Posted by Updated / Tuesday, 10 Feb 2026 19:24
A Dublin restaurant where inspectors found a “bucket of brown unidentifiable liquid” beneath the sink in its bar was among four businesses issued with closure orders last month.
The inspection at Chillers restaurant which is situated at Unit 1, Liffey Valley Complex on the Fonthill Road in Dublin 22, also found an accumulation of grease deposits on the ceiling tiles above a utensil wash sink.
The “bucket of brown unidentifiable liquid” also contained white pipes, according to a report by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).
The restaurant’s dishwasher was broken, leaving staff with “insufficient capability to clean equipment and utensils,” according to the FSAI.
The authority also said that staff observed handling food in the kitchen “did not demonstrate knowledge and or understanding of safe food handling practices or personal hygiene practices”.
“Staff could not explain safe food cooling processes, traceability and were not observed to wash their hands in the kitchen area,” it said.
The walls, wall floor junction and doors in the main kitchen were “spattered with food and dirty throughout”, it said.
The restaurants cooker hob and oven were greasy and dirty, the FSAI found.
Meanwhile, two microwaves were dirty and covered in dried food residue. Several pieces of cooked fish were left on a counter at a temperature of 15.9C.
Staff were unable to indicate when the fish was cooked or removed from chilled storage, and there were no records to support the cooking or cooling process.
The Shamrock Lodge’s kitchen in Finglas was also closed after a major leak from its ceiling required four or five buckets placed on the floor and on surfaces where food was being prepared.
The inspector said this “posed a grave and immediate danger to public health”.
The White Sands Hotel in Portmarnock was forced to close its small kitchen on the ground floor in January due to rodent activity.
Foods labelled with ‘use by’ dates for the purpose of sale or supply in O’Connell’s food store were held.
The move came after an inspector found the store on Main Street, Bansha in Tipperary, had placed unsafe food on the market.
Milk with a use by date of 15 January was found during an inspection on 19 January.
Cooked ham with a use by date of 7 January and rashers labelled with use by dates of 29 December were also found.
FSAI Chief Executive Greg Dempsey said inspectors are finding “recurring incidents of unhygienic practices and rodent infestations in food businesses”.
“Implementing and maintaining a food safety management system is a basic requirement and should be of the highest importance for food businesses,” he said.
Mr Dempsey added that “maintaining a clean premises is not a ‘nice to have’ – it is a basic legal requirement”.
“All food businesses have a duty of care to their customers to serve food that is prepared in a clean premises and is safe to eat.
“There is no excuse for bad practice,” he said.
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