Nando's is one of those restaurants that you don't think of when someone tells you that they have a restrictive diet, including being Vegan. However, it is my boyfriends and all of my friends favourite place to eat, so I couldn't keep making them eat somewhere else, after all, Nando's had to do something that I could eat. Surely!
A year and a bit later and I am still happy I agreed, they do a great few options for me and I'm sure a lot of you out there could enjoy quite a bit from their menu! Here's my take on a staple British (Portuguese) restaurant...
People:
So for Nando's, you don't really need that much of an interaction with the waiters/tresses so I will keep this brief. They have always taken my order correctly and most times will announce what is missing from the dish in order to ensure it's right. The only issue I have ever had, and it was strangely for a run of visits to different branches, they kept forgetting my Avocado! Anything but the avocado. It makes a Vegan's life complete! Apart from that, me and Nando's staff are cool!
8/10
Food:
There are limited options but what can you expect from a place that specialises purely in Chicken! The chicken is even their logo, so having a few options on salads, ability to have chips and a few other sides is brilliant.
I normally (always) have the Quinoa Salad, with either chips or the fino side of Chargrilled Veg. Now the Quinoa Salad does usually come with Feta Cheese and Mixed Seeds, however due to me being Vegan and also having a low tolerance to Sesame seeds, I ask for it without. That has never been a problem and it has always arrived without those bits in, which gives Nando's a great track record.
The salad is brilliant, it contains Mixed Leaves, Avocado, Tomatoes, Cucumber, Sweet Potato and Quinoa with Chickpeas. It does vary on amount of each item of food every time but today, it had the perfect amount of everything, all combined it is a brilliant mix of natural flavours and a drizzle of olive oil is all it needs!
The chips are always perfect as well, they have the cross contamination warning due to bread being used in the Kitchen but for me that isn't an issue. If it is for you, then you can tell them of your intolerance and they will be a lot more careful. This is the same with the Chargrilled Veg, which is a lovely side of basically Ratatouille, really nice if you don't fancy chips!
9/10
Allergies/Intolerances:
For a chain company, they handle allergens how they should be handled (in my graceful opinion). They have a filter option on their website and app, so you can choose what allergy you have and then it will block out all dishes that have it, only showing the remaining dishes that are safe to eat. This is a really good option, if this isn't enough however, each dish on their website is also labelled with what is in each one. There is no room for doubt, however to be safe, you can always tell them when ordering to ensure it is 100%.
But as I said, I have never had a problem, well done Nando's!
10/10