Kitchens of many posh restaurants in Bengaluru dirty, BBMP slaps fine

In an inspection of some restaurants on Lavelle road in Bengaluru, BBMP officials reportedly found that some of them do not meet basic hygiene requirements.

Joint Commissioner (East) Sarfaraz Khan, in a post on his official Facebook page, wrote that the inspection was conducted along with Additional Commissioner (East) Yatish Kumar, heath officers, officials of the pollution control board and police on Saturday. Other officers conducted similar inspections across the city, he wrote. The officials visited 8 restaurants. 

​"We visited Bootlegger, SodaBottleOpenerWalla, Glasshouse, Sunny's, Bierre Club,Farzi Cafe, Smoke House Deli and Fisherman's Warf . The kitchen in these places were maintained badly. PCB found three restaurants where loud music was being played. There was no separate smoking zones either,"Sarfaraz Khan said. 

"Sunny's, which is on the same road was asked to close its kitchen for 3 days. All the restaurants were fined. About Rs 16 lakh was collected from these restaurants totally. There were inspections in other areas too," he said.

With accompanying photographs, he said that the kitchens were maintained badly even when the dining areas were extremely clean.

He claimed that, kabab skewers were kept where employees cleaned their hands, rusty knives were being used in one case, and meat was being marinated in the backyard in another case. In some cases, different meats like lamb, beef, pork and chicken were not being kept segregated.

“The music should be played within 50 units, most of these hotels have systems which can play upto 99 units, they blast the music in the night and make the neighbours’ life miserable (lot of complaints from residents),” he wrote.

He also pointed out other irregularities such as the sale of cigarettes on premises, overcrowding of customers beyond capacity and so on.

The News Minute reached out to a couple of restaurants that were inspected by the officials. 

A person at SodaBottleOpenerWalla said that the manager would be available only in the evening.

The assistant executive manager at Glasshouse said the management will have a discussion in the evening on the issue after which they would be able to respond. 

Sunny's,  Farzi Cafe did not respond to our calls.