I went to Nando's after a long long time (6 years infact) with a lot of trepidation. You see my earlier experiences with Nando's M.M.Alam road had left me utterly disillusioned with the chain.( a cockroach in a friend's Portuguese salad & a fly another's pasta meal both on my birthday)
Thus when the same two friends last month settled on Nando's for our dinner, I was reluctant to go. I, to be honest love Peri Peri sauces & my pantry always has a bottle each of the four Nando's sauces but the experience mentioned above had put me off Nando's for a long time.
Keeping in view my aversion, they compromised & instead of M.M.Alam, we went to the DHA Z block Nando's. Since I was going back after a long time, I decided to follow their lead & ordered the 1/2 chicken with two sidelines meal. They made their sidelines all fries (then I realised that people exist who can eat a ton of potato at one time). I decided upon one as fries & one as Peri rice with the chicken being extra hot & both of my quarters being breasts. The meals took about 15 minutes to come to our table.
The chicken was expertly done, juicy & tender flesh, skin charred just right with a smoky flavour all covered in extra hot Peri Peri basting. Add Wild Herb Peri Peri sauce from the table & it was a party in the mouth for a heat junkie like me.
The ambiance of the DHA Nando's is calm & serene. The acoustics are not over powering & the furniture & interior tones of warm & nutty browns are easy on the eyes. The staff is very polite & helpful & profusely apologised when my friends were teasing me about the Nando's cockroach upon learning of a 6 year old incident at their compatriot outlet.
One thing which did disappoint me was that I'd asked for my chicken to be served on a bed of rice. They ended up serving it with fries & the rice in a bowl.
Another thing I didn't know that the drinks at Nando's are bottomless i.e same as Hardee's unlimited refill & my two twit buddies only told me about it when the bill was paid & we came out.
This visit was enough to get me going back to Nando's again & I thank my friends for that.
P.s It's better to dine in at Nando's as their meals don't include drinks when you get takeout.
Eating here will set you back anywhere from Rs450-Rs800 per head depending on what main course you order plus starters (if any). Expensive yes but worth it occasionally.