Nando’s

Friday evenings, leaving office before time so that you can catch-up some lovely evening coffee at home while you see the sunset from the balcony but if you have a wife like mine then you are most likely looking at a completely poles apart plan for the Friday evening. She just did not want to go home, she wanted to go out and have dinner at an elite place, so we settled upon Nando’s.

Nando’s is located at Church St, Bangalore, Karnataka.

Nando's is a casual dining restaurant group originating from South Africa with a Portuguese/Mozambican theme. Founded in 1987, Nando's operates in 30 countries on 5 continents. Nando's specializes in chicken dishes with either lemon and herb, medium, hot or extra hot Peri-Peri marinades – Courtesy Wikipedia

We came here earlier too but it was tremendously busy and had an astonishingly extensive waiting time, we were asked to linger for 45 minutes so we discarded it. But yesterday it was all right and wasn’t crammed full. The interiors are excellent and appearance is really lovely for a fine dining experience.

We were very much looking forward for the meal in Nando’s because my wife has heard lots about it in UK and had experienced it too. She spoke much about its legendary peri-peri sauce.

Nando's Peri-Peri Sauce, Extra Hot
Nando's Peri-Peri Sauce, Hot
Nando's Peri-Peri Sauce, Garlic
Nando's Peri-Peri Sauce, Wild Herb

Shortly we grasped that we are sitting from 5-10 minutes and no member of staff serving at table has taken any care of us. After 5 more minutes I had to call one attendant and asked for the menu cards. The menu includes stuff for everyone,

We ordered the dish, “Roasted Veg” and “Medira Red” drink, the maître d' asked what brand of sauce do we want to go with it and we decided “Hot”, that’s the 2nd spiciest sauce according to them, which he also approved by saying that its not very hot for Indians. We asked for the regular water in the meantime. 5 minutes later that attendant was simply strolling from here and there, so giving him a benefit of doubt I asked him one more time to supply us some water; mind you that we have by now spent 20 minutes since we have seated down and it never occurred to them that they should at least provide water. Well as imagined again that guy was busy in serving a foreign troupe rather than brining us what we want. Finally the feast arrived and with faint expectation I asked for water one more time and like a well-known aphorism “Third Time Lucky”, we after all got some water. The food flavour was remarkable and the “Medira Red” drink had a great essence to it but I do not know whom to hold responsible for the selection of sauce because the overall meal had become very very hot, even for us, either the waiter must have suggested us by saying that this “Hot” peri-peri sauce is very hot even for Indians or at least we should have tasted the sauce prior to the order. But we did taste all the sauces later on and none of them tasted according to their reputation. So if you go next time please prefer either

Nando's Peri-Peri Sauce, Garlic
Nando's Peri-Peri Sauce, Wild Herb

Or no Sauce

And if they are not fiery for you then you can anyways add any of the 4 flavours sitting on the table. Well our experience in Nando’s wasn’t very good and for us it wasn’t a place where we would like to go back because it was the bill which made us firm up our confusion to a concluding verdict,

23.5 % Tax !!!! Seriously !!!

My report card for Nando’s, Bangalore is,

Price – 4/10

Taste – 7/10

Service – 2/10

Ambience – 8/10

Value for money – 6/10

Will I go back – No Thanks !!