Heaven for Chicken Lovers (Nandos)

Member Name: Leolover

Product:	Nandos
Date:	17/07/02 (214 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: nice food , reasonable prices

Disadvantages: not for those who don't like chicken!

...Can I just make it clear that when I say 'chicken lovers' in the title above I mean of course those who are partial to the cooked flesh of the bird rather than those that actually take chickens as LOVERS, who I'm aware do exist but are perverts of the highest order and will be sorely disappointed with the following review...!

Call me a snob, but I wasn't expecting much from my recent meal at Nando's, a Portugese restaurant chain that sells BBQ chicken, chicken burgers, chicken pittas, in fact every kind of chicken you could possibly hope to obtain and the odd steak here and there for those who don't fancy a bit of breast or thigh.

In the back of my mind, I saw Nando's, with its loud colourful menus and brashly decorated restaurants, 'bottomless' soft drinks and 'special' sauce, as a kind of slightly up-market KFC. I wasn't keen on eating there. I only agreed to go because the in-laws had paid us an unexpected visit on a Sunday afternoon and we didn't have anything to feed them. I would much rather have gone for a curry, but dad-in-law can't stand spicy food, and my other half was a bit delicate after a Saturday night beer fest, so I was overruled. And I'm now glad I was - Nando's is really quite good!

We were greeted by a smiling waiter and shown to a clean, spacious non-smoking table. We were instructed to select our orders from the extensive menu, then order and pay at the bar. So far so good.

The menu offers a good choice - provided you like chicken! There's a choice of two starters - mixed nuts or olives - but we didn't bother with those. You can order BBQ chicken quarters or halves, with 2 'side dishes' from a list of corn on the cob, coleslaw, old-style fries or spicy rice. If you choose BBQ chicken, you get the choice of mild lemon and herb coating, medium hot, hot or extra hot sauce. I chose hot, and it was delicious - not TOO hot, b
ut more than spicy enough for me. I might give the extra hot a go next time! The spicy rice and corn on the cob were hot and tasty, I was very impressed with my meal.

If you don't fancy BBQ chicken, you could go for a Chicken Caesar Salad, a chicken wrap, a burger or a steak.

There's a decent selection of desserts, including the 'bottomless' frozen yoghurt, which I had - and it was gorgeous, creamy and sweet. Everyone else on my table opted for vanilla ice-cream, which came in a small plastic container and looked pretty disappointing, to be honest.

For drinks, most people opt for the bottomless soft drink, which is £1.40, but you could also have water, beer, juice, wine, coffee or tea.

The staff were pleasant and friendly enough, and our food arrived promptly once ordered. The entire bill came to £34 for four people, which I didn't think was too bad at all.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by my experience at Nando's - it's not fancy or impressive, but the food was nice and I really enjoyed it. If you love chicken, you'll love Nando's. I'd be happy to pay them another visit.

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