nando’s
Paddington, London
We organised the space around two intersecting axes. The first runs through the cook line and source altar, creating a central sightline with symmetrical dining areas arranged around it. The second handles circulation, allowing flow while maintaining formal clarity.
Where the level change occurs, we created an indoor terrace—a more casual zone with different details and colours contrasting with the main dining area's formality. A large structural column became a drinks station clad in timber detailing that references the Power Station's concrete chimneys. Throughout, we compressed back-of-house areas to create clean, open front-of-house spaces.
The shopfronts tell their own story: the landlord's elevation facing one turbine hall, our design facing the other, and an internal art gallery space. One decorative, one simple, creating an interesting journey through the restaurant.
When Nando's secured a unit at Battersea Power Station, they wanted a flagship that celebrated their collaboration with South African artists and makers, showcasing the best work from their global network. The brief included trialling their "sauce altar" (a beer-pump-style delivery system that puts their signature sauces at the heart of the experience, only three exist globally) and drawing inspiration from the Power Station's industrial heritage.
The site came with immediate challenges: designed as retail rather than restaurant space, requiring shopfronts on three elevations, a significant level change, and the Power Station's famously complex approval process with extensive documentation requirements.
We developed a method of running compliance, design, and pricing simultaneously to meet the Power Station's stringent approval process while maintaining pace for the flagship opening. The technical work happened largely invisibly: changing levels in the back of house, resolving drainage, ensuring the cook line could be a single continuous elevation. The ceiling coordination is a mass of services, ventilation, and lighting, yet in the space everything simply works.
Battersea became the flagship Nando's hoped for. They take international guests and designers there, and it showcases both our work and their artist collaborations. It demonstrated our ability to navigate stringent technical requirements while producing a design that doesn't look driven by constraint.
This project sits alongside Paddington as strategically vital. In a long line of hospitality work, these flagship sites demonstrate what's possible: work that's both inherently beautiful and inherently buildable without those qualities battling each other.
We've now designed close to a hundred restaurants for Nando's, and the relationship is built on mutual trust and respect. That long-term partnership allows us to take the kinds of risks that make projects like Battersea possible.
From the owners:
“Designing with MorenoMasey is a partnership, they take the time to fully appreciate your values, needs and importantly for us, brand. They are of course innovative and creative, but they listen and ask all the right questions to truly embrace the project at hand. They do a beautiful job of blending your practical requirements and their architectural skill to deliver award winning spaces.”
