Llanelli has long had reason to hold its head high — the Scarlets, the mural, the seaside. But now there’s a new entry on the town’s list of achievements: the second best Nando’s in Wales.
That’s according to a new study by BingoWebsites.org.uk, which crunched Tripadvisor review data for every Nando’s in Wales and ranked them by the percentage of customers who rated their visit as “excellent”.
Llanelli’s branch came in at 42.7% — with 85 of its 199 Tripadvisor reviews awarded the top score. Reviewers were full of praise, with mentions of “amazing service”, “vibrant ambience” and a “spotless restaurant”. Not bad for a peri-peri chicken chain on a retail park.
Only Newport got close — the Friars Walk branch topped the table with a 50% excellent rate from 112 reviews. After that, Llanelli is comfortably clear of the rest of the pack.
Swansea has two branches in the rankings, and neither can quite match their Carmarthenshire neighbours. The Morfa Retail Park branch came sixth with 38.1% — though that figure is based on just 21 reviews, making it one of the smallest samples in the table, so perhaps a pinch of peri-peri salt is needed there.
The City Gates branch tells a different story — with a much more substantial 250 reviews, it came ninth with 30%. A larger sample, but a noticeably lower satisfaction rate.
That makes Llanelli more than 12 percentage points clear of Swansea’s better-reviewed branch. A gap even the most diplomatic rugby fan would struggle to ignore.
Further down the table, Cardiff’s three branches — Mermaid Quay, Old Brewery Quarter and St David’s — all sit in the lower half, clustered around the 27-30% range. Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil brought up the rear, with Merthyr finishing bottom of all 14 Welsh branches with just 23.9% of its reviews rated excellent.
The study was carried out by analysing Tripadvisor reviews for all Nando’s locations listed on the chain’s website. Branches with no Tripadvisor page or zero reviews were excluded — which accounted for Cardiff Capital Retail Park.
Matt White from BingoWebsites.org.uk said the 26-point gap between Newport and Merthyr showed how difficult it can be for national chains to deliver a consistent experience across every branch. “The results suggest that customer experience at Nando’s can vary significantly across Wales,” he said.
For what it’s worth, Waterloo in London topped the UK-wide rankings with a 94.3% excellent rate from 53 reviews. Nobody in Wales is troubling that particular leaderboard yet — but Llanelli, at least, is flying the flag.
And the chain itself clearly hasn’t given up on south Wales. Plans have been lodged to open a new Nando’s at Parc Fforestfach Retail Park in Swansea, taking over the current Card Factory unit and potentially creating 40 jobs — which would give Swansea a third branch and push the city further up any future rankings.
Of course, the ranking comes at a time when eating out is getting harder for everyone — restaurants and customers alike. Llanelli has felt that pressure as much as anywhere.
The Tinhouse taproom on Murray Street closed earlier this year after the owners cited mounting hospitality costs. Ali Raj and the Bryngwyn closed on the same day in a blow that left customers heartbroken. And the Sandpiper faced an outpouring of community anger when Whitbread announced it was among those earmarked for closure.
So while Llanelli’s Nando’s clearly has plenty of fans — the data says so — the wider message is simple enough. Use it or lose it.
