Manchester - Trafford Centre - Adam Nicol Review

My friend wanted to visit Manchester for the day so naturally I took advantage of that and planned which Nando’s to visit, I’d been outside this branch before but never eaten in it, It’s in the awesome Trafford Centre which is a really cool shopping centre with loads of shops and a cinema, a mini golf-course, a crèche and play area for children, a Laser Quest, Aerial Extreme, LEGOLAND Discovery centre and lots more to do.

It’s a bit awkward to get to from the City centre if you don’t have a car, you have to get a tram then a shuttle bus, luckily this time we were in my friend’s car so we easily found it by following the signs to it, there’s thousands of free car parking spaces at the shopping centre so you don’t have to worry about parking. The branch is on the left as soon as you come in the main entrance, which is in the Orient food court. This branch is open until midnight on Friday, 10pm on Sunday and 11pm every other day.

We got to the Trafford Centre about 5pm and it wasn’t long before I dragged my friends to Nando’s because I was so hungry and craving my fix, the branch was pretty busy but there was a few empty tables so the three of us got seated immediately which is unusual in a busy shopping centre, the branch was pretty open with tables outside in the shopping centre. There’s two till area things, one at each end of the branch with the cutlery, drinks machine and usual stuff directly behind it, nothing really stood out about the décor of this branch, it was just usual Nando’s wooden beam ceiling with huge pots and the Nando’s story on the wall, the layout was a bit awkward with a small passage leading between the tables and the tills/drinks machine, a few times I got trapped on the other side because staff were blocking it whilst talking… I’ll give the décor a 3/5

The branch wasn’t even that big and there were about 20 different staff members walking around constantly getting in my way and talking to each other, they didn’t seem to be doing much, the Nandoca that served me was friendly but she kept ignoring me and helping the person on the till next to me with some guys discount, that annoyed me a bit, but still I ordered my usual Butterfly chicken with Peri-chips and garlic bread with no problems. Other than getting in my way and not doing much the staff were pretty friendly and brought our desserts with spoons over to our table and let us pay by card at the table. I’ll give the staff 4/5

The food only took 9 minutes to come, with my friends meal coming 5 minutes after, my friend ordered a Prego steak burger and the staff did some weird thing were they all started shouting Prego… I’m not sure if they were mocking him or not, but he deserves it. Nando’s is a chicken place, so 4/5 for Speed of service.

The food was definitely the best thing about this branch, it’s the best food I’ve had in a long time, a lot better than my usual Middlesbrough branch. The Butterfly chicken was awesome, covered in extra-hot sauce and sooo tasty. The portion of Peri-chips wasn’t very big; this was the only bad thing about the food. The garlic bread was amazing, some of the best I’ve had even better soaked in extra-extra hot sauce. The coke from the machine was good; it actually tasted like coke and wasn’t really watered down, 4.5/5 for Food.

Overall this was a really good branch, I expected it to be good in a branch somewhere as awesome as the Trafford Centre, and I would definitely go back there if I happened to be shopping there, but next time I go to Manchester I’ll obviously be visiting a new branch. I’ll give this branch a 4/5 overall.