A Chinese restaurant in Moore Street, Dublin, has been closed down by High Court order after complaints by a food safety officer that it represented a "grave danger" to public health.
Mr Justice Quirke yesterday made the order in relation to the Any Other Restaurant on the ground floor of 22 Moore Street.
The order was made on the application of Mr Patrick Leonard, for Mr Brendan Boylan, a food safety officer with the Northern Area Health Board, against Mr Andy Wang, proprietor of the business, and Ms Miao Hong, manager. Neither were represented in court.
The judge heard that, although a closure order was served on the respondents on May 14th last, food continued to be prepared and served on the premises up to September. However, when the premises was visited in recent weeks by a food safety inspector, it appeared to be closed.
In an affidavit, Mr Boylan said that when he first visited the premises on May 14th, it was in breach of food safety regulations. It "constituted a grave and immediate danger to public health".
Mr Boylan said that, during his May 14th inspection, he noted a considerable accumulation of food debris on the kitchen floor. He also noted that raw meat, sugar and flour were being stored in open containers on the floor, that raw and uncooked meats were left in the open, there was no sink unit assigned for washing food and there were no proper refrigeration facilities.
As Ms Hong was not present, he had served a closure order on the person then in charge of the premises, Shen Wei Lin.
However, while carrying out other food safety inspections in the Moore Street area on September 7th last, he had entered Any Other Restaurant at 3.30 p.m. and spoke to Mr Wang, who identified himself as the proprietor.
Mr Boylan said he noted people involved in food preparation, but Mr Wang said the premises was not open. Mr Boylan asked Mr Wang why he was operating in breach of a closure order served on May 14th.
He told Mr Wang he would return the next morning to meet with him, and when he did so there was no food preparation under way.
However, when he returned at about 4.15 p.m., he saw staff in the kitchen preparing food. Mr Wang denied the business was open.
Mr Justice Quirke heard that a number of court applications were then made leading to a written undertaking to comply with the closure order of last September 10th. Efforts to directly serve the respondents with papers notifying them of the intention to seek an interlocutory order closing the premises had proven unsuccessful, but the documents had been left at the restaurant premises by solicitors.
