Nando’s staff reject customer after hilarious name mix-up
Steven Chicken was after a cheeky Nando’s recently – but he nearly missed out after staff thought he was playing a prank.
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Staff at a Nando’s branch refused to seat a customer – because they didn’t believe his name was Mr Chicken.
Steven Chicken headed to his local branch of the fast food chain in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire in England recently, but the restaurant was at full capacity.
He added his name to a waiting list and decided to wait for a table to become free.
But when it came to his turn to be seated, a waiter – who saw the name Mr Chicken on the list – assumed it was a prank being played by a colleague.
The staff member skipped over his name and went to the next person on the list – creating a rather awkward moment for the unsuspecting waiter.
But Mr Chicken saw the funny side, sharing the incident on Twitter.
He wrote: “The waiter in Nando’s just skipped our name on the waiting list for a table because she thought it was a joke.”
More than 134,000 people liked his post, with over 11,000 retweeting it.
He later added that they soon got the mess straightened out and there were no hard feelings over the error.
Just to clarify, contrary to a headline I've just seen, we weren't refused service and didn't have anyone laughing in our face or anything like that. It was fine and nobody needs to get in trouble over it at all. pic.twitter.com/C4SBQZBOSx
— Steven Chicken (@StevenChicken) February 14, 2020
“It wasn’t a big deal at all really, but we knew we were meant to be next and we watched her pick up the clipboard, look confused, call the people after us, then go and ask her colleague, who had written our name down,” he said.
“Then we were also seated pretty much immediately.”
While hundreds of people shared their views on the story, Burger King chipped in with an interesting suggestion.
The fast food chain’s UK Twitter account replied: “Change your surname to Steven Whopper and dinner’s on us.”
It also prompted others with unusual surnames to share their awkward experiences – including Wai Ting, who said: “At least you can avoid Nando’s. I have to avoid lists.”
One woman, whose surname is also Chicken, recalled a time she worked in a supermarket and a customer complained about a rotisserie chicken.
“Mate. I used to work in a supermarket. Customer complained about a rotisserie chicken – got halfway through his rant and clocked my name badge,” she wrote.
“Accused me of taking the p**s deliberately. Yeah, like I carry an assortment of product name badges just to mess with you.”
This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission
Originally published as Nando’s staff reject customer after hilarious name mix-up