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

when I visited Sicily and ate at roadside bbqs I did not check the hygiene certificate.

i wish to one day travel to India and China and eat at food markets. I won’t be asking for their ratings there either.

I find it a little bit precious to avoid a restaurant because of this. My local Vietnamese is insanely good, until very recently all dishes under £5! They don’t speak much English at all, so may have struggled with paperwork. They have a 2 star and I have eaten there frequently for nearly 15 yrs have never had anything tasting less than perfect and have never been unwell.

we all need to use common sense. Some places look filthy as hell, and I wouldn’t go there. Point is, you rarely see in the kitchen or how they prep. You could get unwell from anywhere.

Do all of you who wouldn’t eat there check out the hygiene ratings of everywhere you go to? Genuine question - it wouldn’t occur to me to do this.

What about when you’re on holiday - do you eat street food?

I also work in food businesses and a 1 star rating is definitely not just not doing the paperwork. Bare in mind that no paperwork will mean no training records ( thinkers like people being trained in hand washing, cross contamination, etc) no fridge temperatures or cooking temperatures, no records of where the products are from, etc.

Basic hygiene standards are completely missing and you could definitely get ill eating from there without all of the above missing. If they can't even get those basics right then it's also highly likely to be dirty in there too. You would be crazy to eat at a 1 star place!

It absolutely can be. Source, it’s literally my job!

No not if I knew it was a 1.

Yes! Thank you!

If you've no FSMS you can't score above 20 = 1/0 stars.

It's nobody's fault that the scoring system is as complicated as it is, but if it's food safety professionals on here saying 'it's not just paperwork' that's worrying...

@CasperGutman thanks for the explanation, glad to see I'm wrong and that it could just be a documentation issue for this particular establishment.

I think it’s good, it means they know they are due a visit any time so will be really on the ball. If they are different owners, and it was just a paperwork issue, there’s no reason to think it’s an ongoing lack of standards.

You could always ask them if you can pop in to see the kitchen before you order if you are concerned. If Uncle Bert is stirring a big pot on the stove wearing filthy whites and scratching his dandruff into the pot then you can avoid. If it’s a well run kitchen with a clean prep area, clean floors and doesn’t have fly covered food left our waiting to be served then maybe it will reassure you?

Paper issues mean they weren't following protocols and keeping records. This should be a hard pass.

No.

We ordered from a takeaway that we'd ordered from a few times in the past. After I ordered I checked the hygiene rating and it was 1. We still ate it and were fine, but it would put me off if I knew in advance

This is not unusual - a few in our area suffered the same fate. Our 'favourite' cafe got a 1 recently, I was shocked but you still struggle to get a table. I guessed (and really only guessed) it could have been because his mother made their (superb) cakes, perhaps she didn't have a hygiene rating for her kitchen?

All those who are horrified, I bet you've bought cakes from a stall at your kid's school without a second thought, you have no idea what THOSE kitchens are like!

I would probably say no but this really is a very specific set of circumstances and the addition of another chef/business owner in the kitchen may have necessitated changes which means the standards would also have changed. Pragmatic answer would be to wait until the inspection, which they say will be soon, so no loss.

A local takeaway, which was very popular, was inspected and not only got a low rating, but it went straight to court for a closure notice due to serious failings. A couple of weeks later it opened back up with a clean bill of health and the owner took out a full page advert in the local paper quoting parts of the inspection letter (which they framed on the wall of their establishment). Apparently the owner had to go and look after a terminally ill family member for a few weeks and left the management to a friend who did no cleaning or alert the owner to a few other issues... As soon as the owner was made aware they sent round other people to clean up and sort out the problems and re-opened with a flurry of publicity in the aforementioned paper advert - explaining the situation and quoting what a clean and high standard their establishment now was! What a way to turn around a what must have been a terrible situation for them.

My place of work has just received a 5 and I would not touch anything from there. The kitchen knew when they would be inspected and had a massive deep clean and overhaul of all paperwork and procedures . 4 weeks later and the place is filthy again. The ratings are fairly useless in my opinion.

I’m guessing you’ve never worked in hospitality? If you had you would have seen some of the horrors behind closed kitchen doors.

Wouldn't bother me, but then I once age a kebab out of a bin.

Sober too.

Obviously what constitutes ‘paperwork’ is subjective, but from chats with the inspectors of our place, you might get a 2 if your cleaning schedules weren’t ticked, staff training etc wasn’t up to scratch, but a 1 indicates more widespread issues.

I didn't use to bother until a restaurant we ate in a lot was closed down by the council for having massive infestations of rats, cockroaches etc. At the same time A Life of Grime was on the telly, and they were following the Environmental Health department of Haringey, where I live. Some of those shops and restaurants were seriously grim, and as mentioned I'm someone who thinks a few germs are good for you.

I hope the 8 of you who voted YABU have got plenty of air freshener and toilet roll for your bathroom!

YANBU.

The way I see it, the problem is they got a bad rating, and then they've added a whole lot more work and complication to a kitchen that might have been already substandard.

Of course they'll say it was "just" documentation, that doesn't mean that's the truth.

Even if the 1 is partly/ mostly due to 'no paperwork', that in itself is a major problem! these people have gone into business in order to prepare and sell cooked food to the public, and have presumably had to deal with all sorts of paperwork/ order from suppliers etc, but can't be arsed to have (for example) a piece of paper to record their fridge/freezer temperatures, or label the boxes they're storing food in?
If you're really that keen to eat there and don't want to wait for the official inspection, why not ask if you can look at their kitchen/storage space yourself ( at a time of day when they're not too busy). If they've made any effort to improve things, it'll be obvious.