The Dynasty Chinese Restaurant has been reopened days after it was shut down for operating in unhygienic conditions.
The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) gave the restaurant the green light to reopen after its management had satisfied all the directives of the two bodies.
“We are satisfied with what they have been able to do within this short time. I am very impressed,” Dr Simpson Anim Boateng of the AMA told the Daily Graphic after the joint inspection with GTA officials.
[contextly_sidebar id=”BUi3X9SBH1QmAtHJo1ANDFK6YTwivrIa”]The restaurant was shut down on September 25, 2014, following an unannounced visit to the facility, during which the AMA found that grease and soot had accumulated on the heat extractors in the kitchen and the walls were dirty, while a defective gas cylinder there had a stone on top of the regulator, probably to prevent leakage.
Most of the stoves were rusty and appeared to have outlived their usefulness. Cobwebs were all over, while a pungent smell hung around the place.
There were algae around the pipelines and the water tank, among other insanitary conditions.
Transformed kitchen
But during an inspection of the facility by the AMA last Saturday, it was realised that the kitchen had been transformed, with all the rusty stoves replaced.
The soot and grease in the heat extractor had also been cleaned, while tiled sections of the kitchen had been washed and the remaining part painted.
The defective cylinder in the kitchen which had a stone on it had also been removed. The cobwebs that filled the kitchen were gone, together with the pungent smell that hung in there.
The showers had also been cleaned and lockers created for the workers.
Dr Boateng, however, expressed worry at the fact that the management of the restaurant had to wait for it to be closed down before doing what was right.
“If you know the right thing, I don’t see the need for you to be prompted before you do what is expected,” he said.
The AMA had threatened court action after the restaurant defied the AMA’s closure notice and operated after it was shut down.
After a Daily Graphic exposé showing evidence of the restaurant operating, the AMA said it would prosecute the management.
On the prosecution of the management of the restaurant, Dr Boateng said the assembly had decided to drop all the charges.
He, however, warned that the restaurant would not have it rosy the next time it was caught in a similar situation.
The Public Relations Manager of the GTA, Mr Ben Ohene-Ayeh, also expressed satisfaction with the work the management of the restaurant had done after the shutdown.
Source: Graphic Online