A CHINESE takeaway in Old Town has seen a surge in demand since the lockdown began.

Terry's Chinese Takeaway on Eastcott Road is struggling to keep up with the amount of new orders it's receiving, partly due to a lack of staff.

This had a knock-on effect on the meal delivery times and caused the occasional call to be missed as staff are busy preparing other orders in the kitchen.

But the takeaway's boss wants to reassure customers that the team is doing their best to keep going during this pandemic and will continue delivering food for the foreseeable future.

Manager Ella Zhao said: "We will stay open seven days a week with our contactless delivery service.

"The prime minister said that food workers are essential, so I think keeping our delivery food service open is helping the government and supplying meals is helping the national effort to provide food for people at home.

"I really care for all of my customers but last Friday and Saturday, I didn’t pick up all of the phone calls that came in because I really didn’t have time to talk with them because I needed my hands to wrap the chips and arrange the deliveries.

"This virus has led to a lack of staff but we promise that we will definitely deliver your food.

"The reason for food being delivered later than expected is that all orders come in at the same time and we just can’t cook that quickly to meet all of them at once.

"The Just Eat delivery time estimate for an order is set up the moment an order comes in and we can’t stop other orders coming at the same time as meeting the delivery time on the device.

"Because of this, all the orders end up being jammed together in a queue and people have to wait longer for their food to arrive.

"But we did and are doing our best, and in this difficult time, we hope our wonderful customers can be more patient. We will try another way to process the food orders and make them quicker but with the same high quality as always.

"We would like to apologise to all the customers who have received late food recently and promise that we will get better and better at meeting this high demand.

"Lastly - and most importantly - all my staff and myself would like to say a huge thank-you to everyone working for the NHS during the coronavirus situation.

"They are real superheroes. We respect them and we love them!

"We're sending our best wishes for every family and hope you all stay safe."