Chatswood BBQ Kitchen: shock photos reveal restaurant’s food hygiene breaches

Dirt inside ice machines, crates of seafood stored on the floor and mould discovered in cool rooms were among the scenes that confronted food safety inspectors at a popular Sydney restaurant.

A popular Hong Kong style barbecue restaurant is the latest venue in the Chatswood CBD to be served with fines over a string of food safety and hygiene breaches.

Chatswood BBQ Kitchen was issued four infringement notices by Willoughby Council on March 1 after inspectors discovered a string of food safety breaches including pork, rice noodles and raw egg mixed stored out of temperature control.

The inspection resulted in fines totalling $3520 including failing to store food in a way to protect against the likelihood of contamination and failing to ensure food contact surfaces were clean.

Photos taken during the inspected in March.

Food was found uncovered in fridges.

Photos taken during the inspection showed dirt inside the ice machine, crates of seafood stored on the floor and mould in a cool room fridge blowing directly onto meat.

Hand washing basins were also used for washing dirty dishes, and food was discovered in single-use damaged containers.

The council said the business had “a history of noncompliance relating to temperature control of potentially hazardous food, hand washing facilities, food storage, food processing, cleaning of food surfaces.”

Raw egg mixture (left) and rice noodles (right) were found out of temperature control.

Mould was found on the ceiling in food preparation areas and in the cool room fridge.

Previous warnings were issued by the council with improvement notices served in 2013 and 2018.

The North Shore Times contacted the manager of the venue for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

The restaurant – located at 387 Victoria Ave – specialises in BBQ meats with a menu including roast duck, crispy skin pork and fillet steak in a Peking sauce.

The food fines are the latest issued to a food venue in Chatswood with figures from the NSW Food Authority showing 15 other businesses in the suburb have been issued penalties in the last 12 months.

Left: dirty oil was found built-up in the exhaust system drip gutter. Right: Rice was found out of temperature control.

Left: the hand Wash basin was obstructed. Right: there was visible build-up of dirt inside an ice machine

A council spokeswoman said the council was committed to protecting the health of the public. 

“The standards prescribed by the Food Standards Code are the minimum standards a registered food business must comply with when preparing food for sale to the public,” she said in a statement.

“The elderly, the infirm and small children are members of our community who may be particularly vulnerable to food borne illness arising from a failure to comply with the minimum standards.

“The council applies a combination of education and enforcement to achieve compliance.”