Manama - Juffair - Archive Review

After visiting several Nando's in the UK and receiving a consistent level of good service one would assume that the same would apply to their branch in Manama. However, this was not the case. I felt that there was a high level of arrogance among the staff and the customer experience objective seemed to be ignored or rather discarded. For example, when requesting that the chicken be cut up into 4 pieces (as is the norm in the Nando's I've visited in the UK) the waiter blatantly ignored the request and had to be asked again. The food came 20 minutes after ordering, significantally later than the waiter had promised. The food itself seemed to lack the Nando's finesse I have enjoyed in the UK. The chicken was of poorer quality, the marinade sauce had not been evenly applied and was uncooked in some places. On the whole portion sizes were substantially smaller, which was disappointing. The self-service nature of the UK restaurants had not been copied in Manama, which had adopted the traditional 'waiter takes your order' approach. Personally, the self-service aspect is something which Nando's does well and it was a shame to see that it had been excluded. There were also a greater variety of food on the menu which was not available in the UK, and it was relatively cheaper which was a plus point.
On the whole, I wouldn't go to Nando's again in Manama and this experience was not an isolated case, it was pretty much the same experience in both the Juffair and Adliya branches.