MAYFAIR CHINESE RESTAURANT — Restaurant in Portsmouth

Wednesday 15 July 2015 (Portsmouth NEWS)

MOUSE droppings, grime on the walls and noodles stored in a toilet doorway have landed a takeaway with fines totalling thousands of pounds.

Magistrates in Portsmouth heard it was Li Hong Sun’s ‘dream’ to open a takeaway of her own with her husband.

The rear kitchen at the Mayfair Chinese showing mice droppings behind a vegetable box The rear kitchen at the Mayfair Chinese showing mice droppings behind a vegetable box But hygiene inspectors discovered a nightmare when they turned up at Mayfair Chinese, in Castle Road, Southsea, run by director Mrs Sun with her chef husband.

Prosecutor Victoria Putnam said: ‘Following a complaint being received in relation to the premises and vermin therein, the officer visited Mayfair Chinese.’

She added: ‘During the visit she noticed evidence of mouse infestation, poor cleanliness and poor hygiene procedures.’

Chairman of the magistrates Jonathan Bound fined the Li Hong Ltd £3,000 and ordered the firm to pay £870 in costs.

Mouse droppings were seen close to and inside a wooden box containing vegetables, which was next to a freezer.

Ms Putnam said the officer who inspected the takeaway said that was a risk of contamination.

Staff admitted there was a pest problem but said pest control had been out in the month before the visit and they had cleaned a few days before but had not noticed the droppings.

‘They went on to say they were short-staffed and hadn’t been able to clean as much,’ added Ms Putnam.

Noodles were seen stored in the doorway to a toilet. That toilet has now been converted into a storeroom.

Inadequate hand-washing facilities were found, with mouse droppings found close to the sink and vegetables.

The wall behind the sink was covered in grime, as was a chopping board. A container of raw meat was stored next to a cooked container of chicken.

The restaurant – in a building which was the birthplace of actor and comedian Peter Sellers – closed voluntarily on the day of inspection, August 28 last year, and re-opened the next day.

Further visits identified other dirty areas but no mouse droppings as improvements had been made. A cleaning schedule had not been completed.

Chris du Boulay, defending, said the company admitted the breaches at the inspection and had addressed problems.

He said: ‘This was a new business set up by Mrs Sun in September 2013, a Chinese takeaway/restaurant with her husband works as the main chef.

‘He worked for other people’s businesses before as a chef for some 10 years and she worked in kitchens as well.

‘But it had always been their dream to open their own restaurant together but as their first business they were somewhat inexperienced from the start.

‘They have had to learn the hard way the impact of getting hygiene requirements right.’

Chairman of the magistrates bench Mr Bound said the court took a ‘poor view’ of the firm’s reaction to several official visits.

Mrs Sun admitted all the charges on behalf of the company Li Hong Ltd, which trades as Mayfair Chinese.

All charges were under Food Safety and Hygiene Regulations 2013.

They were: the premises were not maintained in a clean condition, failed to protect food from the risk of contamination; no adequate procedures in place to control pests and inadequate...

Average food and downright DANGEROUS conditions! Me and 3 friends went to eat in this restaurant in the evening; it was our first time there and we were really excited. We took off our shoes and entered our rather grimy, dimly lit cubicle. I ordered tonkotsu ramen and my friends had the katsu curry, sushi selection and the yakisoba. We were brought our meals one by one over a very long period of time, nearly 10 minutes per meal. Surely it shouldn't have taken 40 minutes to serve an entire table, right? The restaurant was nowhere near busy. We obviously didn't want to complain, but the more I look back at this experience the more I realize what an absolute nightmare it was. The food quality was barely average, and the ingredients used were clearly just bordering on acceptable. The broth tasted suspiciously chemical and filmy, the meat seemed less like restaurant level cuts and more like sliced sandwich meat you could get from Morrisons. The sushi was haphazardly thrown together, and the yakisoba was... just wrong. The worst thing, though, was that A LONG METAL WIRE was found in the katsu curry. We have no idea where it came from but it was nearly 3 inches long and just mixed in with the rice. We took it out and showed our waitress, but she simply seemed mildly curious and surprised as opposed to horrified and apologetic (which I don't think I'm being dramatic when I point that out). She mumbled an apology, took the wire away and our table wasn't seen to for the rest of the awful meal. I would call the food lackluster but after what we'd found it felt more dangerous than anything. The friend who'd had the katsu didn't even want to touch his plate, so I shared my meal with him. For pudding we had hard, frostbitten mochi ice cream which was tasteless at the best, but at least (presumably) safe to consume. When we finally got our bill, the waitress had double-charged us on the puddings and we had to wait huddled in a corner while she fixed the issue, this time without an apology. It appeared she'd forgotten about the wire incident entirely and had told nobody else (none of the other waiters we asked about seemed to have a clue), so when we mentioned it to her we did ask for a discount. Once again we were sent off to wait in a corner as she rectified the bill once again, and without much care we were sent off out of the restaurant. However, it didn't end there. My partner, who had the yakisoba, immediately became ill the moment (and I genuinely mean the very moment) we stepped out of the building. She got SEVERE STOMACH CRAMPS and ended up spending the entire night from 6pm - 3am being VIOLENTLY sick. She was unable to walk more than 5 steps without becoming dizzy and eventually throwing up. All through the night she was crying from the pain and vomiting over and over and breaking out into a cold sweat. She was bedridden for 3 days afterwards and couldn't even eat a full meal without being sick again. TL;DR there was a METAL WIRE hidden in the curry, the mochi ice cream was FROSTBITTEN, my partner got SEVERE FOOD POISONING and the waitress couldn't care less. Don't bother with this place, please just eat somewhere else. I promise you there are better...

Ordered online from Just Eat. The sushi and takoyaki was on point, however I also ordered katsu curry which ended up making me sick later that evening. The chicken in my katsu curry was pink, I realised this a little too late as I was over half way through the chicken when I properly inspected the meat (it was hard to tell with the amount of sauce on the chicken). I called the store immediately and the lady at the desk was very apologetic and offered to send a replacement - I had already been put off my food but I thought that if this first portion doesn't make me sick then I could save this portion for tomorrow (on top of this, I am an anxious person and was not looking to cause confrontation). So I accepted the replacement. When the delivery driver stopped by my house again he told me that the restaurant would usually refund the amount in full... Which is a bit suspicious, as if this place often needs to give refunds on their food. Later on that evening, as I am about to go to sleep, I had to pull myself out of bed and pull my bin close to be sick - my body was naturally trying to purge the contaminated food. The following day I called the restaurant again to make sure that my money was refunded due to the fact that I had been ill as a result of their food. The man on the phone tried to excuse the food by saying that the chicken is precooked and that it wasn't possible for the chicken to be undercooked as it was only microwaved in store. Not freshly prepared. He said that it was fine that the chicken was pink. I reiterated that it may be the case that the chicken is precooked, but their food still made me ill and I would like a refund. He said this wasn't a problem and that would be done and we said our goodbyes. It has now been 6 days since I ate the food and was ill, and 5 days since I expressly requested my money back and was told I would be getting my money back. The first member of staff I spoke to was very helpful (my one star rating), this second person was making excuses and denied that I could be ill from their food and has not fulfilled our agreement. I wish I had checked the hygiene rating of this establishment - it was the first time I have ever not checked and it backfired massively. This restaurant shouldn't be functioning as they're putting their customers at risk and its only a matter of time until someone with a weaker immune system falls victim and becomes very...