Barcelos Flame Grilled Chicken

Hey Everyone,

So I've been told of Barcelos by my touch football teammate that first brought me to Nandos, that Barcelos was a Nandos lookalike. Now I know Nandos is an international franchise so when I heard about Barcelos, I thought it was just one location in Surrey, but after searching them up online, it seems they're quite international as well, and this is just the only location in Canada!

The interior has sort of the same feel as Nando's, but different in a way. They still feature a bunch of artwork on the walls and have a lot of brick and wood everywhere. 

The legend of Barcelos!

No 100 flavour Coke machine here! Just a regular fountain pop machine.

Another reason why we came here was because of the Mobile Bandit deal they had, which gave us a free side and drink when we ordered a half chicken. I normally order a half chicken anyways so this deal was perfect!

We had just finished our touch football game, so we were all starving and I dug into my food too soon, so here's a pic of my teammate's order of a quarter chicken with Tangy Lemon sauce. =]

I had the 1/2 Chicken $9.49, compared to Nando's $10.50.

Started getting into it because I was starving!

The normal price of a 1/2 Chicken with 1 side is $11.99 compared to Nando's price of $13. Barcelos is slightly cheaper, and the Mobile Bandit deal only made this even sweeter. 

As for the chicken itself, I went with the Tangy Lemon flavour, which I assumed was the counterpart to Nando's Lemon & Herb which I usually go for. This Tangy Lemon turned out to be delicious! Their chicken was very comparable to Nando's, to the point where I would not be able to tell whether I'm eating at Nando's or Barcelos. The chicken seemed to be cooked just the same as Nandos, and it was cooked through very nicely. 

The side I chose was Mashed Potatoes, although strangely enough, this option is not listed on their Canadian website's menu. I usually go with Garlic Mashed Potatoes at Nando's so I had to pick a meal as close as possible to what I would get at Nando's to do a proper comparison. Honestly even the mashed potatoes were almost similar, just minus a bit of garlic flavour, which didn't really matter all that much actually. A very good side option!

They also provide extra sauce in bottles at each table like Nando's and there happened to be Tangy Lemon available! This was such a plus for this restaurant, as Nando's never seems to have Lemon & Herb as a sauce in the bottles on their tables, so we were loving this option. This came in handy especially for the white meat as those portions are typically dryer and require sauce. 

The staff at the counter were very friendly and helpful. We made it clear that it was our first time at a Barcelos and that we were fans of Nando's, but they were very welcoming and spoke to us about their chicken and that they were going to open more locations in BC in the near future. This would be good as they only have the Surrey location right now, and I think opening up some in Vancouver would definitely draw some away from Nandos to go here instead for the slightly cheaper prices and Mobile Bandit deals (also Tangy Lemon sauce). Some of my teammates were very loud during our stay and I'd like to take this chance to apologize for their loudness as they can get a bit rowdy! The staff were very polite and accommodating to us.

Overall this restaurant was a pleasant surprise as it was a lot better than what I thought it would be like! Their food was amazing and is very similar to Nando's. Their service was awesome for a restaurant that you order from the counter. Their prices were lower than Nando's which puts Barcelos higher than Nando's in my books! If they open up their Vancouver location soon, I'm sure my team will be hitting up Barcelos for post practice/game meals instead!

Food:
5/5

Service:
4/5

Price:
$-$$

Overall:
4.5/5

Thanks for reading everyone! Let me know what you think of Barcelos if you've been there and if you agree with my review. Munch on!
- Phil

Bonus: Pic of some of my teammates!