Nando's PERi-PERi — Restaurant in Chicago

I will start by saying that the people here are awesome and were our favorite Chicagoans during our visit out of the places we visited! Jan and Aerial were awesome during our visit & make the service during the experience grand. When we walked in we didn't know what to expect as we had only heard about Nando's from Insider Food's YouTube channel in their Food Wars segment. Upon entering Nando's we were immediately greeted & escorted to our table to sit down.

We learned that you ordered from your phone which was immediately sent to the kitchen and brought to your table. It was recommended that if we hadn't had Nando's before that it may be a good idea to order our chicken plain & then you can take some of the different levels of sauces to figure out what you like....an awesome experience we'll find out later. Our water was brought to us and they also bring a convenient small refill pitcher for you as well. It's kinda a fast food & sit down experience all at once because the food does come out pretty quick.

We ordered the honey peri-peri chicken wings and also two of the $10 lunch meal deal chicken breasts that come with a side and drink. The honey wings were great, just the right consistency on the honey sauce of not being too thick or thin & great sweet heat flavor. I think these are new so if you have been to Nando's before but haven't had these give them a whirl. The chicken breast meals were good too, juicy chicken and as aforementioned plain so that we could try the sauces. It turns out that I really like the medium or medium with wild herb....the hot and extra hot were good too but not egregious hot like you would think, it's more of a different flavoring then bringing a burning to the experience. I can't speak highly enough about getting recommended to order in this way & the fact that Nando's does this makes it awesome....it's nice to get the bottles and try the full array of sauces to see what you like instead of fully committing to one sauce without knowing what you are getting into. I wish more chicken places made this an option, but nevertheless it has made me a Nando's ambassador in many ways as a result of this visit & experience. The sides were good too, garlic bread and mash potatoes were very nice. If you've seen the Insider Food YouTube video for Nando's US vs UK review I disagree with the US reviewer's perspective of the garlic bread being strange...I found it quite nice but in fairness if it was delivered it may not have been the same as the in-restaurant level that we had.

The music that plays in the restaurant also gives you a South African feel as well we found out. It's a good music level as well, not too much...just enough to enjoy. The decor is also South African sourced it seems based on what we saw on the card on our table. It's a full immersive South African experience right in Chicago & it's a good one in my opinion.

I HIGHLY recommend giving Nando's a try, I think you'll find that it's an...

I want to start by saying my rating is NOT based on the food. The food is the reason I am even giving 2 stars. I am writing this review in hopes of seeing improvements at the Streeterville location. The service has simply gotten so ridiculously bad.! Every employee seems to move at a snails place, completely unengaged and not friendly with patrons whatsoever. I have learned at this point to call in every order I place, but still find myself in there sometimes 10-15 minutes just to PICKUP an order that is sitting there already ready to go under the heaters. For one, put more than one person at the registers. I have in all my times in Nandos never seen more than one person taking orders...this should be a no brainer, especially with how long some orders seem to take to be placed. By the time you take the order, figure out customers table, have them swipe, sign, etc, coupled with how slow your employees move it's like watching paint dry which in turn causes your lines to get very backed up. At the very least make it so people picking up orders can go to a different register to check out...seems like that would also be a no brainer, but rocket science at this location. Next, if you guys are going to CHARGE $1.00 for a little scoop of Peri Peri Mayo than make sure your employees remember to put it in the bag! They seem to forget every time and act surprised when I ask for it...again ridiculous. I could get this place running to a tee with some simple changes because at the end of the day the food is great...you guys just need an overhaul of your staff. Today 8/24/2018 around 2:00 CST the woman taking and grabbing the orders was both rude and sneezing everywhere...completely unsanitary..again common things a manager/restaurant owner would advise against. I'll end by saying again I am writing this review as a honest take from a frequent customer who once loved Nando's and still does..but simply will not be going anymore with the service or lack there of at the Streeterville location. I am sure I am not the only one either. For how much people are paying for your food, give us some decent service, move a little bit faster and stop making us wait so long. It should not be that difficult. ...

If I could give the service here negative stars, I would. Came here to celebrate my birthday from out of town. Placed an order at 12:40pm and at 1:30pm we still hadn’t received the order even though the same server had served 4 tables that came after us.

When we notified the server, she brought it up to the manager, who put the blame on us, talking down and belittling us saying “you mean to say you waited 40 mins and only now tell us, that’s your responsibility.” Then proceeded to tell us that the ticket never came through in the kitchen and it will be another 10 mins. At this point we asked for a refund. No accountability was taken, and we walked out hungry, belittled, and wasting an hour of our time on my birthday. Another table was also forgotten about and we overheard the manager saying it’s not their fault and arguing back with the customers, saying that the group was hidden. When the other customer walked out, we overheard one of the staff threatening them under their breath. Corporate should really take a look at who is being hired and the service that is being provided at this location, I’ve never witnessed service that is so unprofessional and horrible.

Thanks Nandos for the lovely start to the birthday. Would never recommend this...