Taco Bell, the Mexican-themed restaurant chain, is to open its first site in the UK.

The opening - at the Lakeside Shopping Centre in Essex - is scheduled for next month, with the restaurant offering a range of fast food such as tacos, burritos, nachos and quesadillas. Taco Bell - part of the US-owned Yum! Brands group which also owns KFC and Pizza Hut - has had a presence in the UK before. It opened outlets in London and Birmingham in the late 1980s but all had closed within a few years.

The company currently operates more than 250 restaurants outside of the US and around 5,600 restaurants in the US itself. A spokesperson declined to comment on the potential size of the brand's UK rollout but said Lakeside was "just the start of our plans for this country". He added that Taco Bell believed the growing demand for a non-burger fast-food option would help it to develop a 'significant presence' in the country.