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 actually love the 5 guys veggie sandwich with cheese 😋

No tomatoes though, extra mushrooms and pickles instead. Large fries with mayo to go along with.

Haven't been back in around 12 years. We ordered the olives and the small pot had 17 cloves of garlic in it and 6 olives. We asked for them to be changed and it took 3 members of staff to get it sorted. Never been back since and I certainly don't think I'm missing anything!

A few years ago it was ok - my dad would manage it alright (he was on a low carb diet due to diabetes and loved his veg so could have plain chicken and a couple of sides), my kids would eat the kids meals fine and I'd get some veggies in them and I had 2 or 3 veggie options plus the sweet potato wedges with seeds and humous or even a filling salad. It was quick and cheap.

Last time I went the only thing I would get was the beanie burger and some rice. Salads looked like mush. Dd2 and dh like it as a takeaway option occasionally. Sad.

I would also raise you Wagamama actually. I don't want a fake egg thanks and last time I went I could see only one veggie option but a whole section of plant based starters including fake chilli squid. I now won't go as I hate plant based fake stuff - appreciate they won't care about my £20 quid every 3 months and there is a market for it but it used to be somewhere reliable we could go as a family and now not.

I really like the bean burger (medium hot).

@MasterBeth

Chicken restaurant is disappointing to vegetarian!

I think is the issue

I'm from original Nandos country. And I don't even recognize some of the things you have in your menu. Macho chips? What are they?

We go quite often, most of ours are drive through, or you can sit in. I have 3 to choose from in my local vicinity. They are franchise owner run so some branches are much better than others.

Noone has mentioned a Bougee bowl... Is that on your menu? . Comes in a veggie version as well. It's rice, with layers of spinach, red peppers, sweetcorn, chicken, halloumi etc. Thats my go to. With a starter of peri peril chicken livers.

We have a LOT of chicken places. So it has to stay good otherwise people will go elsewhere.

And they do the very best adverts. Their advertising team are up there, I'd say probably one of the best. If anything happens in our country, Nandos will have an humorous advert or at least a meme out within hours.

But after all it is a chicken franchise and that is what they are best at.

At the end of the month pay day Friday, there will be always be a long queue.

@Malvarrosa

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.

Ah phew, I'm so pleased to read this. I posted before reading all the replies and I was getting quite upset at good old Nandos getting slated.

It seems that Nandos hasn't migrated very well then. It's still very popular here and no, we haven't introduced table cloths. (that does just seem wrong I agree).

I've never been to Nandos, but I want to now, weirdly

I mean I'm veggie too and know that Nando's is a primarily chicken restaurant. Their veg options aren't great except for the fake chicken

Visited a few years back not impressed would not venture back.
Overpriced cheap chicken.

@Cuntness

Their red pepper dip was amazing. They've stopped that now so I've stopped going.

Arseholes.

Tesco do a good dupe of it, in the fridges with the Houmous. Firey Red Pepper Dip. Lush!!