Featured Image Credit: Policia Municipal de Madrid
Topics: Food and Drink, World News
Jess Hardiman
Warning: This article contains content that some readers may find distressing.
A restaurant has come under fire after it transpired the ‘roast duck’ on offer wasn't quite as it seemed.
The business, a Chinese restaurant called Jin Gu in central Madrid, Spain, was raided by police at the end of March after they received numerous complaints.
Officers from Madrid Municipal Police discovered several serious health code violations, ranging from unlabelled meat and fish to cockroaches in the kitchen.
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Even as they entered, they noticed fire extinguishers stored improperly, not meeting the required minimum height from the ground, while two rubbish bins blocked the emergency doors.
They also found pigeons that had been plucked of their feathers, with Spanish news outlet El Mundo reporting that it’s believed staff hunted the birds in the street before ‘kicking them to death’.
One officer who was there during the raid said: “Everything smelled of rotten seafood; it was almost unbearable."
Police found eight freezers containing unlabelled produce, which was untraceable and had no use-by dates displayed.
The restaurant – which is located in the Usera district of Madrid - also didn’t have any thermometers in its storage areas to measure and monitor the temperature, despite it being a legal requirement in Spain.
Locals said they had reported the establishment to authorities on several occasions, with one of the building’s residents telling El Mundo: “None of us ate there.
“It smelled bad, and we saw food brought in on a cart and left at the door in broad daylight.”
Police also found a ‘secret room’ hidden behind a shelf in the disabled toilet – a feature that was not listed on the building’s floor plans.
This was where the rusty freezers of food were stored, along with a clothesline used for drying strips of meat.
Officers also stumbled upon a fan dripping with grease and rat traps containing meat for bait.
They estimated that the concealed storage room held 300 kilos of rotten food.
The restaurant has since been ordered to close, while the owner is under investigation for the alleged crimes, with police looking to charge them with animal cruelty, crimes against public health and consumer rights.
Jin Gu currently has a 4.2-star rating on Google, with many positive reviews.
"The duck I think is a little dry and lots of bones, not that tasty," one from five years ago reads.