A Swindon restaurant has learned its new food hygiene rating after being rated the lowest score just weeks after first opening.

Red Sea East African Restaurant on Cricklade Road opened in 2021 specialising in traditional Eritrean and Ethiopian dishes, but it was rated a zero out of five by inspectors - meaning urgent improvement was necessary.

On June 27, inspectors awarded the establishment an overall rating of five and they were rated good on hygienic food handling, cleanliness and condition of facilities and building and management of food safety.

This is the only restaurant owner Rediet Berhane manages, but he also works during the week in Oxford at a car manufacturing company, while dedicating his weekends to the restaurant.

He explained: “This time during the inspection I knew what to expect and when I first started, I didn’t know as much about cleanliness and contamination in the kitchen. In 2021, the inspectors came two weeks after we opened. At the beginning everything is complex and we weren’t ready for it.

“The restaurant is cleaned all the time but we failed because the chef mixed the knife for meat and salad, so there was the risk of contamination. I was really upset by it because I wasn’t expecting to get a zero. Of course, customers didn’t want to come here because they see the score in the window and think the restaurant is bad.

“Then I paid £180 to have another inspection and in 2022 we received a rating of three. I’m not too sure why it wasn’t a five because they said we had improved a lot in the kitchen.

"We did a lot after that to make more improvements and now everything is clean and there’s a different chef. I’m feeling really happy about the rating.

“This is the only restaurant that has this type of food in Swindon and the chef must know how to cook authentic food from my country. It’s only really one month in since the rating so it does take time, but I’m hoping the rating will bring in more customers.

“When people try the food, they like it because it’s unique and different from other dishes. A lot of the customers are from my country, but some are from other backgrounds as well. They give good feedback about the restaurant and say the food is really nice and the customer service is good too.”