I was really excited when I found out a Nando’s was coming to Southend. Not because I’m a huge lover of piri piri chicken, but because it meant that there would be increased dining options on Southend’s high street and we would be able to have something other than burgers or pizza if we fancied lunch out.

Whenever a restaurant opens I expect some teething problems, but Nando’s problems have persisted for almost one year and I expect they won’t get any better.

We have tried phoning our orders in advance for my husband to collect and every time he’s returned home to find that we are missing several dishes or have some wrong items. Now, some would ask why he didn’t check the order after the first or second time the restaurant made the same mistake ….

We have tried dining in at weekend lunch-times, found the service to be pitifully slow and quite often receive the wrong orders.

Is it just us?! I don’t understand why they should have such problems - they only serve chicken!

All of the staff are really friendly, stopping to make a fuss of the kids and making sure that they’ve got crayons and colouring paper when our meals seem to be taking a long time, but friendly staff is not a good enough reason to give this place any more chances.