Leicester restaurant closed after health inspectors fall ill on night out

A restaurant in Leicester has closed temporarily after a group of council health inspectors got suspected food poisoning on a work night out.

South Indian restaurant Kayal, in Granby Street, Leicester, has enjoyed five-star ratings in its last three council inspections, but a party of Leicester City Council workers, who ate there last week, ended up feeling unwell, according to the Leicester Mercury.

The city council said that, including its members of staff, a total of 19 people reported feeling ill after dining at the restaurant, over a two-week period.

Restaurant owner Jaimon Thomas told the paper that the group of 10 council officers visited Kayal on the weekend of 2 November, and four became ill.

He said: "It was unlucky that we had the council in, and that it included health inspectors, but we would be concerned if anyone reported feeling ill.

"We've been open since 2008 and this is the first time we've had any problems with people getting sick.

"We had a number of people come to us and say they had stomach aches.

"We refunded the money straight away and offered them a free meal, which they gladly accepted.

"The fact the council health inspectors chose to eat there is testament to how highly they rate the restaurant. We just hope we can get to the bottom of this and return to our usual high standards."

Health inspectors closed the restaurant on 6 November, until further notice.

Samples of food were taken away for analysis and an investigation is under way.

The restaurant's last health inspection took place in October, when it received five stars.

David Barclay Rhodes, food safety team manager, said: "Kayal has always achieved a high level of compliance with food hygiene law. We asked it to close while we investigated a suspected food poisoning outbreak.

"We do not know what's made people ill and await the results of samples taken. We can't comment further."