Say piri-piri or peri-peri, and most brains would instantly go NANDO’S! If you’re Brit, the love for Nando’s chicken, ‘slaw, spicy rice and chips is intense and not to be underestimated. Let’s not forget the phrase “Cheeky Nando’s” which caused confusion of epic proportions for Americans and snowballed into many of us having to painfully explain the meaning/ talk extensively about our Nando’s obsession.
But why Hong Kong, why no Nando’s?! My friends’ and my cries have not been heard- how rude, but before you hop onto a plane to Singapore or Malaysia for your piri-piri fix, thankfully there is somewhere in HK that serves that most delicious spicy- sweet marinated chicken. Flaming Frango on Staunton Street, Soho, is probably the closest thing to Nando’s we’re going to get and aside from their classic piri-piri chicken and sides, they have now expanded their menu to include new appetisers, burgers and wraps.
Flaming Frango is fairly compact inside, and the walls are a flaming red to match the name. There is an upstairs seating area, so don’t be alarmed if you walk in and wonder about space. Once settled, you can start with one of their cocktails like their refreshing Lychee and Lemongrass Colada, or you can get stuck right into the food. Their ‘Frango’ – ‘chicken’ in Portuguese, is marinated in their house-made piri-piri sauce for 24 hours and is obviously the main ingredient in most of their dishes.
I’d personally go straight for their house specials which involves their piri-piri chicken in various portion sizes, with a selection of sides you can add on. For 1/4 chicken with two sides it is $138, 1/2 chicken plus two sides is $198 and whole chicken with four sides is $360. They also have three home-made sauces- mint and coriander (really like this one), spicy and very hot. Whatever floats your boat! It would be perfect if they had a garlic sauce much like the one Nando’s serves.
For small bites, we tried the chicken and mushroom croquettes, which were little morsels of minced chicken and mushrooms served with pirioli, Portobello mushroom strips, piri-piri prawns and Halloumi cheese sticks. Of the four, the Portobello mushroom strips were the favourite- addictive, crisp mushroom slices which tasted even better in their pirioli sauce. The grilled prawns were juicy and cooked well but lacked in presentation, looking like two lonely, lost crustaceans on the plate. However, the real surprise was the Halloumi cheese stick…and not in the best way. They were alarmingly tiny; with each pan-grilled thumb-sized rectangle of halloumi topped with half a cherry tomato, my friend and I hardly thought the dish was worth a whopping $78!
Piri Piri Prawns
Halloumi cheese sticks
Portobello Mushroom Strips
Moving onto mains, we tried their new Sweet and Spicy chicken burger ($158) topped with pineapple and cheese and served with fries and coleslaw. I’m not a fan of non-classic burgers to be honest, and I found the chicken, whilst succulent, didn’t really do it for me in a burger form, especially with a pineapple slice inside. My friend however, rather enjoyed it (according to him pineapple slices in burgers are the best- sorry, I have to disagree), so I suppose one man’s pineapple, is another man’s poison. The fries were fantastic; those I demolished fairly swiftly and would happily have eaten another plate.
Sweet and Spicy Chicken
To end, we were served their house special of half a piri-piri chicken with their sauce selection and this was on point- meaty, succulent and tender meat.
Piri Piri Chicken
Flaming Frango does well with their piri-piri chicken, and it definitely helps to fill the void left by Nando’s. Price-wise, I’d say their house specials are worth it, but I do question the price of some of the other dishes. Service is haphazard and the air-con or lack thereof the night we went, made it difficult to fully enjoy our dinner, especially in the heat we’ve been experiencing lately. Work those kinks out, and I think Flaming Frango is a good place for a cheeky Nando’s substitute.
Chopstixfix rating: 3/5
Flaming Frango, G/F, 36B Staunton Street, Soho, Central, Hong Kong/Tel: +852 2899 2244/ www.facebook.com/flamingfrango
This tasting was by kind invitation.
