Liverpool cafe loved by Hairy Bikers given one star hygiene rating

A Liverpool cafe that received rave reviews on BBC TV series The Hairy Bikers Go West has been hit with a one-star hygiene rating.

First opening back in the late 1960s, Sans Café on Lightbody Street serves Chinese food as well as breakfast dishes such as omelettes and a full English. Recommended by Si King and the late Dave Myers, the ‘hidden gem’ has an impressive 4.4 out of 5 star rating on Google but, did not fare as well during its latest hygiene inspection.

The dockside eatery featured in an episode earlier this year, which saw the duo try out a number of local Merseyside businesses, including Wild Loaf bakery and Chris’s Chippy. Si and Dave tucked into the cafe’s special chow mein dish and their best selling pork dumplings, which Dave described as 'addictive’.

Visited by hygiene inspectors on May 9, the café received a rating of just one star, meaning ‘major improvement’ is necessary. The venue was rated as ‘generally satisfactory’ on both hygienic food handling and cleanliness and condition of facilities, but was told ‘major improvement’ was required in regard to management of food safety.

According to the Food Standards Agency, this category looks at ‘system or checks in place to ensure that food sold or served is safe to eat, evidence that staff know about food safety, and the food safety officer has confidence that standards will be maintained in future’.

The full inspectors’ report has not yet been revealed but Sans Café can now appeal against the rating given or request a reinspection. Discussing the one star rating, a spokesperson for Sans Café told LiverpoolWorld: “This was solely due to our log book not being filled out correctly - some things were lost in translation as the owners primary language isn't English.”