Kingsley's Weston Creek fights the banhammer

c_c said :

Mr Evil said :

The other outlets like Sizzle Cafe (related to Sizzle Bento) and the Chicken shop are both well known for giving people food poisoning and yet they still trade. The Subway doesn’t heat through meat properly and they have piles of 6in roles up against a filthy wall waiting to be used instead of being put back in the warmer like normal stores. The staff frequently have colds and cough all over the food blatantly.

Chicken place is called Rosies and i think i have been made a little crook from it before. But i know of no one who has gotten sick from Sizzle cafe and i have eaten quite a bit there and at the other stores (all run by the same guy).

Mr Evil said :

Anyone else ever used the toilets in that place?

I used them (once) about 18 months ago, and apart from the fact that the hand dryer didn’t blow any hot air, the place looked like it hadn’t been cleaned properly since 1985. The scary thing is that the staff would have used those toilets too!!

Personally, I can’t wait until ACT Health gets to the ANU Refectory, as I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of these signs appeared appeared there – not so much due to lack of dilligence on the part of the business operators, but the lack of work being done by the jerkoffs running the Union.

Oh man are you on the money with that. How many of the ANU food outlets remain in business is a mystery. Indeed Caterina’s, run entirely by the Union closed down mysteriously and the building has been left vacant ever since. That was notorious for serving green eggs, expired meat and for all sorts of other health concerns. Place smelt like a toilet too.

The other outlets like Sizzle Cafe (related to Sizzle Bento) and the Chicken shop are both well known for giving people food poisoning and yet they still trade. The Subway doesn’t heat through meat properly and they have piles of 6in roles up against a filthy wall waiting to be used instead of being put back in the warmer like normal stores. The staff frequently have colds and cough all over the food blatantly.

It just really sickens me that the Union has the gaul to complain about the University not caring about students and yet they preside over trash they own or lease out.

As for bathrooms, you’re again touching on an important point. And it’s one I frequently see. Ever been to the Holy Grail in Kingston, or the places in Manuka Plaza. In the case of the former, the toilet was an outhouse, literally a shed out the back with a wobbly toilet not bolted down properly with a filthy sink with no soap and only cold water. Manuka Plaza, was terrible too until the renovation.

On the question of the major chains getting hit, a reasonable guide might be the NSW Food Authority, where they’ve been doing public naming and shaming for a while longer than the ACT. It lists both prosecutions (more serious matters) and penalty notices. While the smaller businesses dominate, there are dishonourable mentions for all sectors. (My reading is that Domino’s Quaker’s Hill scored fines of $116,000 in 2006, leaving one of my former favourites – a Turkish kebab place – in the shade on amount. Coffe Club also gets a mention). This website sticks around, although people can apply to have things changed if, for example, the old and filthy owners move on.
While internal checks probably help with the large chains, I’d guess nothing can stop a determined grot from being a grot who should never be allowed near other people’s food. Without ever having seen the back end of one local Macca’s, my guess is that it’s awful because the front end, that the punters can see, is seldom clean.

stonedwookie said :

@johnboy you cant be serious?
larger companys get off becuase they pay off the inspectors ever been into a mcdonalds or kfc kitchen?
i can tell you ive seen food and dirt all over there floors from the counter and these places never get shutdown its cuase they have mega bucks to appeal and fight any legal battle thrown at them plus the pay off’s.

I have to agree with sonedwookis on this. The ACT DPP will not take on multinationals even if a government safety officer finds a serious electrical fault with an appliance. By serious I mean where manufacturers’ certificate of compliance has been deliberately ignored by altering electrical configurations.

I thin I’ll get Kingsley’s for lunch today

Anyone else ever used the toilets in that place?

I used them (once) about 18 months ago, and apart from the fact that the hand dryer didn’t blow any hot air, the place looked like it hadn’t been cleaned properly since 1985. The scary thing is that the staff would have used those toilets too!!

Personally, I can’t wait until ACT Health gets to the ANU Refectory, as I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of these signs appeared appeared there – not so much due to lack of dilligence on the part of the business operators, but the lack of work being done by the jerkoffs running the Union.

ah there own inspectors checks them selfs i wonder why they do that?duh
kinda like a student marking there own work you really think someone employed by the company is gonna give the chain bad feedback and if it does that anybody is gonna hear about it?
ill take snaps nexttime and post pictures if its so hard for you too believe cuase i see the shit all the time

Of all the kitchens I’ve worked in, I can safely say that Macca’s was the cleanest for the most part.

johnboy said :

KFC would have in-house inspectors, those guys are bastard coated bastards and much tougher than any government inspector (which is good)

I used to be one of those ‘coated bastards’ and you are right the standards internally were, and are tight. Operational aspects of the business do, at times make the back of house of restaurants appear dirty during peak periods, but the standards are still the standards for the product handling, cross contamination, holding etc. As per one of the other posts, the place is left spotless again by the end of shift ready to do it all again the next day. Sometimes the bigger chains get more governmental attention than the smaller guys, and I have been into the back of some other restaurants (non chain) that made me cringe….lets see how this one plays out….

Wait til they check out the Erindale store, the fridge and wall behind the counter look like they came from the set of The Young Ones.

stonedwookie said :

@johnboy you cant be serious?
larger companys get off becuase they pay off the inspectors ever been into a mcdonalds or kfc kitchen?
i can tell you ive seen food and dirt all over there floors from the counter and these places never get shutdown its cuase they have mega bucks to appeal and fight any legal battle thrown at them plus the pay off’s.

Either spoken by someone who has never worked in a busy fast food joint, or a really stoned wookie. Johnboy pretty well hit the nail on the head. Regular checks by their own inspectors.

Sure, those places can get dirty, but it never lasts for more than a few minutes unless it’s extremely busy.

Someone who takes their job seriously must have started to work for the health service in Canberra.

Personally I’ve seen a person at a Civic cafe not wash their hands between putting out a garbage bin and handling food.

And even in the places where staff wear gloves to make sandwiches – they often handle food with gloved hands and then handle money and touch other unsanitary objects before putting those same gloved hands right into salad/other food and onto sandwiches. It’s a miracle more people aren’t put into hospital each year.

c_c said :

johnboy said :

KFC would have in-house inspectors, those guys are bastard coated bastards and much tougher than any government inspector (which is good)

They certainly have that system, d I believe Maccas does too, and yet both KFC and Maccas make consistent appearances on the NSW Registrar.

Maccas currently has 2, KFC 3 stores, with the Yass store having two separate offence notices at once at the moment.

In fact the Notices currently issues to the Yass KFC are some of the worst I’ve seen in terms of number of faults recorded:
http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/penalty-notices/default.aspx?template=detail&itemId=3049996429
http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/penalty-notices/default.aspx?template=d
etail&itemId=3049996410

Temperature failure, cleanliness failure, defective fittings, seals and surfaces.

There’s got to be a McDonalds Yass (M Yass) joke in there somewhere.

stonedwookie said :

… ever been into a mcdonalds or kfc kitchen?
i can tell you ive seen food and dirt all over there floors from the counter

I used to work at a fast-food place, and Ive no doubt if an inspector came in during a Friday night rush, theyd find plenty of dirty things. If they came in first thing in the morning, the shop was spotless. Fortunately, customers generally dont enter the kitchen area.

I think Ill wait to see how this plays out before rushing any criticisms on the business for having a few ‘minor cleaning issues’.

@johnboy you cant be serious?
larger companys get off becuase they pay off the inspectors ever been into a mcdonalds or kfc kitchen?
i can tell you ive seen food and dirt all over there floors from the counter and these places never get shutdown its cuase they have mega bucks to appeal and fight any legal battle thrown at them plus the pay off’s.

johnboy said :

KFC would have in-house inspectors, those guys are bastard coated bastards and much tougher than any government inspector (which is good)

They certainly have that system, d I believe Maccas does too, and yet both KFC and Maccas make consistent appearances on the NSW Registrar.

Maccas currently has 2, KFC 3 stores, with the Yass store having two separate offence notices at once at the moment.

In fact the Notices currently issues to the Yass KFC are some of the worst I’ve seen in terms of number of faults recorded:
http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/penalty-notices/default.aspx?template=detail&itemId=3049996429
http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/penalty-notices/default.aspx?template=detail&itemId=3049996410

Temperature failure, cleanliness failure, defective fittings, seals and surfaces.

Hmmm,
I used to know someone who worked at this store and from the stories they tell this is completely unsurprising.

Yeah the few KFC kitchens I’ve been in have been pretty clean, the fact they use the crumbs that fall to the cool zone of the fryer in the gravy mix is not so much a public health issue than an example of the low standards of ‘fast food’

Weston Creek by the way is the Head store of the chain, where the head office is located, so no getting out of this one by saying they didn’t know, it was the franchise owner’s fault.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, why are hospitality owners all so nuts? It’s as if they all aspire to conform to the Basil Fawlty Type.

The MD of Kingsley’s is renowned for being a nutter so this is nothing new. Can do no wrong, always right, always down trodden. It seems to be the standard for hospitality owners and given the trust the public must place in them it’s a disgusting attitude.

I’m very surprised no KFCs have been closed down yet. I expected them to be among the first ones. I’m not surprised though that Kingsley’s has been pinged. Something I’ve never found in prepared chicken products before is feathers. It suggests poor preparation, either by the store or the supplier. Regardless, while it may not be a health issue, it is lazy and unpalatable.