Nando’s PERi-PERi

Had the chicken and baby kale salad with spicy nuts on the side and they were both great. Service was excellent as well.

Came here for the first time without hearing about the place before. I was in the area for a conference while staying at the Gaylord Hotel. I had the chicken burger with fries and it was a great lunch. Would certainly come all week for lunch!

I came in for an early dinner around 5pm on Saturday. I’ve been wanting to try their chicken since I saw someone review it on Youtube. I ordered the half chicken with Portuguese rice. I ate it with the hot garlic sauce. The chicken was smoky but I wish the skin was more charred/​crispy and not so soft and fatty. The rice was flavorful. It didn’t take too long for my food to come out and I saw they had an ice cream machine!

Wow, good job, Nandos of National Harbor! The first two times I came was almost 3 years ago, and I vowed never to come back because the service was so terrible. The bf and I came for dinner on Friday, since we figured we hadn’t been here in awhile, and all staff were ON POINT. Host greeted and sat us courteously and promptly (with jokes), we got our food quickly, and our table was cleared quickly, we were asked if everything was good, and acknowledged when we left. All pretty standard… but very important to overall experience.
The food was never a problem, so Nando’s is back on the list of potential dinner eats at National Harbor.

Party of 4 New Years Eve. 50 minutes to get our food. I understand its NYE but this is never acceptable…

Hubby and I got the Mango Lime wings with cole slaw and mashed potatoes. Service was good. We enjoyed the wings and mashed potatoes. Cole slaw was ok but nothing great.

Tony is
! If you are looking for healthy fresh and quick food — Nandos has got ya covered. It is always my go to in the harbor for quasi fast food. Quick and great tasting food.

Our first try this location this time. Food was fine but the service was slow, although the staff were friendly and nice. It took 20 min for them to bring our drink to our table. Maybe it was busy time for weekday lunch.

This is the second time that I
Have eaten Nando’s at this location. Both times being Ice at Gaylord. The food is always delicious and super tasty while the service is good not great. I will keep coming back, it’s a fun environment and I absolutely love the extra hot peri-​peri chicken wrap with the fire roasted corn.

I usually go to the Nando’s in Silver Spring or Chinatown but we were at the Harbor so we decided to check this one out. I’m taking away two stars because the food took INCREDIBLY long to come out and my friends and I ordered together but got our food at least 15 minutes apart.
Another reason for the star deduction is that we asked one of the workers twice if we could sit outside and we were told no because the patio was closed and he went and asked the manager and again we were told no. There were six different parties who were seated outside during our seating and I just walked past again and the patio is full of people. The manager told us it was because the patio is not usually open in the winter because people will complain about cold food. But it was 70 degrees today and I didn’t understand, even after his explanation, why other parties were allowed patio seating but we weren’t.

Delicious chicken and an eclectic array of sides. The chicken resembles the flavors of a rotisserie style chicken, but it’s actually grilled. The grill itself is visible to the patrons, so you can watch them grill your chicken if that kind of stuff turns you on. The spices they put on the chicken and the variety of available sauces (lemon herb, garlic peri peri, extra hot, etc.) are what keeps me coming back for more. My favorite sides are the Portuguese rice and cole slaw, but their fries and mashed potatoes are also delicious. I prefer to wash it all down with a sangria, but they also have a small selection of beer and wine. In most cases, the hostess will assign a table to you when you walk in and you simply place your order at the register when you are ready. Don’t worry if you can’t decide on a specific sauce. There’s a self serve bar with every variety of sauce readily available.

$ 55. Drinks for 2 non alcohol 1 whole chicken Not remarkable as well as, having to stand to At this point let’s instead review the wonderful merits of buying a whole chicken from Safeway/​Giants with 38 bucks to $pare and take it home. Do not waste your time with peri peri… by the way; who do you tip?

I absolutely love this place! Came to visit my family from NY and told them this has to be the FIRST place that we go lol! I absolutely love this place! The food is so good and the staff is amazing! Try the perk peri wings and the hummus, trust me you won’t be disappointed! :-)

Nando’s is so good, don’t be fooled, just don’t go to the one in Oxon Hill it SUCKS.
Omg had the worst experience with the people, and especially with our service.
You know it’s a lot of people on a weekend I get it, but don’t be rude to us if we just asked you a freaking question.
Seriously to the owners of the place, hire a brand new staff if you want better business, because the lack of good customer service that you have is going to bring your business down.
Did not appreciate it one bit, not to mention, we sat right next to where you bring out your food, and you didn’t even bother to check to see if it was ours or not, you all just kind of hung out and talked about stuff that wasn’t important, yeah you heard me.
Please Unilocalers save yourself, don’t go here find a better area to go to Nando’s, unless you like getting an attitude from people who are supposed to help you, and you would like to wait an hour for cold food.

I have trouble giving Nandos less than four stars especially for what it essentially is– a healthier fast food option. This particular location is a great inexpensive option if you are looking for a price point where an entrée is not $ 25 per person at the National Harbor. My boyfriend and I sat outside and received our food within ten minutes of ordering it. I got a chicken breast wrap with the lemon-​herb peri sauce and a mixed green salad as my side. I was a bit thrown when I asked for it on a whole wheat wrap (per the menu I could choose a whole wheat wrap, a toasted pita, or a Portuguese roll) and was told by the cashier «it just comes on a pita.» When I received said wrap it was clearly on a whole wheat wrap not a toasted pita but whatever, that’s how I wanted to receive it. Also I was thrown when the menu mentioned a Greek yogurt sauce and sweet chili jam being in the wrap and, again when I received said wrap, there was nothing but chicken and lettuce inside. I’m not complaining per se because I enjoyed the taste anyways, but if you’re going to advertise ingredients in a sandwich, those ingredients should appear unless otherwise requested. For the $ 1 up charge I got a mixed green salad and I always appreciate its not the typical «iceberg lettuce, one tomato, one cucumber» side salad. I made my own dressing with balsamic vinegar and oil but there were a couple prepare options to choose from too. The portion size of my Neal was perfect and not overly stuffing. I always feel kinda healthy after eating Nandos. My boyfriend hit the ¼ chicken breast hot with Portuguese rice. When it came out he had to check the receipt because the portion was HUGE! It looked more like a ½ chicken (maybe it was given the clear unfamiliarity with the menu I experienced earlier) but he wasn’t complaining. It was juicy and flavorful as always. I also got a beer and our bill was $ 25– very worth it compared to the other options at National Harbor!

Zero ambience, decent food, and friendly staff.
The food was good, not great but good. Given the location, that’s saying a lot as great food at a reasonable price is hard to come by.
The deal is you select your food and then the the spiciness, from blah to very hot. I had the chicken wrap with «hot» level spiciness. It is calibrated to «worldly» tastes where things wind up spicier than in the US. What was nice was still being able to pick out hints of lime and mango amidst the heat. That delicious hot sauce was surrounding maybe 10 small cubes of chicken, a few leaves of some leafy material, and wrapped in some tasteless bread-​like wrapping.
My daughter had a kid’s grilled cheese sandwich which came out as some slices of bread sitting in a puddle of yellow goo (cheese?). She finished it, along with her side of corn-​on-​the-​cob, and that says something. (food good, ambience bad)
In general, the interior is a congested maze of tables in an eating space that would generously be called overused.
The next time I’m at National Harbor I’m going to make a point of stopping in to buy a bottle of their hot sauce. Then I’ll probably go eat some place else.

The Peri Peri chicken was moist and flavorful served up with fresh cut fries. The kids chicken wings were a bit on the short side with only three wing joints, not even whole wings.
Mediterranean salad was excellent as was the chicken Caesar salad. Best part was picking out your favorite Peri Peri sauce for your meal.
Mixed reactions from the kids on the frozen yogurt. All in all a nice dinner and good time with a family fun atmosphere.

Wonderful experience at this location.
Everyone was nice and service was efficient. We ordered the full platter to share. Unfortunately, they were out of coleslaw but mashed potato will do.
And they have one of those fancy soda machines that you can literally pick anything you want and it’s kinda awesome because you go untraditional with those drinks.

Nando’s was just okay. However, I’m not used to retrieving my own utensils, beverage and walking up to a counter to place my food order in a seated type restaurant… good concept for some people though, I suppose.
I ordered the Chicken Ceaser Wrap, it was good but I didn’t like the actual bread wrap. My companion ordered the Peri chicken with the side order of rice. The plate was cleaned so I suppose it was quite enjoyable. Lol.
Would definitely return and recommend.

Last time I had Nando’s was in Melbourne, Australia. I remember their chicken as being juicy and having good spices. That was about 12 years ago.
Since it was a chain I was hoping that it was the same quality and taste at this location. Well im happy to report that it was just like I remembered! Located in the National Harbor shopping complex, these guys are not too far away from the waterfront.
What does Peri Peri mean? Well according to their website and on their restaurant wall: It’s thanks to our Portuguese forefathers — brave explorers that they were — that Nando’s is around. That’s because, way back in the 15^th Century, they were introduced to the Bird’s Eye Chilli. Growing under the warm sun in the rich soils of Africa, this was a spice so nice, it had been named it twice! Called PERi-​PERi, this hot little number put fire in the explorers’ bellies and ignited passion in their souls.
They added it to a handful of herbs, spices, a squeeze of sun-​ripened lemons and a dash of garlic. Together with their love of life, friends, fun and good food they created the first Gosto Delicioso (great taste) of addictive PERi-​PERi sauce.
As you enter the process is simple. They give you menus, assign you a table, decide what you want, and then go up to the counter to put your order in. Then you sit down and wait. Your table is numbered so they dont mess up your order.
We ordered the Chicken Breast Sandwich ($ 7.45), 12 Peri Peri Wings ($ 11.95), and a ½ Chicken ($ 11.95) which comes with a side so we chose Mashed Potatoes. We also added Garlic Bread for 2 dollars more as a second side.
The Chicken Sandwich is served on a toasted Portuguese roll with arugula, tomato, pickled red onions and PERi-​PERi mayo. Good flavor with the combination of toppings but I thought it could of been a bit bigger for the price you pay. For the wings we got half Lemon and Herb and half Medium Spicy. The Lemon and Herb wings were succulent, allowing you to taste the marinade they used as you can taste the flavor all through out the wing. The Medium Spicy just had enough kick to it so as to make you sweat just a bit on your forehead. The Half Chicken meal was awesome. We got it mild so that my 10 year old can enjoy it and he was not shy about tearing into it. He even gobbled up the Garlic Bread before anybody else can get to it so we had t order more. The Mashed Potatoes were just your basic mash.
Now if any time you wanted more or less sauce and mild or spicy, they have a bunch of different sauces located over by the soda machine. If you refer to my pics, they have 6 different sauces which are Wild Herb, Lemon n Herb, Garlic, Hot, Extra Hot, and Extra Extra Hot.
Service was very good. Didnt have to ask for anything. We got our orders in a timely matter.
Some random info. I suggest you come right as they open for lunch (11 am) for quick seating and ordering. As lunchtime comes around the line usually starts going out the door. They have patio seating if you prefer. They have the Coke machine that gives you a lot of choices besides your regular drinks with a push of a button.
Overall, I liked my experience. It’s just that I think its a bit overpriced for the portions you get and that there is really no parking so you have to pay at the parking garage.
Unilocal 2014 365 Review Challenge #184