Dubai restaurant shut down after cockroach found in food

Dubai Municipality has fined and temporarily closed down two restaurants under Taj Mahal Group in a shopping mall in Dubai after a resident found a cockroach in his dinner.

The municipality's action came after Dubai resident Bobby Nasser, whose name has been changed on request, found a cockroach in a chola bhatura dish he ordered from Taj Spice Restaurant at a food court of a mall in Dubai.

Nasser took pictures and filed a complaint to the mall management, who called the municipality for further action.

Following inspections, the municipality has fined the restaurant and ordered a temporary halt on its operations until further maintenance to change its wooden furniture were made.

"We were asked to replace our wooden furniture with other material since wood helps gather small cockroaches," confirmed a supervisor of the restaurant.

Taj Spice and Wok & Spice restaurants, under Taj Mahal Group located in the same food court, will be temporarily shut down.

The restaurant management noted in a statement that both outlets will re-open after five working days when the municipality conducts a follow-up inspection to ensure appropriate action was taken.

No official from the municipality was available for comment. The amount of the fine was not revealed.

Founder, CEO & Director, Taj Mahal Group of Restaurants P. Venkatesh told Khaleej Times in a statement, "We truly regret this unfortunate incident and apologize to our customer who was inconvenienced."

He confirmed the closure of Taj Spice outlet and said the management has undertaken "a thorough pest control of all our food handling areas".

"We have taken action against the individuals responsible for the maintenance of the outlet and will extend a thorough training to all our staff managing food outlets across different locations," said Venkatesh.

• UAE
• Dubai