THE owners of an award-winning Basingstoke restaurant have thanked the community for supporting them after they were given a one-star hygiene rating.

As previously reported, Spices and Spirits, in Kings Furlong Drive, was visited by food safety officers from Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council on January 13, who said ‘major improvement’ was needed for hygiene standards.

The restaurant, which was last year named as one of the best curry restaurants in the country, has since been re-inspected and now has a four-star rating.

Read more: Award-winning Basingstoke restaurant give one-star rating for hygiene

Nitin Patil, who owns the restaurant with his wife Anushree, thanked customers for continuing to support the business during the last few months.

He said: “People know what we are about and our passion for our food and they are supporting us. This support gave us strength and a morale boost. People still visit and they say they have never seen such a clean kitchen. We haven’t asked people to support us, but they have.”

Spices and Spirits, which was declared Curry Restaurant of the Year – South East at the 11th English Curry Awards in 2022, was found to require ‘major improvement’ for the management of food safety at its inspection in January.

However, Nitin said the timing of the inspection was unfortunate, with the inspector visiting shortly after a “very large catering event” when staff were still cleaning the kitchen.

He said: “We do maintain very high standards of food hygiene and that is reflected in the quality of food and customer comments.”

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Nitin said his wife, who is head chef at Spices and Spirits, also runs her own catering company which has a five-star rating for hygiene.

He believes Spices and Spirits, which opened in 2019, is now back to a five-star standard for hygiene, but said because of council policy relating to inspections, it is not able to issue a five-star rating until next year.

He added: “The restaurant is my wife’s passion and she does it so well. Every diner leaves saying it’s an amazing experience and so that’s why we care about our reputation.”

Nitin said the business also supports the community and has donated vouchers to two charity raffles to celebrate the King’s Coronation.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s regulatory services manager, Rob Draper, previously said that “significant food hygiene concerns” were “in existence for an unacceptable period of time” at Spices and Spirits.

He added that decisions about enforcement are “often about patterns of non-compliance and not just single incidents”.