Don’t get me wrong Chiquitos is not fancy. And there’s no vibe whatsoever. We are always craving that lunchtime bistro brasserie you find in so many European cities the chic locals support every day because the food is so good, the staff are passionate, funny, individual and the atmosphere gossipy and buzzing. I know it’s Leicester. But why can’t we find a restaurant like that???

All that wishful thinking said, someone on here suggested trying Chiquitos in Braunstone, a chain based at Meridian for freshly prepared pretty well made nachos and tacos. To be honest we didn’t hold out a lot of hope.

When we arrived at around 12.30pm the place was empty. A big restaurant with no people on a Saturday would usually be a very bad sign. But the cost of living crisis and summer holiday spending was maybe the reason.

The conversation went like this as there was no server to greet us instead a dirty jey cloth and bottle of table cleaner on the host/hostess station.

“Shall we just go?” “Well we are here now”

We were hungry and had driven 30 minutes to get there.

When the server appeared we joked about being able to fit us in. He said they had only been open 30 minutes. A little embarrassed maybe asked us where we’d like to sit.

Saturday lunchtime, payday weekend and no people we were anticipating disaster.

We only ordered a large plate of nachos between two, £10.95 and a couple of Coronas, the plan; to eat and run.

When they arrived they looked particularly inviting and when we began to tuck in, even though the portion wasn’t stingy we wished we’d ordered one each as a main meal.

The chips were light crispy and salty, up there with the best tortilla chips and the toppings aside from the salsa which was out of a jar tasted very fresh. The great thing was the balance, just the right amount of chips for the toppings, pico de gallo, Cheese, sour cream, fresh guacamole, jalapeños and sweet red opinions, something I hadn’t had on nachos before but a tasty addition. They were a bit messy, by the time we got to the end, the best bit, the broken crunchy chips mixed in with all the other flavours we had found forks to devour the lot. Lick the plate clean literally. A word of warning, I did have to retreat to the bathroom mid meal to wash my white top out after spilling tomato and using the black napkin provided and water to clean it. The napkin made matters way worse as the napkin dye came out on my clothes and left a muddy stain wider than the tomato splatter.

We planned to have a pudding the brownie with ice cream served in a tortilla like a sweet burrito did appeal or brownie with popcorn, caramel sauce and chocolate ice cream was also calling. We decided they would probably be mass produced desserts with lots of E numbers and preservatives, that taste incredible in the moment but don’t digest properly afterwards and went for another plate of the nachos instead, this time the regular size at £7.95.

The smaller portion didn’t work out so well as the big one, not enough chips and too much of the jar salsa, the balance wasn’t right, too many of the red onions and no pico de gallo and jalapeños, maybe they were just made in a hurry or harder to get the combo right on a smaller plate.

That said the larger portion I would definitely return for, even in an empty restaurant the friendly server and the great Latin music made up for the lack of people. When we left a healthy tip he was genuinely surprised and really grateful. Enough for us to comment privately “clearly nobody tips.”

The decor reminded me of a beachy South American scene with colourful Mexican tiles around the bar and interesting art hung throughout, it did transport me. Maybe I need to get out more.

Or maybe Leicester just needs a few more great restaurants but Chiquito got enough right when it came to the food for me to go back. The nachos were the best I’ve tasted outside of Mexico in a long time.

And if the salsa had been home made I would have been returning within days. Even to dine alone.