Southwark Arches - Elliott Review

New job means a new local Nando's, which is Southwark Arches. As such, a trip was to be had!

Arrived, and was greeted, being advised of a 10 minute wait for a table. In reality it ended up being almost double this, and eventually we were seated.

Sadly, this branch gets very busy, very quickly, so a rather long wait of 25 minutes ensued whilst we waited and became more anxious about our meal. The rather long wait did give me time to examine the resturaunt and how it was operating. The queue for the till was exceptionally long which we had just endured, however all five tills were open putting the orders through. This did mean that there was no-one at the door to welcome people, and it became a little shambolic. The kitchen was simply overwhelmed, with more cheques coming through than they had space for, leading to a huge trail of cheques spitting out the machine, across the counter, and on to the floor.

When the meal did finally arrive, it was most certainly not worth the long wait. I ordered a chicken pitta with chips and garlic bread. The chicken was dry with not a lot of spice on it. The pitta was rather solid, as if it was reaching the end of its useful lifespan. The lettuce inside the pitta was not great either. The chips were alright, although I had to ask for the peri-spice to be added. The garlic bread was a little cold when it arrived, had clearly been stood a while. The only positive, was that they had little pots of the 'Peri-Tamer' spice that you could try. These turned out to be delicious for dunking chips!

The outlet itself is quite well decorated, being located under Victorian railway arches it has that lovely golden brickwork around, with plenty of Nando's artwork to show.

Overall, not a good first experience of this outlet. No doubt a return visit will be made at a better time when it's not rammed!