Food for Pleasure

Tuesday 28 October 2014

NANDOS FLAME GRILLED CHICKEN

832 Bay Street, Toronto, On. (416) 925-8888, 11:00 am to 11:00 pm every day, except Fri. and Sat. 11:00 am to 12:00 am

Originating in South Africa in the late 80's Nando's quickly became a success story due to it's Portuguese style rotisserie chicken with a peri peri sauce that sure has a kick. It has since spread around the world and recently opened a spot on Bay Street in downtown Toronto (it also has 5 other locations in the GTA).

The interior is rather cramped when it gets busy and very noisy and the Brazilian music is quite loud. The furniture is sourced directly from South Africa and is very colourful and unique.

Upon entering you may find yourself in a line (we have been here a number of times and it can get very busy) that may include take out patrons. You are seated as the line moves and are given a menu. Here is where it gets tricky - you select from the menu for your table (you have to remember your table number) and place the order at a counter where you will also pay for the entire order including any drinks and alcohol! You better remember what each person in you group wants because once you pay for it if someones order is wrong, or someone wants to add something - you will have to get back in line!! This may work in South Africa, but I find it a silly process. Next, you have to go to a counter to collect all the utensils for your table. The food is prepared and then delivered along with any alcohol ordered. Soft drinks are self serve. On a very busy evening it can be a nightmare. We saw an employee being a waitress, busboy, cook and maitre d. Our only conclusion here - cost savings!!

Pop machine is self serve and includes coca-cola and various flavours like vanilla, cherry, strawberry etc. that can be added to it.

We chose their Catedral red wine (we have had this wine here many times) and it was very good and not expensive.

My son Mark ordered their hummus dip with pita as an appetizer. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of it - but it contained a good portion of hummus and an unequal portion of pitas. When we asked for more (not to waste the large amount of hummus left in the bowl) we had to pay 85 cents!!
For his main he ordered the quarter chicken with leg (with medium peri peri) and peri peri fries. The fries where very tasty and the chicken was very meaty and tender.

My wife ordered the quarter chicken with breast and coleslaw. She really liked the coleslaw and found that even the breast meat was very tender. I ordered the half chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and coleslaw. The potatoes were filling, the coleslaw was delicious and the chicken was tender and meaty.

All in all we have found the food here quite good and filling and reasonably priced for the portion received -unlike Swiss Chalet where they look more like pigeons than chickens. The wine is very reasonably priced and tipping is not necessary, since you are paying at the cash and are not really assigned any waitress. The only problems here are the ordering process is very annoying and the noise can get quite loud. We have been here several times and found things much the same each time.