A Nando’s style Flame-Grilled Peri-Peri Chicken Spot Graces San Gwann

One of the many things I miss about London is a cheeky Nando’s. The South African chain has become something of a British high-street institution, beloved by everyone from your average Joe to the occasional A-lister. I certainly contributed to its Baker Street branch’s turnover more times than I care to admit (living 30 seconds away, you can hardly blame me).

Apparently, flame-grilled chicken drowned in peri-peri sauce remains emotionally significant.

So when Chickoo popped up on my timeline, my interest was piqued. Malta has had a few attempts at peri-peri chicken over the years, with varying degrees of longevity. I kept my expectations reasonably restrained.

The new San Gwann delivery spot comes from the people behind YUFU, the Chinese takeaway, and offers two distinct propositions: flame-grilled peri-peri chicken and fried chicken.

Naturally, I ordered both. In the interests of research, obviously.

First, We Need to Talk About Those Fries

I’m not someone who gets particularly emotional about chips. They’re chips. They have a job to do.

These, however, deserve their own paragraph. Possibly legal representation.

Deep golden, beautifully blistered and with a substantial-looking crust, they had the sort of finish you’d expect alongside steak frites in a Parisian bistro. I ordered chicken, but the fries very nearly staged a hostile takeover of the entire meal.

The Peri-Peri Situation

First, choose your heat level and portion size. I went for the whole chicken (hot), which arrived already basted with peri-peri sauce and quartered into two leg portions and two breast portions, rather than requiring you to conduct surgery at the dinner table.

The chicken was fresh, juicy and distinctly flame-grilled. Personally, I’d have liked a little more char on the skin, but I’ve been known to make that same request at Nando’s when they go a little easy on the grill marks.

The spicy rice was an interesting accompaniment. Rather than separate, fluffy grains, it had a slightly sticky consistency that held together. I don’t know whether that’s how it’s normally prepared or just how my portion turned out, but I didn’t mind it. Despite its name, it wasn’t particularly spicy. I’d call it flavourful rather than hot, with what tasted to me like a curry-style seasoning. An unusual accompaniment to South African-inspired peri-peri chicken, perhaps, but I thought the two worked rather well together.

 

And the sauce is where I become considerably less reasonable.

I tried both medium and hot. Medium was gentle, while hot delivered a satisfying tingle that lingered pleasantly after each mouthful. The sauce was fluid enough to coat the chicken without overwhelming it, and the flavour brought back a rather welcome dose of Nando’s nostalgia.

Would I have liked an extra-hot option? Absolutely. Some of us enjoy making unnecessarily aggressive decisions at dinner.

The flame-grilled menu also includes half chickens, boneless thighs, chicken breasts, peri-peri wings and peri-peri chicken sandwiches. There are seven sauce options: No Heat, Mild, Medium, Hot, Sweet BBQ, Garlic and Lemon & Herb.

And Then There’s the Fried Chicken

Chickoo’s fried chicken takes a different direction. The coating is a deeper reddish-brown than your standard golden fried chicken, generously speckled with black seasoning.

It was crisp, distinctly peppery and full of flavour. There’s a deliberate seasoning profile here rather than a generic fried-chicken coating, and I appreciated that.

Fried chicken wings come in Original Fried, Spicy Fried (which I recommend), Korean (also recommended) and Sweet & Sour.

There’s More Than Just Chicken

The menu goes considerably further, with chicken burgers, buckets and combos alongside wraps, ciabattas, rice bowls and salads. Sides include peri-peri fries, loaded fries, creamy mash and mac and cheese.

Unfortunately, the mac and cheese was sold out when I ordered, so that particular investigation will have to wait.

Chickoo currently operates as a delivery-only restaurant.

The Verdict

Chickoo has made a promising first impression. The flame-grilled chicken delivered where it mattered, the fried chicken had character, and those fries have absolutely no business being that good.

The Nando’s-shaped hole in my life hasn’t entirely disappeared, but it’s looking considerably less dramatic.

Chickoo
Industrial Estate
San Gwann
Website