Mumbai's iconic Bademiya restaurant closed after rats, roaches found in kitchen

Mumbai's iconic Bademiya restaurant was closed on Wednesday, September 13, after Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials found rats and cockroaches in their kitchen at the time of a raid.

The raid was carried out at the South Bombay branch after numerous hygiene-related complaints.

The FDA also reportedly uncovered that the restaurant was running two outlets in Bandra and South Bombay without the proper licensing, as per India Today.

Despite 76 years of operation, they lacked a license from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the report further said.

The publication quoted an FDA official as saying, "There is an ongoing raid and inspection (of FDA) across restaurants in Mumbai. Bademiya is one of the hotels that have been raided. This afternoon, the vigilance team and our local officer arrived here (Bademiya) and found that a cloud kitchen served meals for two of its adjoining branches. There was no license granted to the eatery and hygiene issues have also surfaced."

The restaurant owner, in reply, claimed to have necessary licenses apart from the one from FSSAI, which he said is currently in progress. The owner further expressed willingness to cooperate with authorities. They also said they'd be cautious in serving hygienic food to their customers.

This news comes weeks after a customer found a dead rat in their food from Mumbai's Papa Pancho da Dhaba restaurant, causing an uproar. That too was reportedly closed temporarily by the FDA and the cook and manager of the outlet were arrested.