Restaurant Reco: New Mississauga restaurant has Portuguese chicken with a South African twist

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Published January 22, 2022 at 11:12 am

Anyone who’s been keeping up with these Restaurant Recos knows that I love chicken – it’s my number one favourite meat, with beef coming in as a close second. Give me a meal where I can customise the meat, and I’m choosing chicken almost every single time. So it’s always exciting to see new restaurants open in Mississauga with a focus on good chicken, especially if that chicken has something unique to offer.

Grillado’s, which recently opened its new location at 5165 Dixie Road, ticks both of those boxes. Before coming to Mississauga, the restaurant found success in Montreal with its selection of Portuguese grilled chicken and beef back ribs. The menu also has a variety of huge family platters, sandwiches, wraps, poutine, and sides such as fries, onion rings and potato wedges.

The restaurant’s Portuguese style chicken and ribs come with a South African twist: Their signature Peri Peri sauces. Brief history lesson: Peri Peri is a hot pepper originally produced by Portuguese explorers in Portugal’s former Southern African territories – particularly Mozambique and its border regions with South Africa – before eventually spreading to other Portuguese domains.

THE DISH:

For this Restaurant Reco I decided to try the Grilled 1/2 Chicken with a side of grilled veggies, served with Grillado’s Peri Peri sauce and Lemon & Herb sauce.

This is a fairly big and filling meal, with four large pieces of savoury grilled chicken that did not disappoint the avid chicken lover in me. The meat is perfectly grilled and well seasoned, offering a juicy and delicious taste. The sauce served on the side lets you further customise that taste to your liking – the Peri Peri sauce offers the perfect amount of heat and spice, while the Lemon & Herb sauce had a tangy and mildly sweet taste that was definitely unique. Combined together, it’s an amazing combination of flavours that left a nice, lasting impression on my taste buds. Other sauce options include mild, hot, extra hot, and BBQ sauce.

I also tried a side of grilled mixed veggies (including cucumbers, carrots, and peppers) which complemented the chicken very well and came in a generous amount. It was hard to choose a side, with a lot of delicious looking side options including fries, Peri fries, wedges, onion rings, coleslaw, spicy rice, and baked potato. The meal also comes with your choice of water, pop or iced tea, which is much appreciated to quench the thirst from the spice of the Peri Peri.

THE UNIQUE:

The new Mississauga restaurant is Grillado’s third location and first in Ontario, having found success in Montreal and Laval, Quebec. The menu features Portuguese grilled chicken and beef back ribs, family platters, sandwiches, wraps, poutine, sides such as fries, onion rings and potato wedges, and desserts such as Portuguese custard tarts, ice cream and cake. One of their more unique menu items is the Grilled Espetada: Marinated chicken and fresh peppers, served on an impressively large sword-like skewer. I didn’t get a chance to try it, but it’s on my list for whenever I get to dine inside the restaurant!

THE VERDICT:

Grillado’s chicken is some of the best Portuguese chicken I’ve tried and is great chicken overall, with perfectly grilled meat and flavourful sauces tying everything together. If you’re looking for something new to try in Mississauga, Grillado’s is well worth a shot.


  1. Grillado’s Mississauga
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