Suncoast Nandos placed my safety in jeorpardy due to no systems in place.

Today, 29th April 2023 my family and I visited Nandos Suncoast. We placed our order at 16:45, and requested a sit in option.

Our order was for 8 people, which naturally meant seating for 8 plus my 1 year old son. At 17:15, there was no effort from any of the Nandos staff to assist in arranging 8 seats for us.

I then began moving tables, and manged to find 4 chairs and requested the Nandos waitress that I required an additional table and 3 more chairs.

She nodded acknowledging my request, but made zero effort thereof. In this time, new diners walked in and took any avail tables, as no order or prioritization was being made for persons who already stood in the line and ordered food, and was handed a table number.

Eventually i found one new table, and was moving to join the table to my two tables with 4 chairs, only to turn around and find 4 members of public sitting on my reserved table.

I communicated the table was reserved, showed them my table number placing on the table and further my receipt of my meals. They were rude, said they were hungry and refused to move. To my horror, none of the Nandos staff who knew fully well I was now waiting for 45mins for a seating and my order, intervened. Infact what was supposed to be pleasant experience started to become very disappointing and almost disrespectful.

I then decided since these 4 ladies were not leaving my reserved table, to video the lack of assistance from Nandos staff and the rude members of public. At this point my hunger was long gone, and the only emotion I had l left was disgust, disbelief and disappointment at the service delivery of such a thriving store.

There was no order, it was chaos and no effort or system was put in place to accommodate customers. One of two things should have happened when we ordered. 1. I should be told a table for 8 was unlikely and instead a take away option should be provided 2. Based on the time of my order, I should be prioritized for seating in a systemized manner. First paid order, first priority to an avail table and chair.

Instead, I was now made to feel in a battle zone to fight and argue for my own right, and no recognition from any Nandos employee that I was patient enough to be scouting and making arrangements for 45 min for our seating.

The manageress eventually refunded our order, but no compensation was afforded for the unfortunate circumstance. She just informed us she would email head office to create a seating system after what had transpired.

What happened today has violated my right to just and equitable rights. I felt being Indian, I was culturally disrespected as the waitress prioritized her own cultural people. The management of Nandos permitted a table of about 20 persons to remain seated 20 min after the removal of their dishes etc, whilst their kids went off to play, and others went to Milky Lane to buy ice cream and return at the Nandos premises to eat these.

I am appalled as a customer, I was required to clean the dirty dishes off other patrons, and push tables and chairs to accomodate our family, due to Nandos having no system, and the waiters not making any effort to prioritize my seating.

And I am disgusted with the fact that I was placed in jeaorpardy due to Nandos having inefficient controls in place and put me as a customer under such risk to defend a table I secured and was entitled to.

Nandos Suncoast should be reprimanded for this incident and staff should be evaluated whether they deserved employment at such a fast paced entity. Employment is beyond earning a salary. One should be passionate about their work. This is lacking among all Suncoast Nandos employees.