I know I should not really be advocating a trip to a chain resturant, but on this occasion I am going to make an exception for Rooster’s Piri Piri. They have a tagline “Changing fast food for good”, now I have to be honest I am not sure that I wanted anyone to change my fast food. It is not even a guilty pleasure any more, I am more than happy to turn that blind eye as I munch down on some random animal part stuffed between two bits of bread. I can choose to go to nicer places or cook at home when I need to, but when it gets dark and no-one is around I do quite like to slip into the nearest fast food outlet and basically slum it culinarily wise.
Having said all of that I am not even sure that Rooster’s Piri Piri is really fast food as we would typically describe it. They describe themselves as “a chain of casual dining, quick-service and takeaway restaurants….specialising in our own spicy grilled Piri Piri chicken, but also serve gourmet burgers, grilled specialities and vegetarian meals.”
As this was my first visit into Roosters I felt that I have to test them by sampling their signature offering. I ordered a Piri Piri Chicken Breast burger sandwich for £3.49. I do like the Piri Piri sauce, typically it is made from crushed chillies, citrus peel, onion, garlic, pepper, salt, lemon juice, bay leaves, paprika, pimiento, basil, oregano, and tarragon.They say that their “delicious signature Piri Piri chicken is marinated for 24 hours, steam cooked and then finished off on the grill” There was a choice of sauces that you could select for your chicken to be finished in those were Lemon & Herb, Medium, Hot, and Extra Hot. I played it really safe and went for the Lemon & Herb sauce, and you know I am really glad that I did. It was certainly spicy enough for me just with that addition to the Piri Piri marinated chicken. Heaven only knows how spicy the other choices would be, I would suggest painfully spicy would be the answer.
Anyhow if I had not enjoyed this sandwich so much I would not have even been contemplating writing about it on the blog, but you know it was really good. The spicy piri piri chicken was pretty hot and the lemon & herb sauce just cut into that spice and kind of eased the heat slightly. It was genuinely mouth watering, there was a really good citric tang that had the juices flowing in my mouth. In some ways I wish that it had not been quite so good as now I am going to have to come back here to try some of the other stuff that they have to offer.
So overall I cannot really say that this is fast food, my friend ordered one of their Gourmet burgers which is a 60z fine cut prime beef patty and this was cooked fresh and took about 10 minutes to cook, which we were told about. It was about the same for my chicken, and I for one was quite happy about that. They were surprisingly good sandwiches.
Roosters Piri Piri has opened up at 4-5 Angel Row in Nottingham, just up from the Old Market Square. Closest Tram Stops will be in the Old Market Square and at the Royal Centre.
They claim that “Roosters Piri Piri want to offer you delicious, fast healthy food. We are inspired by street food found all over the world, cooked quickly with fresh ingredients and served hot.”
Fine sentiments, lets see how they get on