Every difference between UK and US Nando's including portion sizes, calories, and exclusive items

• We tried everything on the UK and US Nando's menus to find out the big differences between the two.
• While the two fast food chains look similar on the surface there were differences between the sizes, calories, and ingredients.

Following is a transcript of the video:

Harry: From calorie count to portion sizes, we wanted to find out all the differences between Nando's in the UK and the US. This is "Food Wars."

Joe: OK, slight problem. Nando's is in the US, but it's only in four places: Maryland, Illinois, Virginia, and Washington, DC. Now, I'm in LA, baby. I'm on the wrong side of the Mississippi. But luckily I have a colleague who is a Nando's enthusiast in Chicago. She frequented Nando's when she was living in South Africa and is perfect for taking the US reins for this episode of "Food Wars."

Medha: Don't do "Food Wars" without eating breakfast, I realize. Yeah, I've made that mistake several times. In the UK, Nando's chicken comes in three serving sizes: a quarter of a chicken...

Medha: In the US, Nando's standard chicken comes in just two sizes: there's a half a chicken...

Harry: A whole chicken.

Medha: Or a fourth of a chicken. You can get a whole chicken in the US, but only as part of a platter. And we're going to weigh the whole chicken to see which country's chickens are bigger.

Joe: USA chicken, baby!

Harry: We can also get boneless thighs in the UK. If you order these, they come in a portion of four.

Medha: Our thighs actually come as a portion of three. So we got one, two, three.

Harry: ♪ Chicken, chicken wings ♪ ♪ They're my favorite thing ♪ ♪ And I love to sing ♪
If you haven't already seen it, look up "The Nando's Skank," which is a very pure distillation of British culture in the late '00s. It's Ed Sheeran and Example rapping, rapping about Nando's in a car park. I don't know why. And then he's just flexing his black card, which I'm fuming about, 'cause, you know, Nando's black card, they give them out to select individuals, and it entitles you to free Nando's, which I'm just so jealous of. Also, bone to pick with that in general, why do they always give the celebrities the free stuff? Because they're the people who need it least. They're already rich. Sort a guy out, come on. I'm not a celebrity. Not yet. Next up in the UK, we've got wings. They come in four portions: portion of three.

Medha: Our wings come as a serving of 12.

Harry: A portion of five. Medha: Or a serving of 24.

Harry: A portion of 10. Or a portion of 15. If chicken on the bone isn't for you, Nando's also offers chicken in the form of burgers, wraps, and pitas. In the UK, you can get these as singles or as doubles.

Medha: We can also get our chicken wrapped or burgered. However, in the US, there's no option to add double chicken, which sucks. It's like a little burrito.
Holy.... Don't do "Food Wars" without eating breakfast. I'm going to cry.

Harry: We're going to remove all the toppings from the single chicken burger and weigh it to see how it compares to the US version.

Medha: So, we're gonna take out the tomato and the lettuce, just like

Harry mentioned. Which is good because tomato does not belong on burgers and never should. On the side of your chicken, it's pretty common to get some chips at Nando's. I'm excited for this episode, because I can actually call them chips for once, as that's what they're referred to on the US menu. Suck it, Joe.

Medha: Suck it, Joe!

Joe: What did I do? [all laugh] Why is everyone telling me to suck it? [laughing]

Harry: He's not even hosting this episode. I've just gotta send for him. [beep]

Chips in the UK come in regular or large sizes.

Medha: The standard US sizes are regular and large. However, if you get them as part of a platter, you can get the bonus extra-large size. Let's weigh the large fries to see whose is bigger. Maybe I should have used the bowl. Oh, no. I'm still going to eat these. I don't care if they touch all these gross.... Where is it? OK.

Harry:I'm getting too good at emptying brick chips from containers. So, our scale is just about adequate for this one, and a portion of large fries in the UK - I said fries. Why did I say fries? I'm being conditioned to saying fries.

Joe: That's right, buddy! I heard you say fries!

Harry: This show is getting to me. [beep]
A portion of large chips in the UK comes to about 498 grams.

Medha: 150 grams.

Harry: What about the biggest thing on each country's menu? Well, in the UK, it's this: the family platter. It comes with two whole chickens, five large sides, and will cost you 43 pounds and 70 pence.

Medha: The biggest US item is the jumbo platter. It includes two whole chickens with two extra-large sides for $52.99.

Harry: Let's take a look at some of the nutritional standouts from the Nando's menu. If you were to get a standard meal, it might look something like this: half a chicken, a portion of peri-salted chips, and a portion of Macho peas. In the UK, this will come to a total of 1,228 calories, which honestly isn't too bad. There's also nothing really alarming on that. The only notable thing is that it contains 186.4% of your daily protein intake.

Medha: Over here it comes out to 1,124 calories, which is actually a little less than the UK's version. Our chicken and chips are actually a little less calorific than the UK's, but for some reason, our Macho peas are more calorific. What's the sitch? Already I can tell there's a bunch of spices and seasoning on the peas. I'm thinking butter is involved.

Joe: Ugh, I hate peas.

Medha: That is not what I was expecting. It does have a kick to it. Based on the ingredients, there's not really anything alarming that we see in the US version either. There's just a lot of sodium in it, which is kind of expected because of all the spices and the seasoning that goes into it. One thing to watch out for is the basting flavor of your chicken. Somehow, if you get your chicken as extra hot in the US, it adds 4,611 milligrams of sodium. That's double your daily allowance, just for the baste.

Joe: That's so much sodium.

Medha: That's insane.

Harry: What about the most calorific thing on the UK menu? Well, it might not surprise you to learn that it's actually a whole chicken. Extra hot is also the least healthy baste in the UK, with an extra-hot whole chicken coming in at 1,299 calories.

Medha: However, a whole chicken actually isn't the most calorific thing on the menu in the US. This is the Nandoca's Choice burger, which is a butterflied chicken breast and coleslaw in between garlic-bread buns.

Joe: Dude, a burger with garlic bread for a bun? That sounds so good. That is a genius idea. Send me that.

Medha: One of these comes at 1,003 calories. It looks like the main culprit here is the garlic-bread buns. On the US menu, the garlic bread is the most calorific regular side, and it's the highest-cholesterol side as well. Kinda wanna try it. It's not what you would expect. It's not like US garlic bread.

Harry: That's a little strange, as the UK's most calorific side is actually the peri-salted chips. These come in at 519 calories, whereas the garlic bread is only 362. What are you guys doing to your garlic bread? I think we're just making our garlic bread tastier.

Medha: It feels like you're trying to attack me, Harry. Trying to attack the US. We don't like that.
While the garlic bread may be high in cholesterol, it pales in comparison to one item in that area, which is the chicken livers. One serving of these contain 978 milligrams of cholesterol, comfortably the highest thing on the menu. More than triple your daily recommended amount.

Harry: UK Nando's don't disclose cholesterol content, but they do disclose fat content. The fattiest thing on the menu is, once again, the whole chicken. One of these contains 54.4 grams of fat, which is around 69% of your daily allowance.

[whispering] Nice. Nice.

Medha: [whispering] I wanna try that too.

Harry: Nice. Nice.

Joe: Nice.

Haryy: OK.
Unfortunately, Nando's doesn't disclose the full ingredients list in the UK. Same here. All we get are allergens, and the allergen list doesn't contain anything too alarming.

Medha: We reached out to Nando's for more information about the ingredients. They told us that all their chicken meets or exceeds USDA quality standards and is never frozen. They also grow their own African bird's eye chilies on farms across South Africa for an authentic peri-peri spice.

Harry: One piece of information you can get from the UK's FAQ page is that the plant-based Great Imitator wrap might not actually be as plant-based as it seems. The baste and the tortilla wrap used both contain shellac. Now, shellac is also sometimes called confectioner's glaze, and it's a natural polymer that's used to give things a waxy finish and to trap in moisture, but where does shellac actually come from? Well, it's actually secreted by female lac beetles onto trees in India and Thailand. This means it's technically an animal product, and although it can be gathered without harming the beetles, this is hard to achieve in practice.

Joe: Not nice.

Harry: It's worth pointing out one other FAQ from the UK page, which is that the UK Nando's have explicitly committed to never using chlorinated chicken from America. Chlorinated chicken's been in the headlines a lot recently because it's kind of become the face of differing food standards between the UK and the US. It refers to the process of giving slaughtered chickens a chemical wash before they're packaged and sent to consumers.

Medha: What do you guys have against our chlorinated chicken? JK. Joking. You're gonna see. There's so many things against our chlorinated chicken.
This is done to kill harmful bacteria like salmonella. Even the European Union admits that it's unlikely to pose any health risk to consumers. But campaigners say that it also allows farmers to cover up lower production standards throughout the chicken-rearing process. The good news is that it's estimated only 10% of US chicken actually gets treated with chlorine. So it's not a guarantee that Nando's chicken in the US will have been through the process, but it's an interesting example of the different food standards in the UK and the US.

Joe: Chicken tastes pretty good over here, so, it is what it is.

Harry: Here is everything you will only find on the menu at a UK Nando's.

Medha: And here's everything you can only find on the menu at a US Nando's.

Harry: Let's start with some chicken options. Here we got the Sunset Burger, which is currently, I believe, exclusive to delivery platforms. This is a soft roll. And then it also contains chicken thighs, cheddar cheese, red pepper chutney, mayo, and lettuce. Next up, we've got Chicken Wing Roulette. Now, what this is, is 10 chicken wings of varying spice levels. The idea, I guess, is that you order a plate of these for yourself and your friends, you all pick one or two, and the loser gets blasted with some extra-hot sauce. Now, obviously we have to try this ourselves. So myself and our cameraperson, Laura, are going to give this a go and see who loses.

Laura: Are we doing this now?

Harry: I think we are.

Laura: All right. OK that one looks... yeah, you're going dangerous, aren't you?

Harry: I'm going for, like, a menacingly red one. Laura: Yes, you are.

Laura: I'm going for the less menacing-looking one.

Harry: Well, hopefully it's a red herring and I've done this to deceive you.

Harry: Cheers.

Laura: Cheers.

Laura: Absolutely fine.

Harry: It was OK?

Laura: Yeah. It is spicy.

Harry: It's not, like, blowing my head off. I feel like mine's maybe hot? But if that's extra hot, then I'm, like, very underwhelmed. Slight anticlimax. I think Laura maybe just got, like, a medium or a plain one, because she was not fazed at all. I think maybe I got hot? If that was extra hot, I'm very disappointed. All I'll say.

Joe: Little cocky there, buddy.
So, I got myself a bottle of the Nando's Peri-Peri XX hot sauce, and I too want to try the spiciest level that they offer. OK. Whoop, that might've been too much. That's extra hot, huh? No, not very strong. I like the flavor a lot on it, but -- wait. Hm, definitely manageable. Yeah. I mean, like, I love the flavor of all this stuff. It's just not that hot. [sneezes]

Harry: Now, for those of you who think I got off lightly and actually want to see me in pain, you're in luck, because in the UK we have an exclusive spice level that goes above extra hot. Here we have three chicken wings coated in Vusa XX sauce, which is one level above extra hot on the Nando's Peri-ometer. These already look hotter than anything that was in the roulette box. There's lots of chili flakes on them that are visible, and it's just that kind of, like, alarming red color that if you see a snake that color, you're supposed to run away from.

Laura: Aren't you suppose to run from all snakes?

Harry: Some snakes are friendly. [laughs] Grass snakes. Grass snakes are cool. And, of course, because I hate myself, I'm going to try one of these. They didn't give us gloves, like they did in the Wingstop episode, which I guess is a good sign? I'm not great with spice, so let's see how this goes.
Hm. Bit of a slow burn. Really slow burn. Not really getting much from this, I'll be honest. Maybe if I just rub my eyes. I'm not really getting it. That's disappointing. I, like I say, I'm not good with spice. But I'm handling that with ease. Nando's, come on. It would have made for better content if you made me cry, guys, so. It's about the same as what I got from there.

Medha: Y'all tried your really hot wings, right? Well, I just wanted a taste of the hot sauce that they provided us with here. If I can get it open at any point in my life. Ah. Holy.... Nando's peri-peri sauce, hot. Gluten-free.
[coughs] Excuse me. [coughs]
Committing su- [laughs and coughs]

Cameraperson: Is it that spicy?

Medha: No. That's for the camera. [laughing]
I should get an Oscar. [crowd cheers]
It was a little hot. But it wasn't, like, too hot, like I'm dying.

Cameraperson: It's kinda spicy.

Medha: I did that to trick you. Do you see how I became a double agent? I actually did have a reaction. It just hits you in the throat. It's like...[whacks throat]

Harry: Now, at the other end of the heat scale from Vusa, we have one more exclusive baste, which is the Peri-Tamer. This is described as mild and sweet, and it's just for people who don't really like spice. And then finally we have something that isn't technically chicken, but more of a chicken replacement. This is the Great Imitator wrap. It contains imitation chicken made from pea protein.

Medha: So, we have some exclusive chicken items of our own, Harry. We can get these chicken thigh skewers, which come with red pepper and onions, and they look salivating. We can also get these chicken livers, which you won't currently find on the UK menu due to the pandemic. The Thigh and Mighty sandwich. Then we can get a chicken Caesar in the form of a wrap or a pita bread. Also got a lot of salad bowls, and that you won't find in the UK. There's a peri-peri chicken tender bowl, an ancient grains bowl, a chicken Caesar salad, a tomato and Halloumi salad, and chicken and avocado and pepper roasted bowl, and a cauliflower, butternut, and Halloumi salad. It's just, like, a lot of salad. That's not my cup of tea. This is my cup of tea.

Harry: We have two exclusive appetizers in the UK. Firstly, we have Halloumi sticks with a chili jam dip, and then we have some sweet potato wedges, which are served with a garlic Perinaise. I do not like sweet potato. I wish people would stop serving it on menus. It is always worse than chips and always costs more.

Medha: So, we only get the one exclusive appetizer: the garlic sticks.

Harry: On the side of your meal in the UK, we have a few exclusive sides, such as corn on the cob, some long-stem broccoli, spicy rice, and finally we have some coleslaw.

Medha: Our exclusive sides are a Caesar side salad, Portuguese rice, winter roasted veggies, butternut squash, and corn, and braised brussels sprouts.

Harry: Now, in addition to the Vusa sauce, we also have garlic Perinaise, as I mentioned, which comes with the sweet potato wedges, and we have this one, which is a peri barbecue sauce.

Medha: The only exclusive sauce we have is a coconut lemon peri-peri sauce.

Harry: It would take a while to go through all of the exclusive drinks, so we're just going to show you some highlights, such as this. This is a Gingerella, which is an organic ginger ale. Nix & Kix sparkling cucumber-mint drink with a hint of cayenne. And, of course, we have this one, which is a Royal Flush kombucha. Now, I personally like kombucha. I know it's a little bit divisive, but it's pretty good. We can also get alcohol from a UK Nando's. We've got some lager, some pilsner, an IPA, and a white wine.

Medha: La Croix, and Bundaberg ginger beer, this Honest iced tea, as well as a Mexican Coke, which, throw me the bottle opener! We also got alcohol too. We got beer and wine. We can get rose sangria and spiked lemonade. Nice. And our only exclusive dessert option is this Barely Baked brownie.

Harry: Let's finish out with the desserts. In the UK, you can close out your meal with a slice of Choc-A-Lot cake, which is really good. It's very moist. With a slice of white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake, and finally a gooey caramel cheesecake.
I thought I'd have a crack at explaining the whole "cheeky Nando's" phenomenon to our viewers from across the pond. If you were on the internet, like, five or 10 years ago, you've probably seen this phrase. It just kind of refers to this time where cheeky Nando's with the lads was just the go-to activity. It was like, mostly teenage boys would go into town for a day out, wander around the shops, end up in Nando's, have a meal, and then usually Instagram or Snapchat it with the caption "cheeky Nando's with the lads" with this emoji.

Medha: I'm going to make that my next Instagram caption. Cheeky Nando's with the lads. Clancy's my lad. Come here, Clancy. [laughs] Cheeky Nando's with the lads!

["The Nando's Skank" plays]

Medha: Harry, you gotta bust a move more. ["The Nando's Skank" plays] ♪ Chicken ♪

Joe: Yeah, no thanks on that, guys. Uh, no, thanks.

♪ And I love to sing ♪ That's quite enough of that. [laughs] ♪ Chicken wings ♪ ♪ They're my favorite thing ♪ ♪ And I love to sing ♪

Joe: All right! Another "Food Wars" episode where I did almost nothing. I could get used to this. [groans]