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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think that if a restaurant has rats in kitchen and a zero (0) rating it shouldn't be open?!

28 replies

SuperFlyHigh · 29/01/2017 21:50

Went out in London's Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year.

As hadn't booked anywhere we just wandered around looking for a restaurant. A place where my friend had eaten and said was good a few years ago was touted as a good choice, however once we got to the door we saw a 0 (zero) hygiene rating and the guy in reception there actually told us it was zero rated... Confused but sort of stating the obvious no?!

Anyway my friend queried this saying it was very good a few years ago, she wondered why it'd got so bad so then he said with a perfectly straight face "there were/are rats in the kitchen". Yes you read that right, rats...

Strangely enough I didn't feel like Sweet and Sour Rat so I just yelped in shock, "no, let's go!" And we left.

AIBU to think that this restaurant should not even be open with a 0 (zero) rating especially with rats there in the kitchens? What are environmental health thinking?! Shock. Also the man in reception didn't say the rats had been dealt with...

OP posts:
TaraCarter · 29/01/2017 22:00

He volunteered that information? Someone hates their boss.

AVirginLitTheCandle · 29/01/2017 22:02

I've worked in restaurants before and I dread to think how bad a place would have to be to get a 0 rating.

I once worked in a place that had cockroaches in the kitchen yet it somehow still managed a rating of 4...

Original poster
SuperFlyHigh · 29/01/2017 22:05

Tara I didn't think he would say anything and it was only after my friend said how good it was before... That he mentioned the rats.

Therefore if someone didn't say anything he wouldn't mention the rats is my thinking?!

Anyway I dashed out of there as quick as a flash.

And yes AVirgin it was 0 (zero) which shocked me!

OP posts:
MadHattersWineParty · 29/01/2017 22:12
Shock

It's true though, a restaurant had to be DIRE not to get a star-rating!

I went to a curry place in Brick Lane- a cockroach fell out of the lampshade and onto my dinner. Then another one followed it. Waiter plied me with a bottle of wine and the bill wiped not to make it obvious to the rest of the restaurant Confused

Boogers · 29/01/2017 22:19

If it has a 0 rating it will be on an Environment Health notice and will be required to improve within 14 days or face being closed down.

Re cockroaches falling out of lampshades onto food, I'm calling bullshit on this one for obvious reasons. Hmm

LadyMaryofDownt0n · 29/01/2017 22:25

What boogers said!

Gingernaut · 29/01/2017 22:31

dead body and dead rats found in food premises

This one is still talked about round my way.

YADNBU btw.

Boogers · 29/01/2017 23:17

I've read the links from Ginger and Pseudo's links - what the hell is wrong with people?! I have never purchased food from anywhere with less than a 4 rating, and even then I have to watch my food being prepared. 0 rating? Seriously? Dead bodies, rats and cockroaches? Is it a different life in London (from Pseudo's link) or are 0 ratings common across the country?

lastqueenofscotland · 29/01/2017 23:19

I've an uncle with a small chain of restaurants, a 5 is not a gold standard that's hard to attain.

I rarely go anywhere that doesn't have a 5

TiggyD · 29/01/2017 23:23

When I did my food safety course the instructor said that you might miss out on 4 or 5 stars by having a bit of paperwork or something missing, but to get under 3 you are seriously shit. Thawing chickens in the loo or something. I'd never eat at less than 3 stars.

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 29/01/2017 23:30

As pp said. They're probably on a warning to up their game, and get things sorted out, pronto.
I expert environmental health will be back there within a few days.

I could be wrong but I can't see the place lasting long even with improvement or if it becomes a 5* restaurant. Sadly mud often sticks.

Twogoats · 29/01/2017 23:31

I worked in two famous chain restaurants as a student... If you knew what went on in those kitchens, you'd never eat out.

However, part of the problem in both places was that we all hated the management. We were paid NMW, treated as disposable, etc.

Boogers · 29/01/2017 23:54

Tiggy had to giggle at 'but to get under 3 you are seriously shit, thawing chickens in the loo or something' Grin

Feeling smug that all my favourite eateries are 5, fully aware that EHOs might have just caught them on a good day! Confused

Original poster
SuperFlyHigh · 30/01/2017 08:24

We went to Imperial China after that (expensive in Gerrard Street, Koi carp in a pond with a bridge etc) sadly food I didn't think was brilliant but it did have 5 * I think!

OP posts:
Original poster
SuperFlyHigh · 30/01/2017 08:28

Pseudo whispers I think it's top one...

OP posts:
mummymeister · 30/01/2017 08:31

the star rating system was brought in so that people could avoid eating in the horrible places and this would put financial pressure on lazy management to up their game and comply with hygiene requirements.

in this case its done its job hasn't it because you ate elsewhere!

ex EHO and I could write a book on the hideous things I have seen behind the scenes in restaurants. its actually not as easy to just close a place down as you would think it should be and the fines sometimes don't reflect the seriousness of it all. so I was really delighted when the ratings came in because at last the public had the info to vote with their feet.

I wont eat in anything under a 4 either plus I am very judgey when I eat out. have a look at the stuff on the table - condiments, mats, cutlery, if that isn't spotless then the kitchen wont be either.

hesterton · 30/01/2017 08:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PetalMettle · 30/01/2017 08:43

I thought imperial china was ok food wise, although pricey.
There are tonnes of places - which look nice and clean etc - near me that are a 0 or 1. And there's one round the corner that's been a zero since a July inspection - surely it should've been inspected again?

PetalMettle · 30/01/2017 08:44

Also I do think they should be legally forced to put the star rating in the window not just encouraged

CigarsofthePharoahs · 30/01/2017 10:20

Ginger - that is so disgusting! Eugh! We used to have a favourite all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurant. Sadly closed down and I discovered later due to serious health and hygiene issues. I also discovered last week that my favourite take away has just a 1 star rating. Wont eat there again unless it improves, but I miss their food!

SeriousCreativeBlock · 30/01/2017 12:14

Ywnbu at all! One time I was in a large group in Venice and I saw a chef come out of the toilet and not wash his hands! We all left. Food hygiene is so important.

Goldenhandshake · 30/01/2017 12:29

YANBU. A child in my dd's class, his family own a nearby takeaway, and she keeps pestering us to buy from there, however it was in the local paper for having a 0 rating on a 'named and shamed' list, they were doing awful things like tipping huge amounts of fat down the outside drains and it all backed up into the block of flats next door, and leaving whole ducks outside in open air etc.
I keep avoiding it as I don't want to explain to her why I won't eat from there, but I don't want to tell her as its not the kids fault!

NotCitrus · 30/01/2017 13:02

Used to go to a lovely sushi and noodle place in Greenwich, until the time we found it closed by EH, with a long essay on the door of why. I'm told some requirements to get 4 or 5 require investment in infrastructure which is beyond the scope of small places - eg stainless steel rather than tile splashbacks, so 3 upwards should be OK. I've never seen anywhere with a 2 or 1 though - either 3+ or in the papers/on FB for having 0!

Felt much better about smuggling food into a hideous soft play when I found out they had a zero (now proudly displaying a 4, and the food is pretty much all pre-packed)

Went to a certain Michelin-starred place once in London and wanted to walk out when a kitchen bloke came out of the loos and didn't wash his hands, but I'd eaten the food by then. Did tell the waiter.

harderandharder2breathe · 30/01/2017 13:18

I think anywhere that gets a 0 should be closed

My favourite local lunchtime takeaway was a 2 but I knew and trusted them. Generally I wouldn't eat anywhere less than a 3, ideally a 4 or 5.

Is it law in England that scores must be prominently displayed at the entrance? It is in Wales which is great.

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