Diners at a popular restaurant in a Malaysian tourist hotspot were horrified to discover their dishes were washed in a puddle on the street.
A video which surfaced online showed staff from Raj’s Banana Leaf restaurant squatting over a pothole on the street, scrubbing and rinsing food trays with the dirty water.
The restaurant in Kuala Lumpur’s affluent neighbourhood of Bangsar, issued an apology, blaming the incident on new staff but has since been shut down.
Diners at a popular restaurant in a Malaysian tourist hotspot were horrified to discover their dishes were washed in a puddle on the street (pictured)
The restaurant assured customers that the incident was not common practice and that the employees were ‘newly recruited staff’.
‘Hygiene and cleanliness are are top priority,’ the restaurant maintained over a Facebook post.
However, health authorities were forced to shut the restaurant indefinitely after finding there were no adequate washing facilities, Coconuts.co reported.
‘We will take action to close down the restaurant until further notice,’ Deputy director of the Environmental Health Department, Chandrakant Patel said.
Health authorities shut the restaurant down
Mr Patel declined to reveal the name of the restaurant owner, but said a representative from the restaurant had admitted to mistakes in handling the its operations.
‘They do not have proper washing facilities behind the kitchen,’ he said.
However, the restaurant passed health checks with an A- rating and ‘cleanliness checks showed that the restaurant was in good condition’ Mr Patel confirmed.
Raj’s Banana Leaf offered a free buka puasa dinner on Thursday evening to apologise to guests, but it is now unclear whether the restaurant will be able to follow through with the offer.
It remains unclear how the popular restaurant passed cleanliness checks without proper washing facilities in the kitchen.
Health authorities were forced to shut the restaurant down indefinitely after finding there were no adequate washing facilities