Would you go and eat in a restaurant where the last hygiene rating was 1?

[soapysu]

We always wanted to try a local tapas restaurant but unfortunately they suffered the pressures of COVID and closed.

They reopened last month operating from the same kitchen as another restaurant that serve burgers, they have literally just linked up together and are now a hybrid of the two with one big menu. When the burger place was independent they were inspected about six months ago and given a 1 for food hygiene, which is major improvement necessary.

Since they have rebranded as a duo they are now awaiting inspection. I really want to try the tapas and know it’s a different owner, but they are operating from the exact same kitchen as the place with a previous bad rating and clearly the low rating didn’t deter them from joining up with them as business partners

Should we go somewhere else?

YABU - I would go and wouldn’t be bothered at all by this

YANBU - I‘d find somewhere else to go until they’ve been reinspected

even if it wasn't, I wouldn't give them the benefit of the doubt.
Why wouldn't they do the paperwork anyway...surely that includes provenance of the food etc?

I would take those reports with a pinch of salt. I recently cleaned in a pub with a 5 star hygiene rating, well it might have been clean when it was inspected but it certainly wasn’t kept to that standard on a weekly basis.

@soapysu I am not an expert, nor do I run a food establishment or work in food hygiene. So, no, I can't claim to be beyond doubt in what I'm saying. But if you look at the information available on line, for what would get you a score of 1, it has to be more than just the documentation to generate the totals necessary eg

https://trainingexpress.org.uk/food-hygiene-ratings/

The restaurant is probably using that line to avoid having to say, yes, we were a bit shit at food hygiene.

I would just wait until they are re-inspected and see how they score then.

💯 definitely no.

Having experienced how easy it is to get a 5 star rating, you must be horrendous to get a 1.

Who are these people who check hygiene ratings for restaurants? I have never in my life done this, nor has anyone I know. You get a vibe for decent places and, as mentioned, sometimes it's just poor paperwork. Live a little, guys, just pick somewhere you fancy & skip the checking!

It depends why. Our lovely local vegetarian Indian had a rating of 1, but it was because the owner/manager had had a car accident the day before and the person she'd sent to deal with the inspection (because she was in hospital) hadn't shown them the right paperwork. As soon as this was rectified, it went back to a 5. Another local takeaway is rated 5, but the last meal we had from them had a fingernail in it.

No

OP, you DEFINITELY would not get a 1 solely due to paperwork.

No, 5 is not a gold standard… 4/5 is a minimum for me

🙋‍♀️I never eat anywhere without checking rating.

A 1 star rating is definitely not just missing paperwork! It would mean the staff are missing basic food hygiene knowledge, the premises would also have been noted as below good standard in cleanliness.
It’s actually very easy to gain and maintain a 5 star rating, I’d be very wary of anywhere with that low a score.

I would. As it's the same people you were happy with before. They will be cooking their own food with their usual standards

One of our local restaurants had a one because they had a problem with their water supply so couldn't clean. The plumber came just after the assessor left, back to a 5 a week or so later

Lol this wouldn't bother me and I'd still go. My two fave places to get food from locally were recently featured in a "worst places to eat in my area" article haha

Yeah, it'll be fine. Fucking hell, do you people not travel?

To the people who only eat in restaurants with a 5 rating, good for you, but I hope you never eat pre-packaged foods.
Having worked in a food factory, you may have people regularly spitting in your food - and worse - and items being dropped on the floor and kicked around a bit before being packed!

No. I always check the rating on just eat as well, it's under "information" incase you don't know where it is.
Anything under the top rating of 5 I scroll on by.

My brother and his wife have. Their local pub had a one certificate. They were fine, no food poisoning etc. I think we have too, dashing to a local kebab place before a concert without much time. Food was really nice but noticed it on the door on the way out. Not sure I'd have gone there had I seen it on the way in, or not been desperate to grab food and go.

You need to look at that page more carefully.

Remember the scoring system is negative. There are 30 points available in the category "documentation". To receive a rating of 1, the highest permitted individual score for any category is 20 points. For a rating of 2, the highest permitted category score is 15.

In other words, if you score 16 of the possible 30 points for documentation you receive a rating of 1. Score 21 points for documentation and you will get a rating of 0.

A major international fast food chain opened its first UK branch in my city a few years ago. On opening day, with a brand new just-opened kitchen I checked the food hygiene rating and it was zero. The following morning it was 5. You absolutely do not need a filthy kitchen to get a zero rating.

I doubt my kitchen would manage a 1 (cats on worktop!) so I'd have no problem :-)

I would definitely. I need to lose some weight.

No.

@CasperGutman the place has a rating of 1, which means a score of 45 to 50. They could not have scored more than 20 for the documentation, otherwise they would not have been given the 1 rating. Where did the other 25 points come from?

AIUI having a 1 rating does not imply that you have a score of 45-50 points total. It implies that you either have a total score in that range or an individual category score above the maximum permitted to get a higher rating.

The maximum individual category score to receive a 2 rating is 15, so getting a 16 just for documentation means you can't get more than a 1 rating. Exceed a score of 20 for documentation and you can't even get a 1 rating.

As the page linked above states, "A food business needs a score of no more than 5 in any of the three categories to receive the highest rating." In other words, a rating of 4 does not imply you scored 15 points: you would be downgraded from a 5 to a 4 for scoring 6 points in any single category. The same goes for the other categories.