OTTAWA—With its colourful parasols hanging from the ceiling, porcelain trinkets lined up along the walls and bright red lanterns perfectly perched above every customer’s table– it’s almost difficult to believe that Sushi Kan on Innes Road violated 936 food inspection requirements in 2014 alone.
An analysis of the city’s Public Health Inspections data showed that the all-you-can-eat-sushi restaurant received a score of zero—a failing grade—for over 20 of the health and safety requirements.
The most common infractions were general housekeeping, separating raw foods from ready-to-eat foods during storage and handling, and temperature control issues.
Qi Guo is the manager of Sushi Kan’s Innes location.
When asked why the restaurant had failed so many inspections, Guo said it was difficult to keep the restaurant and food at the right temperature, because of the raw fish and meat. She also said it was hard to stay consistent because the restaurant also cooked “special Chinese foods”.
But the biggest infraction Guo explained was something that she remembers to this day as “the incident.”
“Well there was a customer and she saw it run by her,” said Guo, with a nervous laugh. She lowered her head in her hands.
By “it,” Guo meant a mouse and by “her” she meant a customer who was furious and immediately called the city.
Serial offender.
The restaurant’s number of violations was seven times higher in 2014 than it was in 2009, when it had 130 infractions.
But it’s not just Sushi Kan on Innes that is having trouble. According to the analysis of data all of Sushi Kan’s locations have failed several food inspections in the last five years.
Further examination of the city’s data showed that three of Sushi Kan’s Ottawa locations have all seen a progressive increase in violations.The other two restaurants are located on Baseline Road and Kanata Avenue. Restaurant owner Frank Ling was unavailable for comment.
“Our manager went away to China, so we had no manager for a while. And it got very complicated” said Andy Wan, co-owner of Sushi Kan on Innes.
Qi Guo was not the manager at the time.
“Also we had a lot of construction last year, and things, you know with the door open, things could get in,” Wan said.
Turning over a new leaf?
“We covered all the holes so the mice can’t get in anymore,” said Guo.
Guo said one of the reasons the restaurant kept failing inspections was due to a lack of education among staff members. “None of us really knew what [the city] wanted us to do, or how they wanted us to clean” said Guo.
After numerous attempts to contact city officials, Ottawa Public Health could not provide a comment in time for publication.
Guo has now completed her food handler certificate this year—a feat she is proud of. The certificate attests that a person has taken the required training to run a restaurant considering the different sanitary elements.
“We didn’t try to hide anything. We told our customers right away, “ said Guo about the incident.
“We love them you know. They are like our family. So we want to be honest with them.” The restaurant has been in operation since 2009. Prior to 2009, the location was a Denny’s restaurant. The last inspection that has been openly published states that the restaurant is was compliance with the law as of August 2015.