With Aldi having recently released their new range of Nando's-inspired grub, I headed down to my local store to pick up a few items and see how they compare to the real thing...
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00:00Hi, my name is Jack Marshall. I'm a digital food and drink reporter and welcome to another one of our food videos where we give you a bit of insight into what's kind of going on in the UK food market, any trending stories, any new developments with some national chains, any local stuff which we think is going to be of interest.
00:16Now today is going to be all focused on two brands which are beloved and pretty well known in the UK and that is Aldi and that is Nandos. Now we recently did a story about how Aldi have released their own range, their own kind of brand new collection of items which are very much Nandos inspired but giving people who love a Nandos, love a cheeky Nandos but want to do so and have it in the comfort of their own home whilst also saving a bit of cash, they've released their Roosters Peri Peri range.
00:44Now it involves all these things behind me so I thought what better way than to try it out and see if it's actually worth it or if nothing quite compared to a real Nandos than going grabbing some of the things myself, trying them out and letting you know what I thought.
00:55So that's exactly what I did and basically this is what I reckon to it all. So it's obviously clearly very inspired by Nandos which is fine.
01:04This is essentially trying to be a kind of like wallet friendly version of the whole experience of going out to a Nandos and basically giving you a chance to do it at home as well.
01:16So yeah, my ultimate question was, was it going to be, I didn't know if it was going to be as good but was it going to be worth it and putting the effort in myself cooking it?
01:26Was it going to kind of match up to the actual Nandos itself?
01:30So one of the things they did was Peri Peri mac and cheese.
01:33That was decent, it was creamy, it was tasty, it was fine but essentially it's mac and cheese.
01:38It's a hard thing to get wrong fundamentally.
01:40And when, you know, this is a bit of a ploy from Aldi when you are paying probably slightly above the odds for what you'd normally be charged for a little tub of mac and cheese.
01:51I must have said, I probably was expecting something a little bit more groundbreaking, something a little bit more impressive which left more of an impression on me.
02:00It was fine, it was mac and cheese, that was it.
02:03I couldn't really get a Peri Peri flavour into it either so don't know what that brand is about, might just be part of the range.
02:08Peri Peri seasoned fries, second thing.
02:12Falls a similar path to be honest, it's seasoned fries, you can't really go very wrong with it.
02:15Aldi do their own version of this already in the frozen bit, you can stick those in your air fryer and jobs are good and you don't really need to buy their Aldi, their Nando's knockoff version to experience the kind of thing which you've got here.
02:27They've all been doing this for years, as is, it wasn't the same as Nando's fries, they've got their own seasoning, they've got their own particular style and everything.
02:33This wasn't quite as good, it's fries, what more can you say?
02:37It wasn't as good as Nando's, that's it.
02:40Halloumi sticks, there's a bit of a theme developing here but you can't really mess up halloumi sticks, you get a little bit of halloumi, you cut it into sticks, that's it.
02:46It came with a sweet chilli dip but Aldi sell sweet chilli dip as is, you could probably buy a block of halloumi, buy some of their sweet chilli dip, make this yourself and probably save a few coins as well.
02:55So yeah, fine, it was nice, I'm not going to say it wasn't delicious, it's halloumi, you can't really go wrong with halloumi but yeah, I suppose it was just, they're trying to build it into the whole culinary universe developing here and obviously with halloumi being a popular thing at Nando's, this was just their version of.
03:13Spice mixed olives, again, they were olives, they didn't have a particular kick, they didn't have a particular spice, they didn't have any like horrifically garlic nature to them or anything, they were just olives, that was it.
03:25Aldi sell olives, there's nothing much more to write home about.
03:29Rainbow slaw, I've been pretty agnostic and pretty ambivalent towards everything at the minute, this was, unfortunately I'd actively say I really didn't like it, it didn't taste fresh, it tasted a bit wilted, it tasted a bit underwhelming, it didn't taste like creamy and crunchy which is what you want from coleslaw, didn't really have any of that, it tasted a bit floppy, a bit like the food version of acai, it wasn't very nice, didn't really go back for much more, ended up chucking it away, felt quite bad but what can you do, it wasn't very nice.
03:59Peri peri vegan mayo was the next thing, why they made it vegan, I don't know, great that's more inclusive, it involves vegans but do a vegan version, do a regular version, mayo is eggy, it's creamy, it's nice, it's got that kind of, that punch to it, they just didn't have that, it just wasn't very appealing because they'd made it with egg substitutes or however you make vegan mayo, I mean vegan mayo is not something I'm particularly, it doesn't appeal to me in the slightest, it didn't have much of a peri peri flavour in either,
04:29underwhelming, didn't eat very much of it, went in the bin. Lemon and herb chicken thigh fillet sizzlers, these were nice, they were fine, the chicken was good, it was succulent, it was juicy, the seasoning was nice, was it as good as Nando's?
04:42No it wasn't. Did it have that classic Nando's char grill flavour throughout the whole chicken whilst also maintaining that juiciness? It didn't, it was fine, it was like chicken I could have cooked at home, I could do a better marinade myself, I reckon.
04:54Yeah, that was it, it was pretty similar to like the things like the mac and cheese, it was okay, hard to mess up, all you've done is slap some marinade on a chicken thigh, that's it, most people can do that at home.
05:05Moving on to the next item, we've got mini corn and the cobs and the garlic chibata squares. I don't want to sound like a broken record but it's hard to get mini corn and the cobs and garlic bread wrong.
05:16These are just standard things which are pretty available in most places. All that's changed about this is the branding. So yeah, as you can tell, a theme's kind of developing through this.
05:26They were fine, don't get me wrong, I kind of liked most of these things, they were okay. Will they have me coming back for more? No. Will they make me think twice when I'm thinking of a Nando's next time? No, I'll go to Nando's.
05:37I'm going to have them instead of these because these just, they're like, you know, the Wish versions of them, the Nando's versions. So yeah, that's it fundamentally.
05:44The final thing which I want to mention was their Mighty Peas, which are kind of like, they're supposed to be a dupe of like Nando's, you know, classic peas, which are a nice sight, nice sight to have.
05:54These are really underwhelming. I didn't like the flavour at all. The peas tasted old. They tasted like wilted and watery. Really not good. I ended up chucking most of them in the bin.
06:02And they were really underwhelming. But yeah, so not the best review for the Aldi's range of Nando's kind of knockoff things.
06:10So yeah, let us know if you've tried them. You absolutely love them. Other people might really like them. I'm sure they appeal to some people.
06:16I just thought they were pretty underwhelming across the board. I don't know if I went into it with more expectation.
06:21But if I am comparing it to a Nando's, Nando's wins every single time on pretty much every single, not pretty much every single item.
06:28So fundamentally, I don't think they've kind of matched up very well on that front. But never mind.
06:33Yeah, thanks for watching, guys. I really appreciate you taking the time. Let us know, like I say, if you've tried it and if you liked it or if you felt the same as me and you thought it was a bit underwhelming.
06:40But yeah, have a lovely day. Cheers.