Karen’s Diner, the restaurant where staff are deliberately rude to customers, has been hit with a zero food hygiene rating from inspectors.
The popular Australian chain – which has opened UK sites in Manchester, Birmingham, and Sheffield, amongst others – might have built its reputation on shoddy hospitality but we’re not sure this is what they were aiming for.
Its latest diner was recently opened in Newport, South Wales, with staff welcoming a local hygiene inspector on 22 February as queues built up outside.
Following the visit, last week inspectors issued the diner with a zero rating alongside a list of ways it must improve.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Food standards fall into three categories: the hygienic handling of food, the cleanliness and condition of the facilities and building, and the system or checks in place to ensure that food sold or served is safe to eat.
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Food venues are then given an overall star rating of zero to five, with zero meaning urgent improvement is needed and five meaning hygiene standards fully comply with the law.
Since receiving its zero hygiene rating in Newport the diner has changed head chefs and, according to Paul Levin, who oversees Karen’s Diner’s operations in Europe, the kitchen is “now how a kitchen should be.”
However, according to the Food Standards Agency website, Newport is not the only Karen’s Diner with a poor hygiene rating. The Sheffield branch currently has a two, meaning improvement is required, and the Birmingham diner has a score of one, meaning major improvement is needed.
A Newport council spokesperson said: “A food hygiene inspection was carried out at Karen’s Diner in Friars Walk within a week of opening to the public.
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Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
“Appropriate action was taken and the food hygiene rating will be published at the end of the month.”
A spokesman for Karen’s Diner in Newport said: “The visit took place five days after the official opening, whereby the restaurant had experienced delays with the gas installation.
“Karen’s Diner remains committed in ensuring the utmost care and attention is provided when it comes to food and hygiene standards, and following advice on necessary improvements by Newport City Council, has requested a revisit for the diner to be rescored to its deserved hygiene level.
“Although an initial score rating of zero has been provided, Karen’s Diner would like to reassure its customers that the rectifications by Newport City Council were acted upon immediately, and the diner continues to celebrate positive comments and reviews by their guests.”
Featured image – The Sheff
Eats
Lively Irish pub Nancy Spains set to open in Manchester for the first time
Daisy Jackson
An Irish bar famed for its live music is heading up to Manchester for the first time, and is promising £2.50 pints to lure us in.
Nancy Spains will be venturing out of London for the first time promising to bring the ‘ultimate traditional Irish pub experience’ to the Northern Quarter.
If you were to ask what the hottest trend in hospitality is right now the answer would, apparently, be Guinness. We’re drowning in the stuff.
This latest opening is more about Murphy’s, another Irish stout, than Guinness (they actually won’t serve Guinness at all) but the craic will be much the same.
Nancy Spains is actually set to open almost directly opposite the aforementioned Salmon of Knowledge, taking over the former Corner Boy unit on Stevenson Square in the heart of Manchester.
To celebrate its opening, the pub will be serving its first 5000 pints of Murphy’s for just £2.50, so that it can show off the atmosphere that’s established it as ‘one of London’s favourite pubs’.
They’re promising an array of Irish whiskeys behind the bar, live music performances, and a lively late-night setting.
Nancy Spains was set up by three brothers who travelled all over their home county of rural Kerry researching Irish pubs, before launching two venues down in London.
They want it to balance a traditional pub with the vibrancy of the city.
Peter O’Halloran, co-founder of Nancy Spains commented, “We’re so excited to be launching in Manchester, bringing Nancy Spains to the heart of the Northern Quarter.
“After the success of our two venues in London, it was only right to bring Nancy Spains’ infectious spirit and Irish pride to Manchester. Slainte!”
Nancy Spains will open its first Manchester pub on Saturday 15 March at 21 Hilton Street.
Lucky Mama’s – The Italian restaurant serving pasta in a dough bowl and ‘pregnant’ pizzas
Daisy Jackson
Lucky Mama’s is a local sensation, thanks to its slightly whacky but delicious Italian creations like pasta served in a bowl made of pizza dough and its latest offering, a ‘pregnant’ pizza.
What on Earth is a pregnant pizza, you ask? Firstly we should stress this is a nickname we’ve bestowed upon the dish, rather than Lucky Mama’s chosen branding.
But essentially it’s a helping of fresh pasta that’s folded into the bubble crust of the pizza, like a half-calzone.
Lucky Mama’s started life when founders Mamadou Dhiam and Gaby Santos set up a trailer in their backyard in Eccles in the depths of lockdown.
But thanks to a formidably loyal following that’s spread the word of Lucky Mama’s far and wide, it now has two pretty pink restaurants in Greater Manchester.
Back in 2022, they threw open the doors to their Chorlton restaurant, before returning back to home turf for spot number two in Monton in 2024.
The recipes are fresh and pretty authentically Italian up until the last step, when they throw a curveball by loading their pasta into unconventional vessels.
‘Pregnant’ pizzas at Lucky Mama’sTraditional Roman pizzasLucky Mama’s pink restaurant in Chorlton
Their pasta pizza bowls are what they’re best known for and they fly out of the kitchen – this is where pizza dough is placed around a metal bowl before being baked in an oven.
Then it’s piled high with freshly made pasta, with popular flavours like cacio e pepe, mushroom alfredo, and rasta pasta.
Pasta is available in a regular ceramic bowl too.
You’ll find Lucky Mama’s at 565 Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton; and 217 Monton Road in Eccles.
Georgina Pellant -
15th March 2023 
