Nando's Peri Peri chicken (revisited), Rio Gaithersburg, MD

We brought our pooch to Washingtonian Center (Rio) on family outing day and fortunately the newly opened Nando welcomed our dog by the lake view patio!  I was hoping they'd be more dog friendly since there aren't many dog friendly restaurants around the lake, and they turned out to be!  This made me so happy and probably up their rating by a whole point!  (yes I'm very biased....)  There are a couple restaurants around the lake that 'accept' dogs but they need to be outside the fence and with restrictions.  Nando gave a very friendly vibe when I told them I had a pooch and their staff even came over just to see my pup.

I was at their mock service before they opened (see previous post).  But this is the first time I sat by their lakeside patio, the view was absolutely gorgeous for a chill afternoon!  We were greeted by friendly staff and was seated right away.  Here's our view.

table 46

Since we tried the Portuguese roast chicken last time and we both weren't big fans.  We decided to try something else this time.  I ordered garlic bread for appetizer because we loved it when we had it for the mock service.

garlic bread (half gone...)

For main entree, I ordered a Caesar salad since I was not very hungry.  It was descent, nothing surprising though.

Caesar salad $5.95

He ordered a chicken pita with smashed peas and grilled corn on the cob (okay, I wanted the corn).

chicken pita

Chicken pita was meh...it wasn't bad but wasn't good either.  I loved the grilled corn, good flavors and the corn was sweet as well.  The smashed peas were nasty, the whole thing tasted like MINT, MINT, and ...more MINT.  I took a bite and immediately regretted it.  It's not for the faint of heart....

We also ordered a 'nata' Portuguese egg tart.  It was overly sweet, I've definitely had better ones elsewhere. 

Overall, the food was pretty mediocre this time around.  We weren't too impressed with the selection or the flavors, but loved their location and services.  I'm definitely going back again, just hoping to find something I like from the menu because I like the restaurant so much!

FoodiePop's rating: 3/5 (OK I added some points for dog friendliness)

Nand's Peri Peri
224 Boardwalk Pl
Gaithersburg, MD 20878