Sarawak Kitchen nightmare: Clayton restaurant busted for breaching food safety laws, putting public at risk
A Clayton restaurant has been shut down for foul breaches of food and safety laws, after a rat infestation led to faeces being found on food.
South East
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A rat-infested Malaysian restaurant has been busted breaking food safety after faces and dead rodents came into contact with meat and other food items.
Joe Wang, of Tropical Kingdom – the company that ran Clayton’s Sarawak Kitchen – pleaded guilty in Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday to multiple Food Act breaches.
Sarawak Kitchen was closed by a Monash council health inspector in December 2022, after a routine inspection uncovered the breaches.
The court heard an inspector attended the Clayton Rd restaurant on November 2, where they noted 13 breaches to the Food Act, including a cool room with a temperature of 16.3C.
The cool room stored high risk foods – including chicken, fish and pork – with one bowl of marinated pork showing a reading of 14.1C.
The court heard the inspector gave the restaurant a high risk rating, before organising a follow up inspection to “assess improvements”.
The inspector returned on two more occasions, each time finding the restaurant operating while still in breach of the Food Act.
On the third visit, the court heard Wang had flown back to Melbourne from Malaysia to be present for the inspection.
The restaurant was operating as takeaway only, as well as fulfilling pre-existing catering orders.
Wang told the inspector he and his brother were “selling the business and would stop takeaway” the following week.
“Some orders have been paid for in advance, they need to be fulfilled,” he said.
During the third inspection, the cool room and food inside were temperature tested again, with a bowl of fried fish returning a 17.1C reading.
The inspector also noted evidence of a “significant rodent infestation”, including poo droppings around food preparation areas and on cooking equipment.
The court heard there were also large holes in the walls of the preparation area created by the pests.
The inspector issued a remedial order for the restaurant to close, until the breaches had been rectified.
On the final inspection on December 22, the inspector found the Sarawak Kitchen had closed with no change to the conditions inside.
The court heard the rodent infestation had increased, where the inspector witnessed rodents running through the storage area and another one dead in a food bowl.
Sarawak Kitchen never opened its doors to the public again.
In court on Wednesday, Magistrate Angela Bolger said the restaurant “shouldn’t have been allowed to degenerate to the point it had”.
“These are serious matters – they involve legislative rules to protect the public from harm,” she said.
“Falling short of the standards gives rise to risk which could result in a very real harm to the public.”
The entity, Tropical Kingdom, was fined and convicted $45,000 and also orders to pay $14,784.23 in costs to the Monash Council.
