Zorba the grease: ‘world’s dirtiest restaurant’ is shut in Bayswater
THE owner of a Greek restaurant dubbed “the dirtiest in the world” has been banned from managing restaurants indefinitely.
When health and safety officers raided Zorba’s Greek Taverna in Bayswater they found it littered with cockroach eggs and mice droppings. There were sewage flies living in a tahini dip.
Chef Pavlos Pittas, 60, admitted four charges of failing to protect food from vermin, rendering his food “unfit for human consumption”.
Magistrate Margot Coleman handed him an indefinite prohibition order from managing restaurants and said the taverna on Leinster Terrace was “one of the dirtiest restaurants I have seen”.
Ms Coleman told Pittas: “Your restaurant has been closed on more than one occasion because of poor conditions. The fact is there’s a continuing trend over a long number of years of appalling hygiene in your premises. You seem to run your restaurant with complete disregard for the regulations that exist to protect members of the public from becoming ill.”
Westminster city council inspectors found mouse droppings under a counter used in food preparation and all over the kitchen. There were rat droppings and rat hairs on the kitchen floor and cockroach egg cases and mouse droppings outside the cold room. Cockroaches were found in the basement storeroom and on a shelf used to store lentils and dry goods.
Sewage f l i e s we re breeding in the tahini, a sesame seed-based dip. Raw meat was stored on a filthy floor in the cold room and there were dirty contain- ers of food with no date labels in the fridge. Officers found bloodstains frozen into ice in the freezer and a mincer covered in mouse droppings. They say the charcoal grill and microwave were clogged with thick grease.
Pittas repeatedly failed to appear in court with relevant papers during his proceedings, which stretch back to June last year. He eventually admitted the charges against him and appeared in court on Wednesday. His firm Le Palefco was fined £12,800 at Westminster magistrates’ court for four counts of failing to comply with EU food hygiene provision.
On TripAdvisor 67 per cent of 193 reviewers rated Zorba’s the lowest rating of terrible. Reviews call it dirty, disgusting, awful and “absolutely dreadful”. One reviewer says it is “the dirtiest restaurant I ever seen in the world” and a “horrible place and a dangerous place to eat”. Another reviewer talks of being “reluctantly greeted and seated” by a chef in a filthy apron. Another describes it as: “The worse dining experience of my life. Terrible food, terrible service and the chef was shouting at his staff during the whole evening.”