The county's first Tim Hortons is opening later this week.

The Canadian coffee shop brand will be welcoming customers at 7am on Wednesday to its drive-thru at Imperial Retail Park, Gravesend.

Ahead of the opening date, KentOnline's Alex Langridge was invited to take a first look inside the store and try out some of its menu...

Arriving at 9.30am, I was just in time for breakfast and ordered the Big Breakfast Wrap which included bacon, sausage, egg, a hash brown, cheese and sauce.

The meal came with a side of hash brown and a speciality hot drink – which can be upgraded to another choice – or an orange juice for £3.79.

Not being a fan of coffee I was told to try Canada's favourite French Vanilla as it was only 2% coffee. It came piping hot and had a really nice creamy and subtle coffee flavour.

My meal came quickly - though I was the only one in the restaurant - and was steaming hot. The wrap was full to the brim and extremely filling.

I was then given a tray of doughnut and TimBits – like mini doughnuts – to try but being full I brought them back to our office to eat later on and they were still just as fresh.

One of my colleagues even said they could rival Krispy Kreme's.

It reminded me of a Canadian McDonald's and had a very similar menu, although I did prefer the Tim Hortons breakfast as it was not as greasy.

A quick Google search suggested Tim Horton's is slightly more expensive with burger meals around £8 compared to £6, and were slightly higher in calories than a Maccies.

The store in Thames Way offers a breakfast menu of wraps, muffins, bagels, pancakes and grilled cheese melts until 11am and then has a lunch and dinner menu of burgers, chicken sandwiches, grilled wraps, toasted melts and kids' meals.

It offers dine-in seating for up to 128 guests, outdoor seating for 32 and a drive-thru service.

The much-anticipated restaurant will finally open at 7am on Wednesday, October 26 after being teased since July.

To celebrate the launch, the brand will award the first fan in the drive-thru and restaurant queue with free drinks for a whole year.

The first 100 customers to arrive on opening day will also be gifted a free breakfast meal.

Kevin Hydes, of Tim Hortons UK, said: "We already have some real fans of the brand in nearby Essex and London, so we have been counting down the days to open in Gravesend, our first ever venue in Kent.

"To celebrate with the local community, we have some well-sought after prizes up our sleeve for the opening and cannot wait to share the excitement with our first guests on the day.

"We have recruited an incredible team of 50 new staff members who have been training hard to prepare for the grand opening so we know it is going to be an incredible launch."

The drive-thru and restaurant will be open from 6am until midnight, seven days a week.

It has opened in the former Pizza Hut, which had been trading from the estate since 2005, after it closed last year due to the impact of Covid-19.

The unit was one of 29 chains across the country to cease trading permanently as bosses declared sales were not expected "to fully bounce back until well into 2021”.

Tim Hortons now has 62 branches around the UK since arriving in 2017.

This is the first in Kent - the closest up until now was at Lakeside shopping centre in Thurrock, Essex.