Oxford - George Street - Pompey Ranger Review

This Nandos is close to the centre of Oxford and very near the coach station holding a corner place on a busy intersection.

Parking will be a problem in the centre as the misguided council of Oxford are very car hating and have deluded ideas of transport, I parked for free on a residential street on the outskirts and got the bus in.

When you first enter you are in the waiting zone with a low level wall separating you from the seating area and chairs and a soft bench to wait upon, I was welcomed by a waiter who asked me to sit down and await the "welcomer", the welcomer then welcomed me and asked me to continue waiting, after a few minutes the manager also welcomed me and asked me to continue waiting whilst he chased up the welcomer. The manager was hard working and friendly and seemed to have a hand on all aspects, some staff followed suit, others not so much!

I was moved to the seating area and a table against the wall with chair one side and a leather form on the other side on the other side where I sat, there was limited amounts of artwork on the bare brick walls. The area was illuminated by a long line of sauce bottles suspended from the ceiling. The continuation of the copper service counter is a copper counter/bar where dinners can sit against it and face into the kitchen if dinning alone and is very much like a bar.

I ordered my food and went to get cutlery, no forks and no lemon and herb sauce so I sat down, having to wait a while meant I finished my beverage and went for a refill, still no forks and no sauce. Eventually forks arrived but when I asked about the sauce i was told there was none. My food eventually came out and instead of the breast piece I had asked for I got a scrawny leg, I queried this and my food disappeared again for a minute and returned without the chicken. The chips were good and very hot with plenty of peri peri salt, the sweetcorn cob a little bit over cooked but also hot, I proceeded to eat my food whilst it was hot and awaited the breast which turned up eventually. It was of a good size, but very wet and sloppy but at least it was succulent even if it left a puddle on plate, but I would much rather have it like this than burnt so was happy.

At the end someone took my plates quickly and I was expecting someone to come and ask me about dessert and had my money ready for a Naughty Natta, but no one came so after a while of sitting there with money on the table to buy it I decided to leave as I'm not one to re queue at the till for desserts unless I'm desperate.

A store of two halves and a lot of potential if they sort themselves out.