Worthing Nando's review: We try out the town's newest restaurant – with pictures and video

I’ve been writing about the national chicken restaurant chain coming to our town for months, so it was going to be nice to finally try it out and see the finished renovation of the former Laura Ashley store.

But then it dawned on me that I couldn’t make it, as I was already out for my best friend’s birthday.

I thought I would just miss my chance, but then the team kindly invited me to try it out on Monday – opening night.

With so much excitement locally over the opening, I feared it would be busy, and my family and I would have to wait ages to be seated, and then wait ages for food. Thankfully, that just wasn’t the case.

There is a good system in place for checking in and entering a virtual queue for a table. And then, when you have a table, you can either order at the till or via the QR code on the table.

Restaurant manager Daniel Massey said the speedy and organised service is down to a new system in place in the kitchen, which orders the priority of each dish for them, allowing them to get every table’s food order out as quickly as possible and all in one go.

Despite serving more than 500 diners before we arrived at 5.30pm, Daniel showed me that the average wait for a table to receive its food that day had been just 12 minutes.

I think our order probably came even quicker than that, which was brilliant as my kids had already declared themselves ‘starving’.

The children’s menu is priced at what I thought was a reasonable £5.95 each. This includes a decent-sized main, which comes with two side dishes, and either a drink or a dessert.

My daughter opted for the beanie patty, and my son had the chicken burger. Children can either have them plain, with barbecue sauce, or choose from the adult-level spices – going from lemon and herb to extra hot.

They both found the food to be flavoursome, but it didn’t burn their mouths.

And they both loved the corn on the cob, which is blackened on the grill.

I had the halloumi sticks and dip (£4.50) as a started, and the grilled chicken pitta with chips and corn (£12.75) as a main course. Everyone loved the halloumi, so it was gone in a flash, and the chicken pitta was delicious and quite filling. As a bit of a spice wimp, I went with lemon and herb, which was just right for me.

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My husband opted for 10 chicken wings with chips and corn (£16.95) with medium spice, and said they were perfect. But they did beat him, so he took the last couple home for lunch the next day.

We had such a nice, relaxed meal and really enjoyed chatting with the team of staff. It’s perfect for a quick dinner and as somewhere to take the kids and not feel like they have to be super quiet.

Whether you’re a fan of restaurant chains, or spicy chicken, in my opinion Nando’s is a great addition to our town.

We’ll be back, for sure.