we wanted to find out all the differences

between Nando's in the UK and the US.

This is "Food Wars."

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."

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.

USA chicken, baby!

We can also get boneless thighs in the UK.

If you order these, they come in a portion of four.

Our thighs actually come as a portion of three.

So we got one, two, three.

♪ 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.

Cameraperson: But you are a celebrity now.

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.

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.

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.

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]

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.

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.

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.

That's right, buddy!

I heard you say fries!

This show is getting to me.

[beep]

A portion of large chips in the UK comes to about 498 grams.

Medha: 150 grams.

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.

The biggest US item is the jumbo platter.

It includes two whole chickens

with two extra-large sides

for $52.99.

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.

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.

Ugh, I hate peas.

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.

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.

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.

Dude, a burger with garlic bread for a bun?

That sounds so good.

That is a genius idea. Send me that.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nice.

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.

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.

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.

Not nice.

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.

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