingham - Resorts World - Ryan Review

Finally got round to visiting this Nando's over two weeks after opening - and this was my 350th (currently open) UK Nando's!

It's at the new Resorts World which is new shopping and leisure facility to cater for all of the NEC (Genting Arena) goers and anybody sleeping over near Birmingham Airport for an early flight. As well as an Cineworld IMAX, there's a huge 24-hour Genting Casino (the largest in the UK), many boutique/designer brands and other eateries. It's only a 10-minute walk from Birmingham International train station - and, if you are parking at Resorts World then, the parking is quite reasonable. Charged 24hrs a day, £1/up to 3hrs, £2/4hrs, £3/5hrs and £6/24hrs and then on Arena event nights (6pm-8am) £1/up to 3hrs, £10/8hrs and £20/14hrs. You can get £4 off the £10 charge on event nights if you spend £20 at a particular restaurant. Cinema-goers can parking validated for free.

Arrived at this Nando's at about 8pm and was given the last table free - but just seemed to time it badly as there was a queue of 30+ people at the till which took just over 20 minutes to clear down - but the food then came in under 10 minutes despite 30+ separate orders going through. I was claiming a free half chicken with large chips and large rice and what came was delicious. The half chicken was larger than average and very meaty, with piping hot juicy white meat right to the bone. Lots of sauce dabbed over the chicken and charred perfectly. The chip portion was very large too and all were hot and crispy with the rice being the only minor let down as that was definitely small for a large portion and had gone a little cold. Overall though, a cracking and tasty meal.

As you enter this Nando's, the waiting section is to your right in green leather with some art pieces on the wall. Seating is mainly table/chair/banquette seating with some booths towards the back. Most of the booths/banquettes have red/orange stained glass separators on their backs which adds a lot of colour. The ceiling is interesting and is made up of lots of wooden blocks at different heights - many of which have long LED strips on them for lighting - and there are further brown domes hanging down for further lighting. At the very back is an arched section (hidden away at the very back) with five two-seater tables. The wall/ceiling here is textured plaster with circles scraped into it. The very back wall here has large and colourful mosaic. It's a very nice and colourful restaurant with the only issues being that there's not a lot of space between tables, especially if any are split to two-seaters. It's very cramped and my table was heavily knocked by the larger men and women trying to get in/out on either side. Toilets are very clinical and mainly white tiles with some light blue triangle tiles too.

Staff were friendly but doing as expected.