I would say Americans do pretty good grilled chicken too. I suspect the reason why Nandos is such a hit in the UK is due to the massively boring English cuisine that dominates their palette on a daily basis.
@@laupeter4594 Sadly, the reason that a lot of British food is fairly bland is because the majority of Brits like it like that, and anything else wouldn't sell well. Even our most popular curries are mild and creamy, and if you have chil(l)i in the UK expect it to be fair tepid. Nando's is mainly popular with younger people who tend to be a bit more adventurous with their food.
I’m not sure if you have been told already but I work for nandos in the UK and we aren’t actually affiliated with the US version. Hence why it is called Nandos Peri Peri in the US and just Nandos in the UK. Ingredients are similar but different over in the US and you just have to try the UK version for the real authentic cheeky Nandos 😍 also the bottled sauces in the shops are created by food teams for shelf life and are not as tasty as the help yourself bottles we have when you get dine in - again worth re-trying every bottle when you get to dine in the UK 😍 my favourite sauce for dine in is the peri vusa! It’s comes in a smaller bottle to help yourself and is bright orange in colour! It’s one of our spiciest but also so much flavour! Please try the vusa on a UK visit!
@@simonhebron9179 last time i was in south africa i didnt see nandos, but i did see a pregnant women urinating on a goat in the middle of a street in front of a man selling hats
Damn, I wonder if Canadian Nando’s is more similar to the American or European version, it varies with each thing since we don’t have anything original
I follow a few American reacts channels and notice non seem to have mastered the use of a knife 🍴 🤣 everything’s done with the fork, love the videos especially my home county ones like York and Whitby 👍🏼
Glad you enjoyed Nando’s. Or as we say in the UK ‘Going for a cheeky Nando’s!’ 😉 Not sure if you know but Halloumi is a semi hard cheese normally made from Goat’s and Sheep’s milk. It’s mainly associated with the country Cyprus. Being half Cypriot myself, I was raised on the stuff and pretty biased about how much I love it. 😂
I only discovered it about four or five years ago and now I find excuses to put it in as many things as possible. It's not only the taste but the squeaky sound it makes when you chew on it. Delicious! There aren't many cheeses you can grill or fry to such perfection.
Love this vid! I am from South Africa, so my experience will be different but one of my fav Nando's sauces here that I buy bottled and use on everything is Mozambican Paprika which is a smoked Peri- Peri sauce with lots of flavour in it and one of my fav local dishes here definitely I get the most is Spicy Rice with Chicken Strips and Roasted Veg on top (added Feta Cheese and Pineapple as extra) and their food is wonderful for someone like me.
Peas & mint is a classic taste combo😀 Real mushy peas are not made with crushed garden peas but dried marrowfat peas (dried to preserve them through winter) - very different. Nice video.
It started in Africa but is a Portuguese restaurant, two Portuguese brothers that were living in Africa started the franchise, The food is not South African.
My go-to is 1/2 a chicken medium spice, chips with peri peri salt, and corn on the cob as a side. Here in the UK, you can buy all the Nando's sauces etc at the supermarket. My cupboard is always well stocked. Home made Nando's is great!
Now I’m craving a Nando’s ha! Glad you enjoyed it, it all looks pretty similar to the UK except we don’t have those fancy lemonades which is a shame as they sound delicious. My go to order is a mango and lime wrap with halloumi and pineapple (potentially controversial with the pineapple) with a side of corn 😊
@@M2KKA I don't think that genuine lemonade is carbonated. I think that's a modern thing which hasn't taken off in the rest of the world. I prefer carbonated though.
I love finding those new things you want to put on everything. I finally broke down and tried Irish butter recently, and I would weigh 500 pounds if I lived in Ireland because I would be putting butter on everything. The food looked great. I think I have heard of Nando's. It's the Peri-Peri chicken that really rings a bell, but I have never been to one.
Nando’s Half Chicken, hot sauce, fries and either coleslaw or the spicy rice is my go to……bottomless drink and one of their Portuguese Egg custards (forget what they are called)…. All good, decent portions and price. Hello from the UK 👍🙂
I visit Nando's a few times on every visit I make to the UK which is once or twice a year. I use up every minute of the 6 months of each year the UK allows Americans to stay. During Covid I got stuck there because either the UK was locked down or the country I live in was locked down or travel was restricted so I ended up in the Uk for nearly 2 full years. I fell in love with Nando's up in St. Andrews, Scotland in 2015 My go-to is the Half Chicken Extra-Hot with 2 sides, either the Spicy Rice and Corn-on-the-Cob, a double side of Corn-on-the-Cob, or Spicy Rice and Chips (Fries) are used to let you order the Corn-on-the-Cob at your favourite spice level also but now it seems not. I usually get two bottles of Hot Sauce at my table The Black Bottle of Extra-Extra Hot and their supposedly even hotter sauce, Vusa. I use them to dip the chicken and the chips in instead of Ketchup. If they have malt vinegar that will be on the chips too. It's unfortunate that your first visit to a Nando's was during the Covid or post-Covid restrictions. I remember what that was like and yes you had to buy the bottles which for me was no big deal because I buy them anyways.
So the nandos bread roll and garlic bread, we normally make a burger into it with whatever chicken or chicken livers we ordered, just so you dont eat the bread on its own.
I gotta check out Nando's next time I am there. One of my favorite places is The Pig located on 14th in Logan Circle. The fried pork belly buns was one of the best things I ate when I was there in Fall of 2019.
We have a nandos close to us in the town. (Stoke on trent, Staffordshire, England, UK). My sister and I always have the medium sauce on our half a chicken or butterfly chicken. The sides we have are the peri peri chips, spicy rice, creamy mash, garlic bread, corn on the cob, sweet potato fries or salad. Lol. Also love that the fizzy pop and water is refillable here. You can choose from 5 different sauces based on what you like. Enjoy! 😊. Xx
You have mentioned in other videos how UK viewers think you use a knife and fork oddly. Since then I have made an effort to watch you use cutlery. In some videos your method reminds we of the way my children use them, as in it is not yet an ingrained skill that they do not have to concentrate on. This video I noticed you cutting chicken with a fork even though it was clearly difficult and took two attempts. Fascinating 🤣
I have only been to Nando’s once before I thought it was a bit expensive and the portion sizes were small that was about 20 years ago. The mushy peas you have looked delicious I think that would have been my favourite thing that you ordered
Everyone's going to say "when you come to the UK, try proper fish and chips". You're also going to be told to go eat at a pub or something. WELL. Don't eat fish and chips at a pub. Thats a no-no. Ideally, you want to get fish and chips from a "chippy" (literally a takeout place that's main focus is fish and chips) near the sea - so if you find yourself near the UK coast, thats when you should try fish and chips. As for pub food, try to find somewhere that isn't part of a chain. Ask the locals in the area where the best independent pub, that also does food, is. Take their recommendations. If you find a pub that does a proper Sunday Roast....go. Mid afternoon - late lunch / early dinner. Fill up on an amazing roast dinner, complete with all the trimmings! Oh, and you have to find a cafe to go have a Full English breakfast in. I know black pudding can be scary to some people, but just try it. You can ask for it on a separate plate and just try a little bit, but most non-brits I know are more weirded out by the thought of black pudding, than they are when they actually taste it. As for other foods to try when you're in the UK, I would highly suggest immersing yourself in Indian food if you find yourself in Birmingham especially (we have a place known as the "Balti belt" which is home to some amazing curry houses), but London also has a kinda decent selection. (as a note, here in the UK we have such a wide variety of food from all over the world available, mostly in the big cities. If you spend any significant amount of time in London especially, definitely try some foods you have never experienced before, whether they are British or not!) Something like a KFC / McDonalds comparison between UK / US would be kinda fun. There's some interesting differences between the two countries. In the UK, for example, McDonalds makes it very well known that they use 100% British Beef, and I have heard many Americans say that the quality is much better (yeah, its still fast food so its not "good").
One of the few things I miss from living in Fleetwood is how good every chippy was. Not all in the same ways - the three I distinctly remember one had better fish, one had better chips, and if you were in the mood for a pie there was a specific one that did some gorgeous homemade stuff rather than the puka affair most chippies go for. The others weren't bad for what they weren't the best at, so the best chippy in my area now being about as good as the lower quality chips or lower quality fish isn't the worst thing in the world. I'd still recommend eating in a pub, mind - It's a fairly cheap way of getting food of a fairly consistent quality (some cafes are a lot better than others, for example) - but I'm a bit biased; my husband has some weird dietary requirements that pubs offer reliable ways of working around in a way most sit down restaurants don't. But, yeah, wouldn't suggest going with fish and chips from a pub, but there are other British staples that pubs are good for.
As@@Stephen-Fox said, yeah, definitely go try pub food, but just don't order the Fish and Chips and expect the "proper stuff"! Just avoid a pub chain called "Wetherspoons" like the plague. Its cheap convenience pub grub, and by that I mean most of it is microwaved! Little local pubs are much better value:quality. If you want some more quirky Biritsh foods, down south (London especially) you might find some "pie and eel" shops, that do what we call "pie and liquor", and also jellied eels. And if you find yourself in the Black Country (nothing to do with race, its just the name of an area of the Midlands) and you go to the Chippy, you can usually ask for "orange chips", which are like a battered chip (fries). Up in Scotland, they'll deep fry most things, so try to get your hands on something like a deep fried mars bar... its a heavenly heart attack in a stick! Find a good butchers, and grab yourself a Pork Pie - these are eaten cold, and are very dense, but utterly delicious. Obviously, there's the Haggis if you're up in Scotland; things like Welsh Cakes or even Laverbread if you're in Wales; and if you find yourself in Ireland, head over to t he Guinness factory for a tour! Speaking of tours, in Bournville, Birmingham, you'll find Cadbury World, where you can do a tour of the Cadbury Factory, which includes a wonderful telling of the history of Cadbury Chocolate. Scotch Eggs, Marmite, Greggs Sausage Rolls, Crumpets, and all the weird and wonderful crisp flavours you can find over here! There's so much food you can try over here in the UK, that you'll never be bored!
Mint isn’t weird with peas at all. With a roast lamb dinner, peas are usually served with mint sauce and cooked with a sprig of mint, along with Jersey Royal new potatoes.
Mango & lime is my favourite nandos sauce. No unfortunately even in uk you cannot get that sauce in a bottle. One employee once told me it’s a fresh sauce & that’s why you cannot buy it in bottles. But you can get the lemon & herb in bottles which is also nice.
When you are in the UK next, buy a big bottle of lemon and herb sauce, chicken and mushroom pot noodle and simply put the sauce in the noodles and its sensational.
My favourite in Nandos is the Fino Pitta, not sure if you can get it in the US, if not should definitely give it a go next time you’re in UK. It’s chicken thighs, halloumi, caramelised onion relish and garlic aioli with lettuce. They stopped doing them during covid as they were running a reduced menu, but they’re back here now. The chicken thighs have much more flavour than the breast, and the combo of the halloumi and caramelised onion is delicious.
We have been dying to try this place for a long time now and we finally get to try it tonight since we're in the Annapolis area. It's inside the mall! I had no idea they had Mango Lime sauce and those are my two favorite things. Can't wait! Great video.
If your in Kent try out the Black Horse Inn in Thurnam near Bearsted or the Oak on the Green in Bearsted you’ve got The Swan there plus a fish restaurant or maybe the Windmill or The Dirty Habit & maybe tie into a day with a trip to Leeds Castle or go down to The George in Leeds Village or go & sit outside in the beer garden on a sunny day at The Chequers in Aylesford village which is where I grew up, I think you’ll like them 👍😉
Craving a nando’s now! Yes in normal non-pandemic life you can take as many sauces as you want to your table and try them. That was the thing to do when I was a teenager, to go with a big group and then see who could handle the hottest heat (it was never me 🤣) drinks are unlimited refill to or they used be I haven’t been in a while which we don’t normally have in the uk
Depending on where exactly you wind up might change things, but... Full English - Ideally with black pudding but for some reason not everywhere does black pudding. If you're stay at a good (or even just not awful) bed and breakfast you should be able to get a good sample, the chain hotels tend to be worse for this, at least at the end of the budget I tend to have for travel. Haggis - Ideally Scotland but there are places that serve it outside of there. You wouldn't be able to get this in the US, due to... Err... Apparently, it's not fit for human consumption under US food legislation. But it is absolutely delicious. Fish and Chips - Ideally somewhere with a fishing port from a chippy, failing that a chippy that isn't somewhere with a seaside port - you find some with sit-down options and others that are takeaway only. The default order from one of them for most people would be cod and chips, with one of three... sauces? ((brown) gravy, curry sauce, and mushy peas). You can get fish and chips from a lot of other places, but it's rarely proper fish and chips outside of that context. Savoury pies - This is what I'd turn to pubs for, if you don't stumble upon a small cafe that's good for them. Steak and onion, steak and kidney, and cheese and onion are my preferences here, but that's going to vary based on personal taste. Sidenote, I once casually mentioned that I'd picked up a cheese and onion pie from my local chippy to an American and he became obsessed with the things, to the point of making them as this foreign delicacy as part of his family's Thanksgiving dinner. I'd consider these separate from cornish pasties, despite cornish pasties being a type of savoury pie. Crumble. Popularized during wartime rationing, it stuck around; generally the stuff that didn't was borderline inedible, and the stuff that did was divine. It's sort of a pie but with the pastry replaced by a mixture of butter, flour and sugar (or you can go lower on the flower by substituting some of it for oats). Rhubarb and apple are probably the classics, but basically, anything you might find in a fruit pie you could use in a sweet crumble. If you're feeling brave, local grease parlours (at least, that's what I call them) - Takeaway places that have a wide variety of menu items, none of which are healthy and most are heavily greasy. They usually serve some or all of the following - Doner kebabs (I believe they're more commonly known in the US as gyros?), burgers, chicken and pizza. When I was living in Fleetwood if I'd miss the chippy closing time but was in the mood for takeout rather than cooking something there was a really good one that did a divine mushroom-based dish... I think it was mushrooms baked in a mixture of cheese and tomato? Some are golden, some are awful, and unless you're being shown around the town by someone who knows it well, there's no way of knowing which. The salad from them is universally awful, but... Most dishes wind up coming with it as a side or inside it. One chain place I'm particularly fond of and tend to pop into when in cities with them is Shakeaway. It's a takeaway milkshake bar that's present in the UK but not the US. Which is notable for an absurdly large menu; something like 100-200 menu items, all of which are combinable, alone with some named combinations. They don't seem to use chemicals, either - The things listed are put into a blender with the milk or frozen yoghurt. Not all the work as well as others (I do not recommend anything with a scone in it) due to the blending process, but the variety remains a fun novelty even if the results vary. If you do this, I'd suggest you both get something you fancy - either named or from the ingredients list - and have a couple of sips of each other's. They also do warm milkshakes, which... Are delicious and changes the milkshake experience significantly. Usually makes everything that much sweeter tasting. One of the more surreal takeaway places I've been to was a jacket/baked potato speciality place I forget the name of situated as a takeaway only option in a city centre. Which I don't know if still exists as a chain but the one in Cardiff shut down. It was the least practical takeout I've ever eaten - Trying to eat a jacket potato with beans and cheese with a small, fragile, plastic fork. It wasn't bad, just... Impractical.
Chicken thighs hot, chips and sweetcorn is my standard go to order. Try the thighs I would say. Dark meat is always tastier IMHO. I love a cheeky Nando’s!
Halloumi is a Cheese from the island of Cyprus in Europe, although it’s pretty much located in the Middle East. In the UK we often call it “squeaky cheese” because of the noise it makes when you bite it. Unusually the portion looks a lot smaller than in the UK. Perhaps that’s because European cheeses are a lot more expensive in the US. We can buy half a pound of halloumi here for about £1.80 / $2.50 in all supermarkets.
It's a milder, African grown form of chilli that's just more usable than the harsher chillis, and it's distinct from an Indian curry pallette or a Mexican pallette. Transplanting chilies from the New World to Mozambique is a good thing the Portuguese empire did, I guess. If it brings revenue into Southern Africa, so much the better.
South African here confused by mushy peas and mint????!!! Would love to try the drinks though. A must though is a quarter chicken meal with extra sauce. Beware of the extra hot flavour. Especially if you ever try it in Durban South Africa. You may not live to tell.
I love cheeky Nando’s I’ll definitely miss it when I move to Florida 😢 my order is medium double chicken wrap with 2 sides garlic bread and broccoli and a coke.
Just so u know in South Africa Nando’s is not a restaurant only a take away I wasn’t used to that when I arrived in uk 12 years ago my sister said let’s go to Nando’s I could not understand why she wanted to go to a take away but when I saw the restaurant I was shocked
Favourite Nando's sauce is XX hot and it goes on everything , I'm sure here in the U.k they used to do XXX hot but cannot seem to find it anywhere so may have dreamed that up !! Meal is very predictable because cannot afford regular trips anymore , but half extra hot chicken , spicy rice and peri peri fries with a bottle of the xx hot sauce to add a bit oomph !!
I do my own now shops do marinate sauces or straight dip sauces different heats, Nando's can be expensive go with half a chicken or you may be disappointed because they will cut Chicken 4 way's & you may get less meat
pretty sure we dont get those mushy veg mix in uk nandos.. also garlic and herb is the non hot covering here... you guys have different stuff out there
the one in the US is not the same thing its way more mild and the quality is a lot lower everything's cooked on flat grills rather than charcoal grills
I watched this because im eating nandos tonight, heres my order because im a child its a bit small. Hot chicken, with a side of spicy rice, chips, i share a corn with my sister, and i get ice cream and i get water at home
I used to love Nandos and was a regular Halloumi and Portobello Mushroom Wrap lover. Unfortunately I feel like they've gone downhill since the pandemic. Between 2019 when I worked in London and coming back earlier this year the service got worse, a lot of menu items got taken away like the red pepper dip with pitta, from what I remember of my order they would only do a bun and not a wrap, and there was less filling. They also use a much cheaper sauce than they used 5 years ago, it's currently a sweet chilli jam which isn't bad but I remember it being much less overpowering before.
Everyone who has been inside does, its written everywhere. Its on the menus, on the sauces, on the signs, the website. People who've never been to a place, do their opinions on it really matter? I personally have never met a single person who physically goes to Nandos who didn't know it was South African, again because you can't miss it, so its easy to assume you're just meaning the vocal online people who say its overpriced chicken because they don't understand how good it is. The majority of people who go know what it is though.
Half Chicken: Medium, with Peri Fries and rice. Get some extra peri salt on the fries, add some medium sauce to the chicken......when it's ok it's pretty decent, but when you get a really good Nando's it's amazing. Succulent, tasty, flavourful, well done. The only thing about Nandos in the UK is that the standard's gone down a little. Not that it's not still great, but it's gone downhill in terms of consistency of flavour. I like mine well done, and a little dark, with some charring, which doesn't always happen, and it used to have a lot more flavour in the chicken but nowadays most of the time it doesn't. Plus the portion sizes are smaller, but that being said, it's still bloody amazing when they get it right. I love a Nandos. I couldn't go a whole year without eating one once. It's my go to if I'm out and I need a proper meal coz it's nice and cheap. £11 give or take for a standard meal. Relatively filling for me too. Also, once you start you end up craving it for a good month looool!!! It's hard not to keep getting Nandos when I start eating it again!!!
Next time eat Nandos the South African way: quarter chicken with either lemon & herb or peri-peri. Then some potato wedges with peri-peri salt and either a green salad or coleslaw. None of this peas none-sense from the UK. Wraps are okay but at the end of the day Nandos is all about eating a large piece of spiced chicken with hands!
@@TheMagicGeekdom no chip chop peas don’t have the mint in them they’re just regular mushy peas like the ones you tried in the can but they are more mushy in chip chops some people buy mint sauce and add them into there peas
@@richie9964 Secret is to actually water them down just a little, not just serve as is from the tin. And the first chippy I worked at did mint sauce pea fritters, I recommend them if you ever see them.
I really sont understand why so many people love Nandos. They have one jpb, and thats to xook chicken, wns they're bad at it! 😅 Thr chicken is always overcooked and dry. In London i much prefer a Colombian restaurant called "Assenheims". Do give the chicken a try and you won't regret it.
I'm not big on Nando's personally, overrated if you ask me... I do like the red pepper dip though, and when it Portugal, I adore the food... I'm the same with Turtle Bay, over here, I'll give it a miss, just bland... But when over that way, the food is just gorgeous!!!
You seem to be confusing spicy and hot ... if you are looking for a kick then you need something hot as opposed to spicy. Ask for spicy if you like more pungent flavours/aromas. Or hot AND spicy for a combination of the two.
Who tries Nando’s for the first time and doesn’t get extra hot peri half chicken rice and peri chips coleslaw and corn with a bottomless Diet Coke with ice !!! That’s the shizzzzniittt
