A COLLEAGUE of a 'service with a smile' nominee believes he deserves the award and reveals his reaction to receiving the nomination was 'over-the-top'.

Strada, located by the Oracle, was nominated for two awards as part of this years Reading Retail Awards.

One of its employees, Maria Janeiro, was pleased the company she had chosen to work for had been nominated for Restaurant of the Year, and that one of her favourite colleagues was nominated for 'service with a smile.'

She said: “It is a nice feeling that the restaurant I chose to work for is nominated for the award of restaurant of the year. They deserve to win, it's a lovely place to work.”

“Diaz Miah was nominated for 'service with a smile' and he is a very energetic and smart guy.

“It is very nice to work with him, he is a lovely guy and he makes everyone happy and we have a fun old time with him.”

“He is very smiley, he smiles to everyone. When you work with people you want to make them happy too. You want them to have a good experience with us so all the staff make sure we smile a lot.

“When he found out he was nominated his reaction was over the top. In a good way. He was very excited.”