Nando's

Nando's
163 Tanglin Road
#01-14 Tanglin Mall

200 Victoria Street
#01-85 Bugis Junction

http://www.nandos.com.sg/

Great Sauce, Good Chicken, Forgettable Sides
(Ratings: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 = Worst and 10 = Best)
Overall: 7
Ambience & Setting: 8
Food & Beverage: 8
Service: 4
Value for Money: 6
Spent about SGD $27 per person.

.....

I have good memories of Nando's Chicken and its accompanying flaming hot peri-peri sauce from my time in Australia, so I was pretty excited to hear about its opening in Singapore.

Wanted to avoid the crowds and infamous queues in Bugis, so brought the family over to Nando's Tanglin outlet.

Even though we arrived quite late (around 9pm) on a Tuesday night, there was still a queue outside the outlet, and we had to wait for around 10 minutes. I do have to compliment them on providing cute little booklets with information about Nando's to while away the time while queuing. (Interesting Reading Material!)

Ambience
Nice design and layout, place was a bit noisy though, so by just speaking to the person next to you, you would have to raise your voice slightly or lean over.

Service
Had to wave a couple of times to attract their attention, and we were even told to wait by one waiter. (And he wasn't polite about it. Didn't even say anything, just held out his hands in a "wait, I'm busy now" gesture.) They looked really busy and stressed, rushing around the place. Seemed really hectic in there. Perhaps because its a new outlet? Food didn't take long though, we only waited around 7-8 minutes before the appetizer was served. Had a minor problem with billing, at first they gave us the wrong bill. Luckily we checked, and the second time around, they gave us the correct bill.

Food
The Petisco is a sampler dish, consisting of 2 types of Dips (Peri-Peri Salsa & Hummus), Olives, Pita Bread, mini Peri-Peri Chicken Thighs and Peri-Peri Chicken Wings. Thought it was a great starter for sharing, and the Dips were fresh and tasty. The Pita Bread was warm and fluffy, tasted great together with the dips. Olives were fresh and came in Green & Black varieties. And the Peri-Peri Sauce on the chicken was exactly as I remembered, spicy, slightly salty, with a sourish kick. Really Good!

Petisco

The Peri-Peri Chicken (Quarter) had a nice char-grill, tender, juicy, and with little fat. Great! This is their signature dish, so it can't really go wrong. You can douse it with even more Peri-Peri sauce provided at each table.

Quarter Chicken With Old Style Chips & Peri Corn

The Cataplana was something new.... didn't see it in Australia. Basically a huge pan bed of spiced rice, covered with peri-peri chicken thighs and grilled vegetables. I thought it was a bit underwhelming. The grilled vegetables were good, but the rice was just average, couldn't really taste much of the spices. The portion of chicken thighs was a bit too little, felt they could have put in 1 or 2 more pieces. Not value for money.

Cataplana

I ordered the Espetada very frequently in Nando's Australia, as I like its unique presentation style. Didn't disappoint. 4 peri-peri chicken thighs and grilled vegetables served on a skewer. Good as usual.

Espetada

Sides of Old Style Chips, Peri Corn, Peri 3 Bean Salad, Potato Lime Leaves Skewer. All the sides were average. Not particularly tasty or memorable, and not disastrous. In fact, if you give them a miss, your dining experience wouldn't be worse off. The Peri 3 Bean Salad looks good when presented due to its many colors from the different beans. The Potato Lime Leaves Skewer has good potatoes, but I couldn't taste the lime. Also couldn't figure out if the lime leaves were for display, or were supposed to be eaten..... In the end, just left them aside.

Peri 3 Bean Salad

Potato Lime Leaves Skewer

Try the Crimson Cola, I thought it had a unique taste. Expected it to taste like Cherry Coke, but the fruit taste was a lot stronger, and slightly more sourish. Good.

Madeira Red

Crimson Cola

I loved the Butterfly Chicken Breast With Sweet Potato Mash. The butterfly chicken breast was nice, moist and tender, not dry at all, and came apart easily. And boneless! The sweet potato mash had a hint of cinnamon, which lent a sweet profile to this side dish.