TLDR: Chicken was good (4-stars), sides and other things not so much.
Here's one American's (my) take on this restaurant...
I'd never had Peri-Peri before. But while walking around the Oldham area during previous trips, I had continually seen these restaurants advertising themselves as Peri-Peri. All over. So it is apparently a thing over here, and naturally I was curious.
After being rejected by the Horton Arms pub nearby (kitchen closed at 7:30), I reluctantly walked back to this shopping centre to get fed, with the knowledge that this was pretty much a culinary wasteland of chain-restaurants. Upon arriving, I almost opted for McDonald's, because it would be a known-quantity with no chance of getting an unexpected disappointing food product. But I decided no, that I ought to at least try something I can't get at home, and headed towards Nando's. I did check out Pizza Hut along the way because I could see they had a salad bar, which was a healthy option, but after stepping one foot into the place I turned right around and walked out; the music was too loud and "club" to have an enjoyable experience in there.
(What is it with these restaurants in this shopping centre? Do they think they're a disco?? [see my review of my previous night's experience at Frankie and Benny's]. I don't get it.)
So I went to Nando's. Music was also playing here, but slightly less loud and instrumental, and therefore more tolerable. I had run out of restaurant choices too... :)
After about a ten-minute wait (acceptable), I was seated, and the waitress was kind enough to explain the ordering and other self-serve processes. I ordered the 1/4 chicken medium spicy, and a squeezed apple juice. Sides were coleslaw and garlic bread. The food came relatively quickly.
As I mentioned before, the chicken was good -- tasty. But be warned that, apparently, British chickens are not as large as American chickens; the thigh and leg contained far less meat than I expected. But it was good.
The Apple juice was also very good.
However the garlic "bread" pieces were like hockey pucks. Literally. First of all, they were not bread, but some sort of a bun cut in half, so every bite came with crust. Call me picky, but I don't like that, and I was expecting soft normal bread, not crust. They were also cold, and hard enough to cause a "clank" when striking a ceramic bowl. Fortunately a waitress came by and replaced them with a fresher pair when I showed her what I had received.
The coleslaw was a bit too runny for me, but I was far more concerned that it also came to me at room-temperature! I doubt that coleslaw is intended to be served warm, so I can only assume that it hadn't been refrigerated for a while for some reason, and no one there was aware enough or cared enough about what was happening to it.
I left most of it for fear that it'd make me sick.
That all pretty well describes my first Peri-Peri experience. read more