Sheffield’s oldest Indian restaurant on Ecclesall Road has been given a zero-star food hygiene rating

Ecclesall Road is well known for being home to some of Sheffield’s best restaurants with almost every taste catered for.

It is also home to some of the highest rated restaurants on TripAdvisor making it one of the best places to head to for an evening.

Ashoka restaurant prides itself on being Sheffield’s oldest Indian restaurant, opening in the city in 1967.

It hit the headlines in September last year when the Arctic Monkeys kicked off their run of four shows at the Fly DSA Arena with a meal there.

However, the Indian restaurant has now been slapped with a zero-star food hygiene rating after a recent inspection.

Officers from the Food Standards Agency inspected Ashoka on March 11 and declared that urgent improvement is necessary.

The restaurant was inspected on its hygienic food handling, its cleanliness and conditions of facilities and the building and the management of food safety.

Inspectors ordered an improvement on their food handling and declared that major improvement was necessary on its cleanliness and conditions as well as their food safety.

Rahul Amin, owner of Ashoka, said: “Sadly this was just a case of bad timing. The restaurant was built in the 1960’s and sadly the kitchen isn’t fit for purpose anymore.

“The front of the restaurant was refurbished to a very high standard a few years ago and we had already booked in for our kitchens to be refurbished before the inspection took place.

“We will be closed for a couple of weeks while the work is taking place, which will be in about 12-16 weeks. Everything in the kitchen will be brand new and made to measure because we have such a small kitchen.”

All eateries on the road have their hygiene standards inspected by safety officers from the local authority.

The food safety officer inspecting the business checks how well the business is meeting the law by looking at:

- how hygienically the food is handled

– how it is prepared, cooked, re-heated, cooled and stored

- the condition of the structure of the buildings

– the cleanliness, layout, lighting, ventilation and other facilities

- how the business manages and records what it does to make sure food is safe

At the end of the inspection, the business is given one of the six ratings from 0-5.

The top rating of ‘5’ means that the business was found to have ‘very good’ hygiene standards.

Sheffield City Council said it has a zero-tolerance policy on hygiene and revisits all premises with a food hygiene rating of zero, one or two to make sure that standards improve.

If a food business fails to improve, then the council will consider formal legal proceedings such as Improvement Notices, Prohibition or Prosecution.