Restaurant Review: Roosters Piri Piri, Epsom

Did you see the Martian? It’s a great film – one I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy, as my fiancé said it was based on a science fiction book he’d read and enjoyed but was quite technical – but it was really very good. Matt Damon is excellent and quite possibly in line for an Oscar nomination and the storyline – which at times often involves little more than ‘man trying to grow potatoes’ – is fascinating.

We were pretty busy the weekend it came out; in fact I’d been away in Wiltshire and Hampshire for the weekend, but we don’t really get time to go to the cinema during the week so when my fiancé picked me up from the train station on Sunday evening we spontaneously decided to see the film that evening.

There was no time to cook dinner at home and not really enough time for a restaurant – we prefer to go to the cinema in Epsom and by the time we got there had less than an hour before the film. We thought that dinner might have to be McDonald’s – which actually we would both quite enjoy, but it didn’t seem very inspired – until I spotted a place called Roosters Piri Piri.

It looked a bit like a Nando’s and indeed their main offerings are chicken burgers. But they have what they call a ‘uniquely British spin’ on their dishes, for instance offering sides like roast vegetables and mashed potato, not just fries.

We were in such a hurry that we didn't even read the whole menu and went for chicken burgers, but looking at the website it seems they have falafel, lamb, beef - all sorts. Like Nando's, there is a choice of seasoning, from lemon and herb to extra hot; I had lemon and herb and thought the chicken burger was very nice, but my fiancé wasn't impressed with the amount of fries and said he preferred the burger at Nando's. Still, it was a nice change and as we didn't have much time and service was fast, I think the best choice for the evening.