Popular city centre restaurant Maggie Fu has turned things around after being hit with a shock one star hygiene rating at the start of the year.
Bosses at the Hanover Street branch of the Asian food favourite said they felt the 'pain' of being landed with the second lowest hygiene rating and told the ECHO at the time that they had taken 'extreme measures and a massive cost' to put things right.
The main issue raised by inspectors related to cooling and storage of food and the owners said this issue was immediately addressed. The business was recently re-inspected and has been awarded a five star rating for hygiene - the highest score available.
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Owner Lee Boon said it had been a difficult period after news of the one star rating was published, but he was confident the small issues raised had been immediately dealt with and was pleased to receive the top rating.
He said: "We got straight on with sorting the issues that were raised and had it all in place within a couple of days of the inspection. We have then paid for a new inspection so that we could them to come back out quickly.
"The inspectors came back and gave us a five star rating with no comments or anything, they said it was basically a perfect report, which was good to hear."
Speaking about the negative headlines surrounding the one star rating earlier in the year, Mr Boon added: "It was something we felt personally and the staff felt personally. Things like that do affect people's mental health.
"Our business has grown really quickly and we are always learning, there were some lessons we have learned from this period and we have worked hard to put things in place. We have the reward now in this five star rating.
"The majority of people were understanding when that report came out and we were able to explain it was based on one particular issues. Some people just wanted to kick us a bit. In life, you learn lessons by making mistakes and we are in a good place now."
As Maggie Fu looks to the future, Mr Boon said there are plans to potentially expand further and move into new areas. The 42-year-old said: "We are feeling positive now and looking at potential expansion in the future, either elsewhere in Merseyside or further afield."
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