A restaurant in Downend has had its hygiene rating upgraded from zero stars to five stars after filing the correct paperwork, it says. The owner said they had forgotten to send back the relevant documents to organise another visit showing the issues had been fixed.
Forage restaurant, located on Badminton Road in Downend, is a new addition to the fine-dining scene having opened late last year, and visitors have been full of praise. However, on December 2, 2021, they received a zero-star hygiene rating, with South Gloucestershire Council saying that there was "urgent improvement necessary".
However, that has now been upgraded to five stars after the issues identified in the inspection were fixed and the correct paperwork was filed with the council, with the owner saying: "We did all the stuff within about two weeks, but we just carried on and forgot about submitting the forms back to [the council]."
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The restaurant was marked on three different categories - food hygiene and safety was listed as "improvement necessary", structural compliance was said to need "major improvement", and confidence in management was also listed as "major improvement necessary".
Public ratings online only offer the rating, not the full report detailing the reasoning.
Head chef Arnie spoke with Bristol Live a few days ago and shared that the low rating was due to issues with the restaurant's boiler at the time of inspection. Previously, Arnie was the sous chef but shared that he stepped up after his predecessor left in December.
Now, owner Jesse Jones is proudly displaying his new five-star rating and has shared the reasons behind the original zero-stars and what has been done to fix it: "When [the inspectors] first came, our boiler wasn't working, so we were boiling water on the stove which isn't safe lugging across the kitchen. There was another issue with the door handle on the front door - there wasn't one on the outside. There was a light switch that wasn't quite connected to the wall properly, and we've got a back toilet for staff that we were just using as storage."
He was clear that the issues identified had nothing to do with food hygiene, saying: "It was truly a structural thing." All of these issues identified by the inspectors were fixed quickly, he said, but it was too late: "With our disorganisation, we forgot to submit the forms in time, so it was kind of our fault."
When the rating came out as zero stars, he said: "We were quick to jump on it and obviously get them to come back out three days after to give us our five-star rating."
After the zero-star rating was made public, it had an immediate impact on Forage, with Jesse saying that he was getting lots of messages about it and wanted to make clear that it was an administrative mistake, not an issue with the food hygiene.
"Our cleaning is literally spotless - you could eat off the floor," he declared. He added that it was just the paperwork that caused the problem: "We did all the stuff within about two weeks, but we just carried on and forgot about submitting the forms back to [the council]. And before we knew it, we got a zero-star rating."
When the rating came out, many customers dismissed it as an error having eaten there before. One wrote: "The facilities are spotless and you can see into the kitchen from the seating area...It won't put me off, it's a fabulous restaurant."
Describing the fine-dining eatery, Jesse said: "We use only locally-sourced produce - the best, highest quality. We use Buxton Butchers for meat, which has a really high standard of meat. Everything is homemade - nothing is frozen, everything is made from scratch. We have a freezer purely for ice. Everything is made from start to finish - nothing comes out of a packet. And everything is locally sourced from small businesses - we try to support those local to us."
The restaurant on Badminton Road, which opened in October, has already gained five-star reviews on its Facebook page from its customers, and Jesse said that they are usually fully booked from Thursdays to Sundays, and strongly recommends phoning for a reservation.
You can find out more about Forage restaurant in Downend here.
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