Beef with the chicken (Nando’s)

I want to start out by saying that I love a Nando’s, for a quick(ish) lunch it’s hard to beat. When I worked at Chelmsford I would go pretty much every week at least once, and it was something that I really looked forward to. Double chicken pitta (hot) with chips and coleslaw, with a side order of chicken livers; and a generous splosh of the extra hot sauce on the chips. Perfect.

Perfect? Yes, as long as you think about Nando’s as fast food, which is absolutely what it is. I think it exists in a pretty unique place in the market, somewhere between a quick-service-restaurant like a McDonald’s and something a little bit more up-market like a Pizza Express. Need a chart? Thought so…

I reckon that Nando’s is (at best) twice as good as a normal fast-food restaurant. A recent visit for a quick lunch for two adults and two children cost £45, which I think is a ridiculous amount of money for what it was. An equivalent amount of food at a KFC, for example, will cost on average £17.50. So Nando’s is a little over 2.5X as much money, but I’m not so sure that it is that much better in terms of quality. If you find a good KFC (they vary massively) then the food can be ⅔ as good as Nando’s… so it is possible to get food that is 75% as good for only 40% of the price.

I love Nando’s, but it is very expensive for what it is, too expensive for every week… its fast food and it needs to remember that. It’s Jenny from the block. End of rant.