Nando's, 19 Mar 2007

I was hungry, so decided to try Nando's out. It is on the other side of Commercial Street, just to the left of Tesco Express. Primarily a restaurant, it also does takeaways, but for the same price. This was my first experience of a Nandos restaurant - what a sheltered life I've lived!

I had a quarter chicken, which costs £5.50 and comes with two side orders or a salad. The sides I chose were spicy rice and coleslaw. When you order the chicken, you have to decide how hot you want the Piri Piri sauce to be. I went for "Hot" - they go from mild, medium through to very hot. I was told that I had to wait for 10-12 minutes for the food to be prepared, and during that time I was approached twice by waiting staff who wanted to know what my order number was.

When I got back to base, I unpacked the bag. The rice and coleslaw came in separate boxes - the rice lightly spiced and hot, the coleslaw nice and crunchy, and seemingly loads of it. The chicken was in a bag, and at first glance seemed to be quite small. On opening the bag, I licked my finger, and thought I should have gone for Medium! On second glance the chicken was in fact small, however, when I tasted it, I was not disappointed. The meat was succulent and only slightly spicy - the spice was mainly on the skin, with just a hint of it coming through as a marinade. On final glance, the chicken was only slightly on the small side - certainly if I was eating it in the restaurant, I would go for the half chicken - but the bulk was made up by the rice and slaw.

There is not much benefit in having a takeaway. You have to wait, and then get the food back to the office (or where-ever) before it gets cold. There is no saving in price. I will be going again, but to eat in, not to take out.