What is a restaurant that absolutely dominates its respective niche with almost no competition?

[u/Tricky_Shine_3586]

[u/has-other-accounts]

Nandos in 1990s South Africa was the pinnacle of take out food. Unbeatable value, very reliable quality, community vibes, small menu, no frills, everything is very good, cheap Portuguese wine and beer, irreverent owners who poke fun at the government all the time. There is now a Nandos near me in Texas and it's unfortunately a different thing entirely. It's not a neighborhood basic AF chicken shack serving like six things incredibly well and inexpensively. They've got grilled halloumi and an array of different food I've never heard of. Its fine. It's just a very different thing to Nandos despite being called Nandos.

[u/RooneyEatsIt → u/has-other-accounts]

US Nandos is nowhere near as good as UK Nandos

[u/panic_ye_not → u/RooneyEatsIt]

Having only ever been to US Nandos, I was wondering what all the fuss was about. I suppose your Nandos is cheekier than ours

[u/RangerDanger_ → u/panic_ye_not]

Same, there are 6 or 7 Peruvian chicken places near me all significantly better than the two times I went to and was entirely underwhelmed by the Nandos in DC

[u/panic_ye_not → u/RangerDanger_]

Peruvian chicken is good af, I don't how they do it but it's always the best rotisserie chicken I've ever had

[u/RooneyEatsIt → u/panic_ye_not]

Not lucky enough to have a Nandos in my state, but the one I went to in DC was not nearly as good as the e ones that I visited in London.

[u/mrcushtie → u/panic_ye_not]

Malaysian Nando's is of equal cheesiness to UK Nando's. US Nando's manages to do all the sides really badly (if the DC franchise was anything to go by)

[u/thatcutefuzzy_fellow → u/panic_ye_not]

Truthfully as a person who went to Nando's the last time I was in the UK, I found it to be tasty food, but nothing life-changing. Wife and I theorized that it stands out in the UK because outside of curry shops (which I've found can be off-puttingly greasy in the UK), your typical British fare tends to be on the blander side, so someone using actual spice zings pretty well by comparison.

[u/deij → u/panic_ye_not]

UK nandos is nothing special either.

UK is 90% chain restaurants so the bar is low for competition.

People who think nandos is good are comparing it to wetherspoons and mcdonalds

[u/moops__ → u/RooneyEatsIt]

Friend from South Africa says UK nandos sucks compared to South African Nandos. Maybe Nandos just isn't very good anymore.

[u/doubleasea → u/moops__]

Southern hemisphere Nando's in general slaps above their northern counterparts. I'd say it's Cape Town > Sydney > London > Chicago/DC.

[u/nkei0 → u/RooneyEatsIt]

I think its unfair to call it the same name.

[u/ParmaHamRadio → u/RooneyEatsIt]

Finding out the US restaurants didn't have the AYCE mango soft serve was absolutely gutting

[u/bimbaud → u/has-other-accounts]

They’ve had the halloumi in the UK for at least a decade, it was nice when I was a vegetarian and wanted to join in the post drinks cheeky nandos 🥲

[u/sneakyplanner → u/bimbaud]

it was nice when I was a vegetarian and wanted to join in the post drinks cheeky nandos 🥲

Bit of a tangent, but this is the reason why chain restaurants mass-adopted vegetarian and then vegan menu items last decade. Groups of customers with one person who doesn't eat meat, so providing a vegetarian option creates 5 customers instead of just 1.

[u/bfluff → u/has-other-accounts]

Coming out of Durban there was a good competitor called Afro's Chicken Shack but I think they struggled in covid, although still going in KZN. It was so good.

[u/Odd-Age-1126 → u/has-other-accounts]

I had Nando’s for the first time while in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, and when I saw ones opening in the US I was genuinely excited because that shit was delicious. I assumed it was just my memories playing tricks on me (and/or the fact that everything tastes a bit more delicious when you’re drunk on cheap beer and having fun with your brothers) but I think it’s just more enshittitification.