Blue Ginger: Top Indian restaurant owner’s joy as food hygiene rating jumps from 1 to 5 after ‘difficult three months’

A Bristol restaurant owner who was left gutted when his business was slapped with a 1-star food hygiene rating has bounced back with a 5-star score after a ‘three difficult months’.

Fayzul Hoque, who runs Blue Ginger in Whitchurch, told BristolWorld he was ‘shocked’ to receive the ‘terrible’ one-star rating following an inspection in October last year, despite the Bengali restaurant being ranked ninth out of 1,166 eateries in the city on TripAdvisor.

Mr Hoque said that staff worked quickly to rectify issues - which included a bicycle being left in the store room and food containers not having lids - within 24 hours, but had to wait three months for another inspection.

At the time Mr Hoque told BristolWorld: “The recent rating does not reflect our hard work and efforts here. We always put customers first.

“We are going to make things right and will continue to uphold our reputation in Bristol.”

Now, following a second inspection on January 12, the Gilda Parade restaurant had its 5-star rating restored after scoring ‘Good’ in all three assessed areas - hygienic food handling, cleanliness and condition of facilities and building and management of food safety.

In a Facebook post, Mr Hoque announced: “After enduring three difficult months waiting to be rescored by the Food Standards Agency, even though we rectified the issues within 24 hours, I’m happy to say we have been rescored and we have got our 5 rating back.”

The post sparked an outpouring of support from regulars such as Jackie Boucher, who said: “Great, never believed it anyway!”

Julia Baldwin posted: “Well done, sometimes they can be so picky, but we do need them to keep us on our toes,” and Darren Weetch posted: “Well done guys, love this place and food, never had a bad dish.”

Despite the initial rating, the restaurant continued to receive high ratings on TripAdvisor, slipping just one place to 10th in the list of best reviewed restaurant in Bristol.