Chinatown's filthiest shuts doors

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by Kristian Gravenor

If their fortune cookies were for real, they'd have advised you to, "Run, don't walk out of this restaurant." While inspectors typically fine an eatery up to $2,000 for dirtiness, owners of the Nanking Café and the adjacent Ho Ho Café at 50 and 52 de la Gauchetière W. were ordered to pay over $12,000 in fines issued last May 18 by MUC restaurant inspectors. The order was upheld in Montreal Municipal Court in February and the owners have until April 28 to ante up.

According to the MUC food inspector's report--read on at your own peril--ceramic floor tiles were full of holes jammed with decomposing food; a dirt- and mould-infested dishwasher was supported by legs planted in pots of stagnant, malodorous water (from which several dozen flies emerged when disturbed); sausages, vegetables and shrimps were kept unrefrigerated; the fridge was filthy; uncovered plates of food sat directly on a grease-encrusted floor or directly in puddles of water with a "nauseating smell." Woks were rusty, cleaning equipment dirty, ceiling paint chipping and the food elevator was covered in blood and dried food. Meanwhile streams of blood were evident outside the freezer and on the floor near the fridge.

It's unknown whether owners of the upscale buffet, which closed earlier this year, will pay the stupendous fine for violating public hygiene bylaw 93. A Chinatown restaurant source tells the Mirror that the co-owners of the restaurant for the last four years had no prior background in the food industry and the problem is not shared by nearby eateries.