A CATERING business which has an average customer rating of five stars out of six on Just Eat was only give a one star rating by inspectors from the Food Standards Agency.

Portofino Grill, in Haven Road, Colchester, was given one star for food hygiene following the inspection with officials noting major improvement was needed in the cleanliness of the business’s facilities.

The hygienic handling of food during preparation, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage was also found to be sub-standard.

The management of food safety, however – which looks at checks in place to ensure that food sold is safe to eat – met the required level.

Responding to the rating, Portofino Grill’s manager Serkan Candan said a lack of running hot water in the premises was to blame.

He said: “We don’t operate fully because it’s more like a hobby than an all-out business – we keep it small and the quality high.

“The business was shut for three years so a lot of things weren’t working [correctly].

“The inspector’s hands were tied because regardless of everything else which was good, you can only give what you can give [if the hot water isn’t fully operational].”

Mr Candan went on to explain he only took over the business, which has been scaled down from a restaurant to a food delivery service, after his father died two years ago.

He added he has had to borrow money in recent years to keep the business afloat, and that a new boiler has been installed at a cost of £6,000.

The business, he explained, is also running at a loss.

“My main priority is to get the restaurant and everything fixed and in future it will be rented out to people who will run it in the proper spirit of a restaurateur; what I’ve taken on is a big challenge – the building is massive.

“We pay a lot of money to cook for people and we lose a lot of money every month just to have the building.

“A lot of things we do are done in a very different way.”