Covent Garden - Damien Review

I visited Covent Garden Nando’s with one friend for a quick meal on a Sunday afternoon. Last time I was here, it was very busy and I was half expecting a wait (in which case we would have instead gone to one of the numerous other places in the area). Luckily, it wasn’t all that busy inside and we got a table straight away. The restaurant itself is mostly underground and cave-like, with lots of different areas. Though there was a lot of free space, the staff were bunching up all the patrons in the same area. While this is probably for ease of service, there were a lot of staff on duty. Bunches of them were standing around all over their place, just chatting. A queue of four people formed at the single open counter while a few other staff stood by talking, and another flicked through his iPhone.

My friend’s food came out quite a while before mine. When I eventually asked where mine was, my receipt was scrutinised in a very untrustworthy fashion. Turns out they delivered it to another table. I was accused of supplying the wrong table number. This slice of customer service was not appreciated, especially as I know for a fact that the blame was on the half-paying-attention guy at the counter, who I had to repeat my order to three times while he had an off-topic chat with a couple of friends in the kitchen.

Food-wise, it was all good. Nice chicken, spicy and chips as you’d expect. I’d come here again, but only because I don’t believe the current staff will stay there much longer.