Denbighshire Council owned restaurant gets one star food hygiene rating from its own

Council chiefs in Denbighshire have been left red faced after one of their own restaurants got a score of one in its own food hygiene ratings.

An inspection was carried out on Rhyl’s Pavilion Theatre and 1891 restaurant on May 1 by council staff.

There they found the need for improvements in how food was handled and management of food safety at the council owned restaurant.

Inspectors found the major improvements were needed in the management of food safety in order to: “Ensure that food sold or served is safe to eat, evidence that staff know about food safety, and the food safety officer has confidence that standards will be maintained in future.”

Cllr Glenn Swingler, praised the efforts of the inspectors adding he hoped it would lead to an improvement at the Rhyl venue.

He said: “This shows public protection takes its role seriously without favour. “But for a council run restaurant to get such a low rating is disappointing, Denbighshire needs to set the bar high for others to follow. Let’s hope they learn very quickly from this.”

A spokesman for Denbighshire County Council said: “Rhyl Pavilion and 1891 Bar and Restaurant in Rhyl has always taken pride in its extremely robust and high standards of food hygiene. This area is a key priority for the F&B management team, who have already delivered top rated inspections at SC2, North Wales Bowls Centre and Nova, Prestatyn this year.

“Staff have worked hard to ensure the success of 1891 in Rhyl and on this particular occasion, the sheer volume of business meant that some issues related to stock control procedures, record keeping and other management processes were missed by staff and identified by food hygiene officers during their visit.

“We immediately addressed the issues raised in the report, working closely with the inspection team to implement these improvements. Since the initial inspection we have had an immediate positive re-visit and have requested a re-inspection as soon as possible, so that the new score is a true reflection of our high standards.

“We are extremely proud of the reviews we have received online and face to face from customers and we have built a strong following locally and from customers. We want to reassure them that this was a ‘one off’ and wasn’t a true reflection of the high quality offer at 1891.”

By Shane Brennan – Local Democracy Reporter (more here).