Livingston - Pompey Ranger Review

Pompey Ranger's picture
How Helpful?: 
No votes yet
Author: 
Number of Visits: 
This was my first visit
How Busy?: 
10 - 25 minute wait
Date of Last Visit: 
Friday, January 6, 2012
Time of Day: 
Mid-afternoon or late evening
Rating: 
1.88 / 5
Friendliness of Staff: 
2 (Quite rude, ignored me as they walked past)
Speed of Service: 
1 (>25 mins - Asked repeatedly. I need my Nando's)
Quality of Food: 
1.5 (Very disappointing - cold, flavourless, burnt)
Decoration & Cleanliness: 
3 (Standard Nando's, nothing bad, nothing exceptional)
Comments - Stand out in our monthly competition! What did you eat? Unique aspects? Parking/transport tips?: 

What a disappointment this store is! When heading to it don't follow sat nav completely but head to the M and S / Matalan / cinema car park which is only 50p for 2 hours which you can get back if you spend £5 in Matalan.
From the car park the store which is in a Major shopping complex looked really good and I was eagerly excited for my nandos it looked like a twin story but when closer I discovered the front was double height with massive pots along the front of the mezzanine flooring which didn't contain any seating. Upon entering the store we were told we would have a 15 minute wait for our table which I thought fine as this normally means 5 minutes, not here it meant the full 15 minutes. We were ushered to a cramped bench squeezed in by the tills. I decided to make use of my wait and use the loos. There was a disabled toilet down stairs which had its radar key left in the door so was open to all and I could see a large storage room opposite which seemed a waste of space. Climbed the many stairs to upstairs and the toilets were ok and there was a large mirror mid way upstairs, but a large waste of space up there as the toilets really couldn't take up the whole top floor. I returned down expecting to see my family waiting for me at a table, nope, back to the bench to wait.
After our 15 minutes we were shown to table which was near the door and despite the double doors to the lobby the inner doors were sticking open so we had a blast of cold air, one of the young male staff made the effort to shut it when he passed, the others just walked on by.
Queued up and ordered my platter and the guy on the till wasn't really friendly or in the nandos spirit. He had spilled apple juice on the counter serving the previous customer which I saw and this resulted in my stamp card getting wet when he stamped it on the wet counter. I then went across to the sauce and beverage area to collect my cutlery ect, Much to my dismay there was only one sauce bottle on the side which was medium, I had to wait for someone to bring a lemon and herb back to the counter and grab it quick, No chance on getting my Balsamic vinegar! How can a nandos have no sauce bottles on the side! Really sort it out, nandos is sauce!
We then waited and waited and waited keeping track of time. After a agonizing 32 minute wait, of which we had been trying to get passing waiters attention for the last ten minutes, I went up to the counter which I could see was crowded with plates and asked the woman in a shirt (I assume a manager) who was stood behind the till area talking what the wait on food was? This was replied with "what?!" "How long is the delay on food, I've been waiting over half an hour". She then took my receipt and said "oh I will have a look" and looked through the plates and grabbed one that was at the far end from the cooking end stuck out on the edge. "We were just about to bring it out", Yeah!!! Like hell you were it's just been sat there.
She then brought it over and disappeared quick before we could ask for balsamic vinegar, My eyes I thought must be deceiving me, the chips whilst plentiful were dark brown and grease laden, they looked like they had been twice cooked and over cooked on both times at that and many seemed either very small or broken up. The chicken had fared worse, my leg was missing its skin a state it had obviously been in prior to being placed on grill and there were the scorch lines into the ripped up bare white flesh, also showing it hadn't been properly sauced up whilst on the grill as the white was empty and sauce free. Whilst it was a large portion of chicken in common with other stores in Scotland, this was more thanks to the suppliers than the store and the old phrase of my mum was truly relevant (God sends the food but the devil sends the cooks!)
More annoying both chicken and chips were Luke warm border line cold as they had obviously been waiting sometime half off the "hot lamp"
I was fuming, how can you in good conscious do this? Was it because I was English?
No one came to check on us until after we had finished, this was also a manager as was in black shirt but he didn't look at us and was more looking about the store as he grabbed the rooster of the table and said everything ok and then off without answer, he didn't even clear the plates he just left them there.
We then left, hopefully never to return. The wait to get a table is long as they don't bother taking the chicken out so the customers don't get a chance to eat it and leave. I would take my worst enemy to this store, but only as a way of guaranteeing I would never bump into my worst enemy in a nandos ever again. this store.

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