Carlisle - Ryan Review

Well... finally reached the 100 mark!!

On the long drive up to Glasgow it was lashing it down, so I stopped into Carlisle Nando's to warm the ol' cockles. I found the branch and so headed to The Lanes shopping centre to park. It was about 8:30pm and The Lanes car park was only open to 9pm for Xmas shopping - shutting about 7pm the rest of the year, so headed back out! I drove down a side street or two and found some on street parking. The parking restrictions on most side streets only apply from 8:30am-4:30pm, so I stayed here for free!

It's a fairly modern branch so the decor was quite nice. Metal tables/chairs dotted around on the upstairs section (as soon as you go in) with settee seating downstairs (towards the back). The ceiling is wood panelled throughout with some very nice lighting. Amongst the tables/chairs there are also some very large potted plants, which although they look nice, they do get in the way and make some of the tables more cramped than need be. An odd wardrobe on one of the side walls too. Down the steps in the bench seating there's a striped bench/settee running around the entire wall with further metal chairs/tables there. Toilets are upstairs, with the entrance in the very front/right corner - with the corridor quite odd - all panelled/mood-lit and the toilets being very clean.

The branch only had a few tables occupied and so no wait to be seated or to order, but strangely a 27 minute wait for the food?! Staff did what was expected of them but never witnessed any banter or any extra interaction.

I'm pleased to say the food was worth the wait. The portion size was very large and the chicken was cooked splendidly - hot, moist and well marinated. The chips had just come out the fryer too, so they were hot and crisp and the rice was hot, but a little dry. Almost perfect.