Nandos is not nice!

[biggirlknickers]

I had a voucher for £25 so took the kids. Thought I might actually enjoy it too as everyone seems to love Nandos, right?

Major disappointment. The only nice things were the halloumi strips starter (can’t go wrong with halloumi) and the ice machine next to the free water.

Chicken - don’t know as I’m veggie. DD ate hers.

Veggie options - v poor. Choice of bean burger or pea protein burger. I had the latter. Tasted of grey sadness with the texture of tripe. Partner had bean burger and said it was rubbish.

Chips - undercooked, underwhelming.

Hummus - cheap and lacking in flavour. No evidence of olive oil or garlic present.

Frozen yoghurt- synthetic vanilla frothy nonsense. Really unpleasant.

Service - ok but there were no actual menus and I was the only person with a phone so I had to read out the whole menu to everyone, with endless requests for repetition and clarification.

I went to Nando’s a couple of times pre-kids - maybe 10 -15 years ago - and I thought it was nice! Has it gone downhill? I’m sure they used to have better veggie options too.

Grump.

I'm always disappointed but I think it's because people hype it so much that I think it'll be good. Seems pricey and small portions but I've only been a few times so maybe ordered badly.

Nandos is just a meme come to life. The teenagers like it - for some reason it's a "thing" for them. No idea why.i Maybe it's because it's a safe place in terms of knowing it'll have what they like so they don't risk looking stupid/unknowledgeable in front of their friends or waste money choosing something new they don't like. Most people grow out of it by 25.

I mean, it's just a glorified chicken shop. I have no idea how it's been so hyped up.

I’m not veggie but I don’t eat a great deal of meat and I actually love their spicy bean burger, served medium spice with cheese and peri peri fries and a side of halloumi - delish!

DS likes it. Its OK. I wouldn't choose the food but it's edible. Just don't like the actual place - but mostly we have it as a takeaway.

The veggie options about 5 or 6 years ago used to be lovely and I preferred one of them over the chicken. But I noticed that definitely after Covid they nice vegetarian options had gone.

The halloumi and mushroom burger has disappeared which I liked. The beanie pitta is nice though.

Yes I've stood outside, read the menu and then gone on somewhere else.

Hopeless for veggies

Never the biggest fan of places that make you pay up front before you see your meal tbh, Nandos is pretty much par for the course for places like that though.
Been frustrated by the "order via the app" thing a few times with the family but hubby just gives everyone a shot of his phone then checks the order to make sure DCs haven't added anything outrageous

It is what it is. It's not fine dining and it doesn't pretend to be. We tend to go as a family quite a bit because it's easy with allergies to cater for and is normally quite quick, which is good with autistic children. I'm vegetarian and I've always had something tasty enough to eat although I haven't tried the pea protein burger so I can't comment on that. Their flavours tend to be all about the sauces though so a lot will depend on what you chose to go on it. Mostly we go because the kids love it. If we as adults were choosing a place to eat it probably wouldn't be Nandos.

South African Nandos is the business: super cheap, super bare-bones venues (if not only takeaway) and super delicious food. The Portuguese Chicken Livers and the various hot sauces that actually have individual flavours as well as heat are vestiges of this. Nandos was never meant to be gentrified. As soon as I saw the tablecloths at UK Nandos I knew we were in trouble. It seems to serve a market that loads of UK places fall into, but there's a lack of really good really cheap really basic "real (not chemically/overprocessed) food" fast food, which is what Nando's was originally supposed to be.

I think the key issue here is you're a vegetarian and you went to a chicken restaurant 😜

Nando's is for people who don't know how to cook

@Tinkletwat

Nando's is for people who don't know how to cook

I'm a competent cook, thank you. But sometimes I want someone else to have done it.

I quite like the chicken. To be fair, that’s their specialty, I wouldn’t go there as a veggie and wouldn’t criticize them given all their advertising is around their grilled chicken and peri peri sauce.

Tbf going somewhere that specialises in fine grilled chicken when you are vegetarian is always going to be disappointing. It's decent for chain type food imo. Nicer than Frankie and bennys as a similar comparison.

Their peri chips with perinaise are my total comfort food. YABU.

@DoctorSnortles

I went to the one in Leith, near Britannia several years ago. I’d never been to a Nando’s before. It was dark, dirty and incomprehensible to the uninitiated. I had a soggy wrap with sauce covered chicken in it and some undercooked chips. I didn’t like it. Would give it another whirl somewhere else, as the dark lighting and filth is perhaps not representative of the entire chain.

It's not. The one in ocean terminal- like everything else in there is pretty poor. It's known locally as ocean terrible for a reason!

Nando’s is shite. I do a homemade Nando’s though and it’s bloody delicious.

We used to like it and my husband used to work there but it's fine terribly downhill even he doesn't ask anymore. Last time half the restaurant was empty and they wanted us to wait outside for an hour. Don't know what has happened

*gone

It's the last place I would go as a vegetarian lol, I love the chicken

@MobyDicksTinyCanoe

Name99 if I was out and saw you chasing some kid on minimum wage round because 'your glass was too warmy' id think you were a massive dickhead tbh.

Stick some ice in it from the massive ice machine if youre that bothered and stop showing yourself up. For the love of God. 🙄😬

I'll go back and RTFT now, but this made me laugh out loud 😂😂

I'm a veggie and have always enjoyed Nando's veggie meals - the beanie wrap is good

The last place I’d go as a vegetarian is Five Guys. They think a vegetable sandwich (+/- cheese) is acceptable as their veggie offering