Nando's, Mahon Point Shopping Centre | Guide Of Cork ♥

This is my third post as part of my Guide of Cork and I do apologise as it's another restaurant review - believe me when I say that I've never eaten out as much as I have this past week, the New Year has been kind to me! I will have some more wonderful aspects to my city and county on the blog soon - promise! On Tuesday afternoon Jacek decided he wanted to take me to Nando's, somewhere he's been wanting to take me for ages now as he's always going on about it and how the chain was begun in South Africa so of course we had to go, him being from South Africa and all. The only Nando's in Cork is located in Mahon Point shopping centre and is tucked away on the ground floor. I know, I know, some of you may be thinking Nando's isn't really a big deal or worthy of a review but it was my first time there so I was quite excited by the aspect of going there... is that sad? Can you tell I don't get out much?! (Hopefully not!...)

Nando's is famous for it's peri-peri chicken and it's range of hot sauces so I was looking forward to giving them a go because everyone I know raves about the place. The restaurant itself is large with plenty of seating and lighting which gives a great mood to the place. We sat at a large round table which gave us plenty of room for our buggy, I'd definitely say that Nando's is a family-friendly restaurant, they have plenty of highchairs and colouring activities for the little ones - an aspect we had to take advantage of when our son starting getting cranky at the end of the meal. When we arrived at Nando's we were taken to a table and given menus and that was it. No one came to serve us and I had to figure out for myself that we should order and pay at the till before we had our meal. I did think someone should have told us as there were plenty of staff, some having a chat and drinking coffee behind the counter...

 The menu offered a wide range of chicken dishes as well as vegetarian and a beef option. There's also one children's option on the menu. You get to choose how hot you want your sauce too. Jacek and I began our meal with a bottle of Savanna Dry Cider, a South African cider which he highly recommended and I have to admit that although I'm not a big cider drinker it was quite nice, really appley. I also had a large glass of the Pink Elephant Rosé, I love a good rosé!

 I went for the plain-ish chicken pitta with coleslaw and chips which I later regretted as it was rather bland, thankfully you can bring sauces to your table so I livened it up with some medium sauce. I wasn't a huge fan of the veg in my pitta either, it had a real earthy taste to it which wasn't very appealing. The chips were delicious though! Jacek opted for the half chicken with extra hot sauce, he said that's what he was raised on in South Africa, he also had the chips and coleslaw. Tyler Lee was very impressed with his plain chicken strips, chips and sweet potato mash.

Overall, we had a lovely family lunch at Nando's and although I was a bit disappointed with my meal and didn't really get what all the hype was about, I know that Jacek would go back in a heartbeat. Anything remotely South African he find in Cork and he's there!

Nando's,

Mahon Point Shopping Centre,

Mahon,

Cork

Nando's Ireland