Peri-Peri Grill House

Remember college? Fairly young, fairly naive, knees and back that still don’t give out on you, but ultimately — broke.  So it’s natural that any meal above a 100 bucks seemed like a fortune back then.  Although I’m still almost as cheap as I was back in the day, I find myself a lot more willing to splurge the extra couple of 100 bucks now and then.

And that’s exactly how I felt about Peri-Peri Grill House back in the day.  Walk along Promenade, glance at the menu outside, see 300 bucks, then keep walking.  I finally went in last week¹ and here’s my take.

Peri peri or piri piri² chicken is arguably the national dish in Mozambique and in some parts of the African region.  It’s your basic grilled chicken over charcoal or wood fire basted in the piri piri sauce.  It’s supposed to be blistering hot from the main ingredient — the African Bird’s Eye Chili.  The sauce is basically made of peanut oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, tomato, and the aforementioned piri piri chili.

I seriously doubt Peri-Peri Grill House’s is remotely close to the real thing, but I guess without any real basis to compare, let’s take it for what it is.  We got the Peri Chicken Combo 2 (P330.00 or $7.35), which comes with 1/2 grilled chicken and 2 side dishes of your choice.   You have your choice of basting whether lemon and garlic (their specialty), the mild, or the hot.  Call me a puss or call it a choice of getting the house specialty, I went for the lemon and garlic basted chicken.

The chicken was OK.  I half expected for it to be dry but it was nice and had a hint of citrus flavor from the lemon baste.  Portion-wise, it was OK to feed about 2 people.  The sides were nothing special, but weren’t inedible.

I usually say that the star of the show is protein, but in this case, it’s really all about the piri piri sauce.  They put 3 bottles of chili sauce in front of you.  A mild variety, a hot variety, and some chili oil.   They serve the chicken with a small bowl of gravy, which is basically for the puss.  No heat whatsoever.

I found the piri piri sauce to be quite unique.  The mild has some heat to it, but not really overpowering.  I even bought a bottle home for around P75.00 (or $1.65).  The hot one wasn’t immensely hotter but had more of a kick to it.  But the chili oil — god damn!  Easily the hottest thing on the table, but I would think there would be more than a handful of people who will find it tolerable at the very least.

Their House Blend Iced Tea isn’t bad at all.  It’s not your typically shitty Nestea Iced Tea (which I totally expected) and it comes with 1 free refill.

Overall, I found myself surprisingly satisfied.  I really half expected it to suck but it’s good value for a meal³.  The chicken itself isn’t spectacular but like I said — the piri piri sauce is the real star of the show.  I’d say don’t puss out and go for the mild or hot baste and drown your chicken in the piri piri sauce (like what we guys do in KFC).  I know I will.

Peri-Peri Grill House 2012-08-17

emember college? Fairly young, fairly naive, knees and back that still don’t give out on you, but ultimately — broke.  So it’s natural that any meal above a 100 bucks seemed like a fortune back then.  Although I’m still almost as cheap as I was back in the day, I find myself a lot more …