Melbourne restaurants hit with heavy fines over filthy kitchens

TWO popular Melbourne restaurants have been slapped with hefty fines for shocking food safety breaches — including a favourite Chinatown haunt where a customer found a “very gross short dark curly hair” in her meal.

Empress of China and Spencer Pizza Kebab and Cafe were fined with a raft of food hygiene breaches. File photo

TWO popular Melbourne restaurants have been slapped with hefty fines for shocking food safety breaches.

Empress of China in Melbourne’s Chinatown on Little Bourke St was fined more than $26,000 for 12 breaches of the Food Act and Spencer Pizza Kebab and Cafe on Rebecca Walk was fined more than $15,000 including costs for eight breaches of the Food Act.

Filthy Food Star Knox City smorgasbord restaurant shut and on the market

Noble Park Fruit Mart fined $35,000 after rats, rotten meat, leaking sewage found

Jimmy’z Kebabs Boronia named and shamed on State Govt register for failing food safety checks

Both restaurants were convicted with a raft of hygiene offences including failure to store food properly to protect it from pests and contamination.

The businesses have recently been named and shamed on the State Government’s Food Convictions Register after being convicted in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court last year.

City of Melbourne health inspectors, who first attended Empress of China in September 2016, found eating and drinking utensils to be in an unsanitary condition.

The restaurant also failed to have a temperature measuring device that could accurately measure the temperature of food and failed to provide accessible hand washing facilities.

Customer Eva Cornelisse, who gave the restaurant a one star Google Review last year, said: “Found a very gross short dark curly hair in my meal that definitely didn’t belong to me or anyone at my table, it really did look like a pubic hair.”

Lydia Martinez, who also left a Google Review last year, said: “I got a terrible food poisoning in this restaurant for the bad quality of the food.”

Inspectors, who first visited Spencer Pizza Kebab and Cafe in November 2016, found the business failed to ensure that any food contact surfaces of equipment were in a clean and sanitary condition.

The business also failed to have a lighting system that provided “sufficient natural or artificial lights for activities conducted on the premises”.

Asjad Mahmood, who rated the restaurant one star on Google after visiting last year, said “Worst HSP everything … not cooked properly.”

Nicola Sullivan, who also left a Google Review, said: “Vile. Ordered a snack pack and six chicken strips and a bottle of iced tea. The snack pack was inedible because of the amount of sauce and the chips were completely raw. They didn’t give my drink but they did include a half-eaten kebab.”

Empress of China and Spencer Pizza Kebab and Cafe declined to comment.