News / Restaurants
Tapas restaurant receives new higher rating
A tapas restaurant has been awarded a new, higher hygiene rating of 4 after its previous poor rating of 1 was flagged as an “error” and redacted swiftly by authorities.
When Ali Abrams and Jose Quesada, owners of Bomba on Gloucester Road, found that the poor rating on the Food Standards Agency (FSA) website also had the wrong inspection date, they contacted the Bristol City Council, who then replaced the rating with a note reading “awaiting publication”.
“The first inspection was on August 16, and when it was made live on the FSA website, the inspection date was wrong”, said Abrams, co-owner of the Spanish restaurant which opened in 2023.
“The inspection date on the website was July 14, a month earlier than our inspection.”
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Both Abrams and Quesada say that their restaurant “rarely got cancellations” but faced a lot of these after their poor rating was shared online, even after it was removed from the FSA website.
When a member of the food safety team visited the restaurant following their appeal for reevaluation, the owners said that they noticed nothing wrong at the premises.
Quesada added: “A gentleman from the food safety team at Bristol City Council came in, looked at the business, and he was like ‘I can’t see anything wrong with the business. I’m going to come back and do a proper rescore for you’, which he did about two weeks later.”
After its second inspection, the restaurant scored a 4 with remarks including a “very good” for food handling, and a “good” for cleanliness and conditions of facilities and the building.
Bomba specialises in cocktails paired with tapas-style dishes, which they say are prepared to “showcase the finest of Spanish cuisine”.
Bristol City Council declined to comment.
Main photo: Bomba
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