In a nutshell:

A Chain restaurant that has enough interesting & different food to offer to the Chicken Hungry population of Delhi.

Address & other details: Nando’s

Indian site – Nando’s

Meal for 2: Rs. 1000 onwards

Cuisine type : Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

 I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster.

Short Description – in case u r in a hurry:

Nando’s latest restaurant has opened up in the super cool food court in Gurgaon – Cyber Hub. This Open space food court does not look like we r in India. It reminded me of places in many other countries that I used to admire & think ‘When will we have such a place in India’ & here we go.

The story of Nando’s* – It is a South African casual dining restaurant group originating from the Mozambican–Portuguese community with a Portuguese/Mozambiquan theme. Founded in 1987, Nando’s operates about 1,000 outlets in thirty countries on five continents. The restaurant has its origins in a mining town in South Africa, where many Mozambicans of Portuguese origins relocated to Johannesburg in search of gold and carried piri piri recipes to South Africa. Piri Piri refers to African Bird Eye Chilli – known to be one of the hottest chillies.

Nandos’ says about peri peri – ‘A spice like no other, they used it to create a unique sauce that put fire in their bellies and ignited passion in their souls.’

Nando’s specializes in chicken dishes with a choice of lemon and herb, medium hot, extra hot or extra extra hot Peri-Peri marinades (properly known as Galinha à Africana). In some countries, Nando’s has other flavour options as well.
Nando’s claims ‘We make sure the chicken is sourced locally , delivered fresh and never frozen. We then marinate them for 24-hours, in a marinade that contains no preservatives, colourants or artificial flavours. Not one drop!

Coming to our restaurant visit, we found the ambience to b quite relaxed & good. Tables were in decent distance from each other. The Cyber Hub restaurant had a massive dining Hall. There was a pretty detailed design on the ceiling. A bar area was there in the center. We chose a seat near the Glass wall & hene enjoyed the warm sunny winter look outside. There is outside seating options as well.

I loved the funky & colorful visuals of chicken. The guys have a good sense of humor. That shows in their restaurant, stuff written in their menu card & also in the website. If u hv the time, suggest u browse thru the website (link above).
In India, Nando’s specialises in flame-grilled Peri-Peri chicken. The chicken is served in quarters, halves & wholes.

The menu card is pretty small & looks cool. Cartoons , fonts, color combos all make it unique. Nando’s also serves burgers, pitas, salads, wings, wraps, a bit of Middle Eastern stuff, chicken livers & Espetada (a large stand with a skewer of chicken breast and grilled peppers).

The service was quite good. The guy serving us was trying his best to make sure we r comfortable and get our food in time.

Detailed Description – Read it only when not in a hurry:

As mentioned above, Peri peri chicken had 4 options – extra hot, hot, mild, lemon herb. We chose ‘hot’. We wee also given all the sauces so that we cud make our chicken hotter.

The chicken was very soft, not juicy, it had super thin strands of the meat visible , once bitten, but inspite of the strands the meat was not chewy.

The Sauce was tangy , hot & had a tinge of sour. The fact that the chicken was marinated for long cud be felt. It was surely better than good but short of being great. I rate it 3/5.

Next dish we had was Chicken liver and Portuguese roll. Portuguese roll was basically an average quality bun bread. This cud have been much better. Chicken liver was served in a hot sauce. Pretty tart and hot, the sauce was pretty good. Unlike chicken peri peri the liver did not seem to be marinated for long. So while the sauce had strong taste and flavor, the pieces of liver sans the sauce did not taste much. I rate this 2.75/5.

We then moved on to Moroccan butternut and grilled pepper with chicken fillet. We were given option of wrap, burger & pita. The Wrap and pita bread were outsourced, we were told. We chose pita bread. The ‘chicken fillet’ was essentially flat pieces of boneless chicken that was soft, non juicy but nice. It was served placed inside a wrap. Butternut cud not b felt at all but overall the taste was very good. I rate this 4/5.

We also ordered Espetada Rustica – Tender Marinated Chicken thighs with sun dried tomatoes & red onions, served on a skewer with grilled veggies & peri wedges. Must say that the presentation was dramatic.

It was a semi circular stand from which grilled chicken was hanging. The chicken pieces were well grilled, they were soft & nice. Sundried tomatoes added great flavor & added tartness to the taste. Loved this dish & rate it 4/5.

To beat the massive heat in the food we also ordered Coleslaw. It was ordinary. Not great not bad. I rate it 2/5.

For drink we ordered Madeira red – a sweet fizzy pomegranate lemonade made with sprite and finished with a sugary rim. I was balanced in terms of sweet and sour, was nice and tangy. It obviously had pome grenade flavor and also had real pome grenade in it. Very enjoyable & hence I rate it 4/5.

We also tried Poncha sutra, a drink with sprite, pomegrenade, ginger. It was less tangy than the other drink this one had a somewhat similar taste direction, much lighter and subtle than Madeira red. Taste / flavor of ginger was missing. It was good and I rate it 3/5.

Overall rating of Nando’s averages out to 3.4/5. It was good for me but I am unlikely to become a regular here. I however am confident that Nando’s will b a super popular joint in Delhi due to the City’s love for chicken……………..

*(source wiki & Nando’s website)