Nando's - Putney

Nando's branches world-wide vary little, a mixture of Latin jubilance, dedicated attention to detail and user-friendly marketing. Your peri-peri chicken which, when the chips are down so to speak, is a fresh A grade chicken that has never seen the inside of a freezer, but having made the supreme sacrifice is butterfly-cut, marinated for 24 hours in a secret brew called - you've guessed - peri-peri, and is then cooked to your choice over an open flame. If you want to eat chicken it helps to know it was a happy chappie before it went.

There are, of course, many variations on this broad theme, numerous plays on words such as Nando's experi-perience, peri-peri good reasons why you should eat at a Nandos, and all one hopes is that for their sake chicken never goes out of fashion. New Branches are opening all the time, peri-peri quickly in fact, the spicy dips become hotter and more daring, and the full platter offers a whole chicken, large chips or spicy rice and Nandos salad or coleslaw.

Since chickens are vegetarian it seems logical you can order veggie or bean burgers and patties, and still feel the heat from the peppers. All in all I would heartily recommend Nandos for those occasions when you have a large following of permanently hungry children, or adults even, to keep happy - their restaurants are fun places, and the only thing taken really seriously is the quality of those peri-peri good chickens. Keep 'em coming, chaps!