Today marked the official opening of Nando's in downtown DC (819 7th St.), a South African restaurant chain serving flame-grilled chicken marinated in Peri-Peri sauce, a spicy Portuguese marinade. A friend of mine who lived in London for several years has been raving about the place since he heard one was coming to Chinatown. I decided to stop by to check it out.When I arrived at 12:30, I wondered how the heck everyone else knew that the restaurant was opening today; the line was out the door and onto the sidewalk. Nando's does not have full table service. Eat-in and take-away customers alike line up together to place their order at one of three registers, although if you tell the host at the door that you're eating-in, he will assign you a table while you are in line. I noticed that the take out menu said you can call ahead with your order and I asked if there was a separate queue for those picking up orders placed in advance. The nice South African manager said in theory yes, but they hadn't worked everything out since they had only been open for an hour, and in any case, they had already turned off the phone. I waited about 10 minutes to get to the register, which was at a very wide, chest-high (for me, at least) granite counter where the clerk had to lean over and strain to hear what I was ordering over the incredible amount of background noise in the restaurant. I had perused the take out menu while I was in line (click to enlarge--they also offer a kids' menu and several salads that aren't included here... including a rather intriguing salad of chicken liver and feta cheese with croutons...):
I ordered a medium heat quarter chicken (the spice options are lemon & herb, medium, hot, and extra hot) with a side of rice and corn on the cob. The girl at the register -- who was wearing a "chicks rule" t-shirt, along with all the other female staff (men's shirts said "grillers in the mist") -- informed me that they had run out of corn, which I thought was extremely odd considering that the restaurant had only been open for a sum total of 90 minutes. I ordered a side of butternut squash with grilled corn instead. Then I tried to find a place to stand while I waited. And waited. And waited. I ended up waiting another 45 minutes for my take out order.The restaurant has an open kitchen and I was standing along the path between the kitchen and most of the seating, so I got to watch the food being prepared and delivered to patrons. All of the sides looked delicious, and generously sized. Nando's has a do-it-yourself sauce station offering multiple varieties of peri-peri sauce (wild herb, garlic, medium, hot, extra hot). The sauce station did not provide small containers like you might imagine someone would want to use for sauce. Instead, it only offered large oval shaped plates. So I watched most dine-in customers filling up dinner-size plates with shallow puddles of various sauces and taking them back to their table. When I finally got my order, I had to ask for a plastic sauce cup to take some sauce with me.
I also saw many patrons taking advantage of a truly genius feature of the restaurant: a large, centrally accessible, trough-shaped sink with two faucets and a ready supply of liquid soap and paper towels. It beats a wet nap any day. While the line to the door remained pretty much constant during my time at the restaurant, there were always tables available for people who wanted to dine in.
So anyway, to the food! First, I have to mention that my take out chicken was packed in an adorable vented paper box decorated with an artsy heart motif. The box was packed in a half-height brown paper grocery bag with handles, decorated with an adorable red swirl design and the Nando's cockerel logo. But to be honest, I was a little disappointed with my chicken. It was a little dry and I didn't think the marinade was all that flavorful. My garlic peri-peri sauce was quite spicy and definitely improved the chicken -- but my general philosophy is that grilled chicken should be moist enough and flavorful enough to be eaten plain. My side dish of butternut squash was absolutely delicious. It included tender squash, red onions, dried cranberries, chili flakes, and cilantro. It was also supposed to include grilled corn, but I guess restaurant's corn shortage extended to this dish as well. In any case, I give the dish serious bonus points for essentially being an antioxidant bomb -- you rarely see nutritious dishes offered as sides in a quick-serve restaurant.
I don't think you can ever expect a restaurant to be at top form on its first day (or even probably in the first few weeks it's open), so I will definitely go back and give Nando's another try later. In the meantime, I know I can always count on Crisp & Juicy, a local chain of Peruvian chicken restaurants where I always get my quarter chicken with a side of yuca. It's deep fried and has none of the nutritional value of butternut squash, but it is soooo good!
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