Nando’s

I go to this place a lot because of its location. I have to say as you enter you are disappointed because it is a tiny top floor. But you realise as with most neighbouring places that you go down a stairs and BAM… a whole lair showcasing tables and kitchen at your viewing pleasure. It’s lovely lighting down there with some cool booths too for larger parties. The service is dependent on you of course but everyone is friendly and the food bang on as usual. It’s a great reliable stop off.

Home of the original Peri grilled chicken, Nandos is a classic high street stalwart for chicken. I generally try to avoid chains while in London, but actually Nandos has always been a good shout!
The Covent Garden branch is large, spacious and due to its busy nature, I found that the chicken here was of much better quality than some of the other branches (chicken doesn’t sit around drying out for ages!)
I think overall Nandos tends to be a bit pricey overall, but just go for the half chicken and sides and you’ll do just fine! Plus, the new salad/​veggie options are surprisingly good selections and fairly priced!

Nando’s was recommended to me by multiple friends, so I decided to give it a try on my latest trip to the UK. Nando’s is known for their chicken, and rightfully so. I ordered the butterflied chicken. I was worried that it would be dried out, but it came out juicy and tasty. The peri peri sauce adds so much flavor. The restaurant itself gives off an upscale feeling. Although our order like a fast food location, the wait staff and the dining area feel like a high scale restaurant. If you’re catching a show in the covent garden area, I would definitely recommend dining here. It’s quick and delicious.

STAY AWAY! My husband and I both got the worst case of food poisoning here. Ruined our trip to London as we were sick for two days. We ordered the ratatouille.

Ordered the ½ chicken which was flavorful and satisfying, enough for me and my husband to share. I liked trying all the different sauces, esp the garlic and hot sauce. Also had the green salad, mashed potatoes, and garlic bread, which were good, nothing special, since the star is really the chicken. It was nice to have a hearty, casual, but inexpensive meal during our few days in London and we wished we had had more chances to eat there.
I thought I read somewhere on the menu that the chickens they serve are specially raised in Britain, but how awesome would it be to have something similar to this open in the States.

i was told to go to Nando’s while I was on a trip in the UK. I would say that Nando’s is like Chipotle, because everyone loves them and you could probably eat at them every day and not be tired of them. One difference is that Nando’s is a sit down restaurant.
I came for dinner, and waiting for a table took an extremely long time. Turns out, there was another level below the ground floor. This location was massive yet still packed. This was the place to be.
I recommend either ordering the ¼ Chicken Breast or the 5 chicken wings. I always got the medium sauce, which I thought was plenty spicy. (There is an area where you can get the other sauces if you want to try them out or realize you want more of a kick.) The sauces are fantastic. The chicken is extremely tender. For sides, I recommend the chips (my fellow Americans, that’s «fries») and the corn on the cob. Don’t waste your time with healthy sides. Definitely don’t waste your time getting a salad. You’re here for good food, so get the chicken.
After eating here, I had Nando’s about 4 more times in 1 week. Sure, there were probably other things to try in the UK (don’t worry, I tried the other local cuisine), but I couldn’t get enough of this chicken.
Nando’s, please open a location in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’m begging you.

Don’t expect too much from this fast food chicken chain, and you will not be disappointed.

I love the chicken and mash here! Their sauces are also absolutely amazing! I recommend the medium peri peri sauce and the mango & lime! They have lots of choices in their menu ranging from chicken, burgers, wraps, salads and much more. The chicken and mash is a must get tho!

Delicious… Love their food, service, drinks… it all just works. Not too expensive either by London standards.

The chicken wings with hot sauce are just so good, I ordered 3 with a half chicken on its own as nando’s sides are always disappointing. But next time I reckon I’ll just be 10 hot wings. Boom.

What’s a trip to the UK without Nando’s?
That peri-​peri chicken really is to die for. Sadly, as an American, I only had a few chances to eat a meal at Nando’s before leaving Europe but those times definitely count as some of the best meals of 2013. Yeah, I know that’s pretty intense to say.
My heart aches thinking of and missing Nando’s as we speak, but I’ll have to deal. Wings Wednesday, KFC, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Wingstop just really do not compare. Sigh.
I love that their napkins have charming little phrases written on them. And I love that you can customize how spicy you want your chicken. And I love that it’s a trendy, nice restaurant with a fast-​food type of serving system. And I love picking up one bottle of every flavor of sauce at the stand and bringing them all back to the table. And, last of all, I love all the side dishes you can order — currently craving the mushy peas and creamy mash thing.

Nando’s is a cross between a fast food chain and a more upscale restaurant — the décor definitely suggests something fancy, but order at the counter, get your own utensils, and service in general is minimal. I’d never really seen anything quite like the service model they had, so it was definitely an interesting experience.
The star of the show here is definitely the chicken — it comes drenched in peri peri sauce and has quite a kick. There are also large bottles of sauce that you can grab from the utensils counter with increasing degrees of heat.
The butterfly chicken and the wings were both very tender — the meat was falling off the bone and it was drenched tangy sauce. The sides come huge — I would pass on their fries or garlic bread (they were subpar and oily) and go instead for their cole slaw and their creamy mashed potatoes.
The food was great but the service definitely wasn’t. You order food at the counter, and our counter was just a mess. She would constantly enter things in wrong, or leave suddenly to go into the kitchen for some unknown reason. Also, this location got pretty busy during dinnertime, and the hostess was quite rude about seating people — if we tried to ask how much time was left, she simply snapped at us. There’s very minimal table service, but both times our waitperson brought our food there was something wrong with it (wrong side, wrong level of spiciness, etc). I get that they were very busy, but I didn’t really see how they could be busy enough to make so many mistakes.
Very delicious chicken and worth trying at least once.

I used to love Nando’s until I came to this location. Let’s just be blunt– they have mice here and a mouse careened into my food whilst I was eating. It was the most terrible experience I have ever had at any eatery– and this is London! I know there are mice everywhere– but you don’t want to dine with them. Unfortunately– this really has traumatized me and I can no longer support a corporation that has rodents/​vermin infestation. The management did not seem to care– which lead me to believe this sort of stuff happens all the time. I will never dine at another Nando’s again if this is the way the franchise disregards cleanliness.

Having just moved from the states, I have never had Nando’s before. When my friends heard that, they were appalled. It was something that had to be rectified… immediately.
We came here for lunch with the advice of «they’re known for their chicken, so don’t bother ordering anything else.»
I ordered the half-​chicken and waited in anticipation. During this time I studied all the various sauces that were available and came to the conclusion that all of them sounded delicious and I must try all of them.
The food arrived and it tasted just as it looked — well prepared, no frills. It did the job, and I had no complaints. I couldn’t really taste the original sauce used to cook the chicken, so I had to be liberal with the 5 – 6 sauces I had picked out to try. All in all, the chicken was juicy, not under or over cooked, and the sides were well-​prepared also.
There was nothing special about the meal, nothing that absolutely stood out, but that’s not a bad thing. It was everything I expected, and usually I expect a decent amount from chicken — as it’s hard to mess up but it’s also hard to get right (if that makes sense). Nando’s gets it right.

Chicken is locally sourced, service is attentive, and vibe here is fun!
How it works: you order your food at the counter, be seated and the food is brought over to you. You can order multiple times from the counter. The food may not all come at one.
Near the front is a wall of sauces… mild, to medium, to spicy, to hot, to extra hot. Just pick up a few bottles and try them all. The chicken is like a canvas, you can dip any sauce you want.
It hard to sample more than a plate if you don’t have a group, so grab some friends. No reservations, and it gets busy around 7p

Nando’s is amazing! I usually go to the one in Holborn, but decided to try this one out as it was a late sunday evening, and this one closed half hour later then the usual one.
The service is horrifying. The women at the bar, had to ask downstairs if a table was available, and I saw the waitress downstairs throw her arms in the air in dispair (they were closing in 50 minutes, not 5!). She was cold as ice, and quite rude!
But the atmosphere and decoration is amazing!
Satisfying good food, and love the bottom-​less drinks!

Nando’s is one of those guilty pleasures. I think that, if it went on tastiness alone, this place would have four stars in my heart, but I just can’t quite formally admit that on Unilocal.
The absolute attraction here is the chicken obviously, or, more specifically, the peri-​peri sauce. They have a range of different heat levels, and they’re all a lovely blend of spices: they’re definitely not subtle, but that’s not why you eat peri-​peri. I’ve tried to replicate their chicken at home, but have never got it tasting anywhere near as good. And frankly, I’ve given up trying as surely it’s easier just to go to Nando’s since, like rats, you never seem to be more than ten metres from one wherever you go in London.
The chicken is apparently all British sourced and, though not free range (come on Nando’s), it is at least Farm Assured: so they’re indoor-​reared, but not in such awful conditions as your average McChicken.
The sides are all pretty good (in fact, the corn is really good). They have a few unusual (if not particularly interesting) beers, and the obligatory soda fountain. I’ve not braved the cocktails yet, but maybe next time.
Ultimately, it’s a perfectly decent branch of an uninspiring chain, but it’s definitely a notch or two above your average fast food. That spicy chicken is always going to keep me coming back.

Look, nando’s is a two-​star kind of place, but they’re *open on sunday* — and nothing else near Holborn is, so that’s a full-​star bump.
good for you, nandos, what with having food available in exchange for money on sundays.

Oubliez le KFC, le Mac Do ou encore le Burger King ! Dès que l’occasion se présente à vous, je vous recommande d’aller faire un tour chez Nando’s… ils y font plusieurs préparations de poulets épicés vraiment délicieux !!!

In central london for the evening, I picked Nando’s over many other good options.
So, for those of us that grew up in South Africa, Nandos was the first and best fast food joint. Nando’s uses the Portuguese peri peri spice that was the standard for many mom and pop restaurants in SA, Chicken is first marinated then slathered with Nando’s own peri-​peri sauce then grilled over open flame. Very succulent, spicy. Now not all of that translated from JHB to UK and mass commercialization/​chain but enough did to make this a worthwhile and inexpensive meal
Get the peri-​peri livers as a starter (hot not extra hot), then follow with a ½ chicken.

This branch is way busier than it looksbeware if you walk into the bar upstairs, which can look like a haven of tranquility compared to the rest of the area on a busy eveningyou will be escorted down into the chaotic underbelly where 2 cashiers try and cope with a never ending queue of hungry punters. Once my food was ordered mind you, it wasn’t long before I was digging in.
After a recent post meal painful mouth experiences at Nandos I tried the medium instead of my usual hot or even extra hot choices. It was ok, but not as nice as usual. I guess I equate pain with love as I will most certainly be back on the hot stuff next time