Review: Nando's

In honor of our brand-new baby niece and her London-loving mama Tiffany, I'm finally reviewing a restaurant that Tiffany recommended to us. Tiffany loved spent a year studying abroad in London, so when she heard we were going to England, she had tons of advice, recommendations, and tips for us. I think she was most excited for us to try Nando's, a restaurant that she'd really loved. Once Jeff started planning our trip, he discovered that there's a Nando's right here in Chicago, so off we went to check it out!

Nando's is a peri-peri chicken place: they serve a kind of spicy marinated butterflied chicken with various sides and (in our case) sangria. The food is served family-style and you specify how spicy you want your chicken, so it's best to go with someone who has similar taste to you. Jeff and I are both fans of spicy food, so we ordered the second-spiciest sauce, which was perfect for us.

I I used the little paper flag to mark my chicken territory.

For sides, we went with the mashed potatoes and mushy peas. The potatoes were good, as mashed potatoes go. (I think mashed potatoes are one of those foods that are basically impossible to screw up or revolutionize the world with, but Jeff really likes them and they make a good side for spicy/saucy foods.) The peas were my favorite thing about the entire meal, including our giant pitcher of sangria, and that's saying something. They had exactly the right herbs and a hint of spice, and I definitely ate more than my fair share of those peas.

We ordered a carafe of white-wine sangria to share, and it came with plenty of mango and peach slices. Yay for surprise dessert!

The chicken itself was super delicious. The skin was crispy but not greasy, and I really liked the peri-peri sauce. I'm looking forward to going back and ordering a large mushy peas just for me. Apparently there's a Nando's opening right in our neighborhood in early 2017, and I'm super excited to have a new last-minute dinner option.

I wore this new-to-me Evelyn dress from Pinup Girl Clothing, even though I had slight misgivings about wearing anything fitted for a trip to a restaurant, but happily, it wasn't too tight even after I housed half the food pictured above and dessert from the nearby French Market! The fact that I'm wearing short sleeves in this photo should tell you how overdue this review is. If I can find the long-sleeved blue cardigan I used to wear as my winter layer in LA, though, I'm going to winterize the bejeezus out of this dress!

Thanks for sending us to Nando's, Tiffany! We enjoyed it a lot, and hope we'll be able to go with you one of these days!

Catch up on my recent restaurant reviews: a great South Side brunch spot || BBQ in the Chicagoland 'burbs || the best burger I've ever had || Epic BBQ in Chicago's West Loop || the Polish buffet to end all buffets || amazing Mexican food in the Midwest?!? || fabulous small-plate eats in West Loop

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