When Steven Chicken walked into the branch of his local Nando's, he added his name to the waiting list and hung about until a waiter was able to seat him.
But the hungry diner, who visited a branch of Nando's in West Yorkshire, would have to wait longer than expected.
That's because a member of staff at the West Yorkshire branch of the popular chicken chain took one look at the waiting list and assumed Steven's name must have been some kind of prank.
So, instead of seating him, they skipped right over his name on the list and went to help someone else, the Mirror report s.
Mr Chicken is a reporter for ExaminerLive , and tweeted about the incident and his post quickly went viral.
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 135,000 people liked his post, and more than 11,000 retweeted it.
He later added that they soon got it all sorted and there were no hard feelings over the error.
"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 added.
"Then we were also seated pretty much immediately."
Plenty of people had thoughts to add on the matter, including Burger King.
The fast food chain's UK Twitter account replied: "Change your surname to Steven Whopper and dinner's on us."
Others with unusual surnames then began sharing the awkward situations they'd found themselves in at restaurants.
One person, named Wai Ting, said: "At least you can avoid Nando's. I have to avoid lists."
Someone called Ed Cumming wrote: "Don't even get me started."
Matt Nurse said he experiences the same problem whenever he visits a hospital.
A woman whose surname was also Chicken admitted she could relate to the situation.
She recalled a time she worked in a supermarket and a customer complained about a rotisserie chicken, saying: "Mate. I used to work in a supermarket. Customer complained about a rotisserie chicken - got half way through his rant and clocked my name badge. Accused me of taking the piss deliberately. Yeah, like I carry an assortment of product name badges just to mess with you."
A man named Frankie Gunn added: "My sister is a police detective, it was very helpful when she got married. Radio protocol was challenging."
