Continental bar & restaurant, La Braseria, has received a one food hygiene rating.
The Wind Street restaurant was deemed as needing major improvements in its management of food safety by an inspection carried out by an environmental health officer.
The inspection was carried out on January 6 and a spokesperson for the venue said they had been "extremely disappointed by the score", but claimed that after three days the issues had been rectified and they had since applied for a reinspection.
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The new rating comes after sister restaurant, La Parilla, suddenly closed its doors at both its Swansea locations, in Mumbles and SA1, in January, 2020.
La Braseria has been open since 1986 and specialises in fresh, locally sourced produce, complemented by one of the largest wine selections in Wales.
Swansea Council food hygiene inspectors visit businesses across the city on behalf of the Food Standards Agency and record brief comments online alongside sharing a full report directly with each business and any interested parties.
A food hygiene rating of five means food standards at the premises are "very good," four means "good," three means "generally satisfactory," two means "some improvement is necessary," one means "major improvement necessary" and zero means "urgent improvement necessary"
Food hygiene inspectors check the following:
- the business premises
- how staff operate
- the food safety management system
- the types of food staff make and prepare
They also pay particular attention to each business's:
- Hygienic food handling: including preparation, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage
- Cleanliness and condition of facilities and building: including having appropriate layout, ventilation, hand-washing facilities and pest control to enable good food hygiene
- Management of food safety: system or checks in place 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.
You can view the food hygiene ratings near you by searching here.
The venue had previously been awarded a four food hygiene rating in 2019 - meaning "good".
Despite this new rating, the venue has argued the matters have since been resolved and is hoping a re-inspection will come "within days".
The spokesperson for La Braseria said: “We’re extremely disappointed with the score, but everything and more has been rectified since then. We can give assurance that everything is now up to date and being managed very well. In fact, just three days after the visit all the issues had been rectified and we applied to be re-scored as soon as possible. We’re hoping this will happen within days.
“Our industry has been very challenging recently with a high turnover of staff and a shortage of chefs during the coronavirus pandemic. This has regrettably led to some of our standards slipping, which were picked up on a spot visit.
In our 35 years in business, we have never been through such a challenging time as we have over the last two years. We’ve had temporary staff and agency staff in just to keep the doors open as we’ve struggled immensely to recruit. That’s by no means an excuse, but it does go some way in explaining the challenges we’ve faced.
“We’ve followed the council’s guidelines and advice, and we’re very happy to have them out again as soon as possible, and we’re confident that we’ll regain our score to its usual very high standard.”
WalesOnline has approached Swansea Council for comment and details surrounding the reinspection date.
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