Recently, the Clarke Quay branch of HaiDiLao got into hot soup for its unsanitary food handling practices. Besides being fined S$800, the popular hotpot restaurant was suspended from Feb 10 to Feb 23 by the National Environment Agency (NEA).
The outlet at 3D River Valley Road had chalked by six demerit points for handling food with bare hands and six more points for selling unclean food over the past 12 months. As a result, all food handlers at the branch will have to attend and pass the Basic Food Hygiene Course before going back to work.
According to The Straits Times, some of the demerit-worthy incidents in August and September last year included a worker slicing watermelons without wearing gloves, as well as a serving of beancurd that failed NEA’s hygiene tests.
Funnily enough, when Channel NewsAsia paid a visit to the Clarke Quay joint, a “renovation notice” was posted at the entrance, stating that the place would be closed for 50 days for renovation — starting from Feb 10, the day of its suspension. The chain restaurant then went on to point customers in the direction of its other branches at 313 @ Somerset, VivoCity, Plaza Singapura, and Royal Square at Novena.
A confused employee also told CNA she wasn’t sure when operations at the outlet would resume.
So ST stepped in to clear things up, with the general manager of HaiDiLao Singapore explaining that the Clarke Quay outlet will be taking the next few weeks to renovate the five-year-old space and improve its service standards before reopening in April.
Most netizens weren’t surprised by the turn of events, with some claiming that such “unclean” practices aren’t foreign to other eateries and hawker stalls in Singapore.
Others stepped in with stories of their own. Real or fake, we leave you to be the judge.
