Cardiff - St Davids - Marc Joss Review

SVC and I arrived in Cardiff on Friday night with one thing in mind after nearly five hours on a coach: where is Nando's?! We just about found it after getting dropped off in Cardiff city centre. The challenge was getting to the entrance of St David's which was actually open as it was too late for the retail part of the shopping centre. We eventually found the restaurant which is up the escalator near TGIs and other eateries. We were seated straight away on table 3 which seemed fine but the general vibe from this particular Friday night was that various fellow Nandoers had reason to complain about service which made us initially sceptical.

I went inside to order and didn't have to wait long until I was served by a lovely Nandoca, the time on my receipt said 9.35. I ventured upstairs to go to the lavatory and took in the large seating area which was packed at the time. It turned out that I'd have to return for some tap water later in the evening as the machine downstairs was broken (why is it so common?!). On returning downstairs, I went over to claim a bottle of extra extra hot sauce but strangely enough, there was a Nandoca playing with the sauces and he then covered them up with menus and eventually cling film so they were inaccessible! It felt like a Nando's prohibition was taking place and I noticed the black bottle wasn't even present, I told the Nandoca what I was looking for, he said: "why not just have the extra hot sauce, there's not much difference," which was neither helpful nor what I wanted to hear. Usually in this scenario the Nandoca offers to bring one over as soon as he or she can but not this time. Luckily the people on the table adjacent to ours had one and soon relinquished it to us when they heard my muttering complaints.

Then the food came...

20 minutes had passed so it's a 2 for speed of service. The portion sizes were decent, but there was no sauce dripping off my chicken and it was not at all spicy. 2 is the best I could possibly give that with the portion size saving the serving from an even lower score.

Cleanliness did not seem to be a big worry at this Nando's with Nandocas wiping mess from tables straight onto the floor and even boothed seating areas. Luckily our experience at Mermaid Quay Nando's the following day made up for it!