An Essex restaurant has received a hygiene rating of ‘one’ after an inspector found areas of its kitchen to be “filthy”, with leaking ceilings and a blocked hand wash basin.

The Royal Tiger, located in Rettendon Common, Chelmsford, is described on its website as “a restaurant like no other” serving sushi, Thai and Indian cuisine under the same roof, and places “a large focus on capturing the essence of cultural flavours so that customers can feel as though they’re eating in the meal’s country of origin”.

However, during its inspection of the premises on December 6 last year, the Food Standards Agency found the kitchen to have a “defective” ceiling with multiple leaks and water ingress, mouldy sealant around sinks and basins, clutter and “a poor level of structural cleaning in general”.

Photos taken at the time of the inspector’s visit show dirt-encrusted hand wash basins, at which only one had a bar of soap provided while the others were blocked and not viable for use.

In addition, frozen food was not date-labelled, and there was no cleaning schedule for the premises. Although there were two separate benches dedicated to raw food preparation, one had a water leak above it and was due to be taken out of use. A proportion of washing up was done by hand, despite the presence of mould around the seals for the sink.

In their report, the inspector also noted: “The kitchen looks like it has sustained smoke damage in parts, but the manager advised that there has been no fire damage.”

The handle at one end of the walk-in chiller was also described as “defective” and supposedly could not be cleaned. A hygiene rating of ‘one’ indicates that “major improvement is necessary” in order for a food outlet or restaurant to fall in line with national standards.

The restaurant is popular with diners in the area, with 494 Tripadvisor reviews and a Travellers’ Choice 2023 award.

LDRS has contacted The Royal Tiger’s management team for comment.