"What do vegans eat, anyway?" ..."Nandos!"

Ok, Nando's isn't the most vegan friendly restaurant from an ethical point of view. Don't go in if the mere sight of meat offends you as you'll be surrounded by omnivores gobbling down chicken cadavers at an extraordinary rate. On the up side, Nandos claims it's vegan options are cooked separately from the meat products and with separate utensils (and with their kitchens being open it wouldn't be hard to have a peek and check!) We have only been vegan for a short while and to preserve our non-judgemental, easy-going vegan image we accepted an invitation to eat at Nando's with a friend before catching a film.

Before accepting the invitation I did my research and found we had the following options:

Starters ("Appeteasers")

Yes, it's a chicken restaurant but all of the appetisers are vegan! We just got the olives, thank goodness, as the main was so filling!

• Hummous with peri peri drizzle and warm pitta - this is gorgeous!
• Red pepper dip with warm pitta - we have yet to try this
• Spicy mixed olives
• Peri peri nuts
• Or a combination of all four to share (or not!)

Mains

• The soya veggie burger (either in a burger bun, wrap or pitta) - make sure to specify no mayo!

• A flat mushroom, also in a wrap, bun or pitta (on the menu with halloumi, so ask for without)
• Cous cous salad. This is the only salad that looks substantial enough to have as a standalone vegan main.
• Mixed salad - basically just a plain salad.
• Mediterranean salad without feta

Sides

• Chips/Peri Peri Chips
• Spicy Rice
• Corn on the cob, without butter. We actually brought along a tiny tupperware pot of Vitalite, a vegan spread (can you tell I was a girl guide?)

• Macho Peas
• Ratatouille - though I tried this and found it watery and bland. Veganism turns you into a veg connoisseur!
• Mixed leaf salad (though their dressing isn't vegan they provide olive oil and balsamic at the sauce stations so we just drizzled that on and seasoned)
• The luso beans appear to be vegan. I haven't ordered them so didn't check.

Desserts

• Mango sorbet
• Chilly Billy Lolly

...pretty uninspiring!

Drinks - I researched the drinks on their menus and the following can be found at other retailers and are marked as veg*n friendly. Unfortunately for many the information just wasn't available! The white wines are marked as vegetarian, and the rest are vegan. I mostly used Barnivore.com or leading UK supermarket product info.

White Wines

•  Tagus Creek Chardonnay / Fernao Pires (Portugal)
• Spier Sauvignon Blanc (S.Africa) 

Rose

• Pink Elephant Rosé (Portugal)

Beers

• Sagres 
• Brahma
• Superbock 

Cider

• Savanna

Our meal...

We shared some olives to start , then we each had a veggie burger (without mayo). It was massive and well garnished. The soy burgers themselves are very spicy. I ordered mine with the extra hot marinade and it nearly blew the roof of my mouth off - which is just how I like it! It was big and very filling. We really struggled to finish them along with all our sides

We both had a corn on the cob each and shared a mixed leaf salad - which is huge - and a portion of peri peri chips. If you do want the corn, I'd recommend bringing your own spread as it would have been quite dry without. 

Nando's isn't somewhere I'd choose to eat, but I could tell our omnivore friend was a teeny bit impressed at all the different things we could eat!