Nando's - Colchester

Local (26 June 2009)

Great place, my partner and I go there a few times a year. I have never had a bad experience. The food is always wonderful, quickly served, good quality and good price with good music. Just make sure you get a good table, there are plenty to choose from.

Angelica (5 June 2008)

We visited Nando’s last Sunday and my partner ordered our meal, including a children’s veggie burger at £3.99. The waiter, who apparently seemed confused and vague, made the mistake of putting it through as an adult meal and asking my partner what salad he wanted on the side. Prompted by the waiter, my partner assumed that you get a salad with the child's meal and requested the Caesar salad as indicated by the waiter. He paid the waiter and brought the receipt back to me. I noticed the mistake in good time before our meal arrived and straightaway alerted the staff, who brought the manager to the front desk. I said I would like the order changed and the Caesar salad removed. I politely said I wanted to pay £3.99 for my child's meal, not £9.10. In normal circumstances, the staff should simply apologise, change the meal and refund the difference. However, the manager insisted rudely that this would not be possible and my money would not be refunded as the salad had already been made. Bear in mind that all this took place well before the meals were bought to us. It was a horrible and uncomfortable experience and I did not want to cause a scene in the front of the restaurant as it was my partner’s birthday and our young daughter was hungry.

During the meal, which was not great, we were asked by three separate waiters if everything was okay and on all three occasions I said I was unhappy with having to pay for the staff's mistake and nothing was done about it. Strangely, we were also asked by the waiter who had served my partner and made the offending mistake in the first place. In my experience of both eating out and of working in customer services and restaurants, this falls considerably way below reasonable customer expectations. To be ripped off and treated with such rudeness is unacceptable. It ruined the last night of our visit to Colchester. The meal came to £32.35, which I think was a total waste of money as we had a horrible time due to the staff.