Why do a lot of people seem to rave about Nando's?
My friends think I'm a freak because I very rarely eat Subway or Nando's; as far I can tell it's just, not especially good quality, grilled chicken that has been marinated in peri-peri sauce. Am I missing something here?
I went to the Leeds McDonald's people say is 'disgusting' for my 30th birthday and had an awful time
I pulled in to the McDonald’s from the busy Easterly Road, which is next to a major roundabout. Blimey, it was busy. There were lots of cars in the car park, queuing up to order at the drive thru.
I remember visiting the drive-thru when I was younger, in my early twenties. It was late night, a group of children in tracksuits came over to our window as we pulled in and asked that we order them five dozen chicken nuggets. When it came to making our order, with the massive addition of nuggets, staff requested that we not order for them. They claimed the teens were making trouble and intimidating them. That’s just something I think about whenever I pass the Oakwood McDonald’s.
The exterior of the McDonald’s had changed vastly since I had last visited. I noticed there was now a big sign up, warning people not to park for longer than 90 minutes. This seemed like a fair and generous amount of time if you were visiting for a meal – perhaps not so fair if you were there hosting a birthday party, however. Fortunately, I wasn’t having a party, I was just there for a quick bite. As I mentioned, it was busy with cars entering so I was really relieved to see lots of zebra crossings scattered around the large car park. It made me feel a lot safer.
When I entered, I was met with disappointment. I wanted to experience the customer service, an element of the Maccies which had come under fire online. When I approached the counter, there was no one stood behind the service desk. One member of staff however was slumped with her back over the counter, scrolling through her phone. I asked her if I could be served at the counter. Her eyes darted in panic across the McDonald’s, looking for another member of staff.
“You can wait here but you’ll be waiting a while,” she said. I accepted this and went over to one of the digital display counters. There were a couple dozen of these dotted around the venue. I ordered a Big Mac meal (£5.79), a Filet-O-Fish (£3.59) and an apple pie (£1.09). I really wanted a milkshake to go with my meal – perhaps even a McFlurry but this wasn’t possible. I was told the ice cream machine was broken. Utterly typical. So I went for the Apple Pie instead, it wasn’t quite as fitting for a birthday treat but it would have to do.
I picked table service and wandered away to find somewhere cosy to sit. It is quite a large space in the dining are and I managed to find a seat tucked away in the corner. The uncomfortable wooden bench happened to be opposite a small children's play area. While I felt this was quite innovative for a Maccie D’s, it was cordoned off with bright yellow tape. It felt like I was sitting opposite a McCrime-scene. My fast-food took 11 minutes to arrive, fortunately I wasn’t in a hurry but usually McDonald’s arrives within five minutes of an order. Perhaps it had something to do with requesting table service, who knows.
I wasn’t the only person feeling impatient for my food. A pair of rowdy teenagers with their hoods up and wearing tracksuits were asking the cleaner angrily ‘where’s our food?!’ I felt sorry for the cleaner as he was in a precarious position. He politely told them that he’d check on the status of their meals. I felt like this whole interaction put customers in the venue on edge.
I also started to feel a little silly, clutching on to my 30th birthday candles and my party hat. As the clock was ticking, I began to think about my life. The series of decisions and events which had led to this moment. This moment on the eve of my birthday - hours before I progressed into the next decade of my life - as I waited for my food. I thought about the successes and mistakes I had made in my life. It’s at moments like this when the cold hand of existential dread sends shivers down my spine. I began to lose my appetite and feel a little sick.
The tartar sauce was sprayed across the corner of the burger and was smeared across the box, plus the cheese had been slapped beneath the burger. The fish burger clearly hadn’t received the care and attention to detail I was expecting. I had to scrape the burger bun across the cardboard box to collect the contents back into the sandwich. The rest of food was up to an adequate standard which was consistent with all the other McDonald’s I had visited. The Big Mac with its famous sauce was blissful. The fries were crunchy and delicate, although they became cold as I was eating which dampened my spirit during the meal. The apple pie only remained slightly warm when I dug into that.
It was probably the most disorganised McDonald’s I’d ever visited but I’m not blaming the staff, and especially not the man just mopping the floor or the woman scrolling through her phone at the counter.
>>14992 Is Leeds Live a newspaper? Is that review likely to have been printed on actual paper? This would be the final insult to trees if so, to know your brethren were felled to accommodate a manchild's blog post about McDonald's.
(Obviously I am very sorry if the shite journalist in question happens to post here).
>>14993 A lot of local newspapers have fallen under the 'Live' umbrella, e.g. the Hull Daily Mail is Hull Live online, the Birmingham Mail is Birmingham Live online, the Stoke Sentinel is Stoke Live online, etc.
They're all owned by Reach, who also own The Mirror, Daily Star, Daily Express and OK Magazine, amongst others, which is why you'll constantly see stories regurgitated from one of the local papers they own into the nationals and vice versa.
Actually, looking into it, I think Leeds Live are completely separate and are just looking to piggyback off the Live branding.
McDonald's drive-thru in Leyland blocked by angry man who refused to wait for sausage and egg McMuffins
The stalemate began at around 9.30am shortly after the customer, Stuart Yates, 55, drove up to the restaurant on Churchill Way and requested the two breakfast meals.
He said: “A week ago I got made to wait in the car park for over 15 minutes. A lad spotted me and said ‘oh, it’s him again’, because last time I complained. They said go and wait in the car park… I said ‘I’m not going anywhere until I get my food’.”
The drive-thru lane has been closed and police have been called to the scene.
I've learnt that the best thing to order from McDonald's is whatever their wrap of the day is, which is usually some form of fried chicken in sauce. It costs about £3.90 for a medium meal with full fat Coke, so it's cheaper than their burgers and tastes a lot nicer too.
We were in Frankie and Benny's earlier, which isn't the sort of place I usually choose to go to, but everywhere "better" had queues coming out the door, and at the end of the day it's always nice enough for what it is.
The poor staff must have been having a nightmare of a shift, though. We overheard a waiter telling the matron that they'd run out of pizza dough, so she had to tell everyone as she sat them down that there was no pizza. One couple behind us was ordering we heard the poor waitress say "I'm sorry, we don't have that." about three times before the woman asked "Well what DO you have?!"
Anyway we had a blue cheese burger with bacon on and some beef brisket on the fries, and it was lovely. A lot better than I remember their food being, but maybe I was just hungry and craving something greasy, smoky and indulgent. We were probably the only customers in there who were satisfied.
Been to Pizza Hut for the first time in years, £11 for their lunchtime buffet and £4 for unlimited (sugar free) soft drinks so you might as well get the free water instead. What struck me was that they were heavily pushing people towards scanning the QR code on the table and ordering that way, which meant that the front of house staff had very little to do and were mainly stood around talking to each other.
Tip screens before I've had any service, received any goods (drinks/food), or even really had a chance to decide if the service has been good. How about no?
Went to Bella Italia today. They're now also pushing the 'scan a QR code to order rather than dealing with a waiter/waitress' which seems to be becoming more commonplace. Anyway, I had a very underwhelming cannelloni.
Have you just started eating out recently? Where have you been for the last five to ten years? It's normal everywhere to pay that way now.
Personally I love it because it's always awkward when you get to the end of a meal and suddenly it's like the service staff are intentionally avoiding you, and you have to make a tit out of yourself shouting for their attention.
>>15967 When I go to a restaurant, I'm only ever on my own. I clear my own table, pick up my plate and glass and whatever, and just walk over to the nearest employee and hand them the stuff. They're happy enough, and then I pay them. I'm a genius and everyone should do this.
Of course if you're used to eating at Le Gavroche you might not have come across QR codes, but the likes of Wagamama, who I would say are the definition of a middle class eating establishment, have been doing it for years, and I've even seen it at over-priced gastropubs for tourists in Wales and the Yorkshire Dales that charge you 20 quid for a cheese board.
Point is it's very common now, it's not just for the plebs at Spoons. There's no need to get upset.
This evening I have been to Zizzi. After the starters I was ready to pencil it in as my new favourite chain Italian restaurant because they were really nice, but the mains were a let down and the service was very slow.
Yesterday I went to Pizza Express. It was weird because two groups of ethnic women brought tripods for their phones as well as ridiculously bright lights they could clip onto it for taking pictures.
One group ordered more food than they were able to eat, I think about six large pizzas between two people, so for the most part they set up the food on the empty table next to them, got their phone ready with the tripod and lights, took pictures of their food and then had it boxed up so they could take it home with them. I only saw the other group taking pictures of their desserts at the table, but then they'd do things like recording each other stood up pointing at their glass of wine or walking down an aisle of tables while exaggeratedly swaying their hips, I'm assuming this is for TikTok or something.
>>16020 I don't really know your angle on this. Are you a Stormzy fan embarrassed that he's got his own Happy Meal? Are you a Maccies enjoyer who thinks they've besmirched their own reputation by partnering with the rogue bard Stormzy? Or do you just think the whole idea of rap artists scoring endorsment deals ever since Run D.M.C. dropped "My Adidas" almost four-decades ago, has got completely out of line now?
>>16022 I know there was a Travis Scott meal, who is rapping man from Großamericana. I believe there was a Grimace shake too, but weather or not you count him as a celebrity is a personal choice.
>>16102 I don't rate any of their special menu. Since they've increased price of the savers burgers, a quater pounder is all that's really worth buying up there. Wrap of the Day's are nice if they're on good rotation. Wouldn't bother with Katsu unless you know you like it.
The two Indian places I've eaten at this year both had a new dish with Naga in the name. I assume this is a trend of some sort, I asked at the first and they confirmed it contained Mr. Naga pickle. Mr. Naga pickle is hot as fuck so I'm guessing this is an attempt to one-up the classic vindaloo with something hotter and more flavourful. Except the second place I tried it, they'd clearly skimped on the pickle, I assume to not put off wusses. So it's worth trying at a good restaurant, probably a waste of time at a mediocre one.
Today I've tried Five Guys, I won't be going back again in a hurry. I went for the bacon cheeseburger and was surprised to find that it was actually worse than Burger King; it had less taste and the bacon was cremated so it didn't really offer anything other than texture. The fries were plentiful but they added so much Cajun seasoning that they quickly stopped being enjoyable. It also cost an absolute shitload for what it was.
>>16177 Five Guys seemed very good when I first tried it in that London back when it was new to Britain. Never replicated the experience in the years since.
>>16104 The special items are usually the best. If you get a Big Mac you're a wrongun. I thought the chilli cheeseburger was permanent. I do miss that. Katsu is dire and for some reason that can't possibly be related to my routine it seems like Katsu day every bloody day.
I've only had Five Guys once and same as you, I thought I would have been hard pressed to tell the difference between them and a Burger King if you blindfolded me. The only difference being one costs about three times as much. Mind you, Burger King's prices are daft enough these days it's probably not as imbalanced of a comparison as it was back then.
Come to think of it I don't even know where my nearest Burger King is. They seem to have just vanished over the last few years. They used to be a mainstay for me when I worked next door to one.
Today I went to Bella Italia and they had a couple of 'dinerbots' to bring the food to the table. The servers seemed pretty annoyed with them because they often didn't stop in the optimum or do I mean optimal? place, so they'd have to manually push them to where they wanted them, and they kept getting in their way. I've looked it up and they're about £19k each.
>>16220 Surely there's nothing in place to stop you going back for a second glass of Coke?
They had, not sure if they still do, the bottomless drink for one price, then if you wanted Coca Cola Classic from the fountain you'd have to buy a more expensive model of bottomless drink. But there was nothing stopping me buying a standard bottomless drink, and then filling it with normal Coke without paying the uplift. And I don't know who'd be retarded enough to tell the Nandoca "yes I am getting the Coca Cola let me pay more please".
I get that it's to cover their own arses against the sugar tax stuff, and they probably have never enforced it.
I've only been to Nando's once, in about 2011. I don't remember how it worked. Do they keep Coca Cola full fat on the same pumps as the other ones?
My impression with stuff like this is that businesses don't actually mind it at all, they see it as an excuse for charging more that they can easily blame on something outside their control.
From what I remember from the original discussion, it was a reasonably priced meal in a restaurant-lite setting, which appealed to young people who wanted to feel like they were going to a proper restaurant without actually having to.
These days it seems the price is too high and the portions have become smaller. The spicy chicken trough never was implemented.
I currently travel for work, and Leeds Skelton services is my usual rest stop. They have a couple of food options, that weird Chopstix where you're supposed to build your own meal but basically you choose between six different kinds of sugary chicken, the mexican one which is fine but like any UK corporate mexican food just doesn't really taste like much, a Greggs, a McDonalds, and a Nandos.
I've been to this service station a lot in the last few months. I couldn't bear to eat another maccies or greggs so I did sit down at the Nandos. It was an insultingly small meal. The tiniest thighs I've ever seen. It tasted fine.
>>16228 Isn't there a Leon there as well? Depending on how much time you have, if you went off at J46 I used to like Franco's when I worked on Century Way about 8 or 9 years ago.
Sometimes it's not so much about the food as an excuse to get out of the van and stretch your legs.
Yesterday I found myself in a particularly inhospitable area. Up on the A64 at the northern end of York. Billbrough Top would have been a good 20-30 minutes there and back so it would have knocked me off schedule and jeopardised my early finish. So I stopped at the Starbucks and paid a tenner for a bacon sandwich and small caramel latte.
The Leon has been shut for a while now, as has the Pizza Express there. Apparently they're opening a German Doner Kebab, which is pretty decent but not really my thing.
The other lad said it, it's really about taking a break. I suppose I could sit in there and eat my ham and cheese roll or whatever, but it's more about the ritual of picking something and sitting down with it, and hot food I find a lot more revitalising too.
I've found over the years that normal high street prices have caught up to service station prices - a Monster for £3.50 used to be ludicrous, but it's just what one costs basically anywhere now. Tragic.
