TGI Friday’s, the American diner chain, has been fined £30,000 after pleading guilty to a catalogue of hygiene offences uncovered by Westminster council.
Inspectors shut down its Covent Garden restaurant last year after finding a pile of dead cockroaches, mouse droppings and grease-covered cabinets in its kitchens.
A follow-up clean-up operation, which cost the chain £66,000, caught 65 mice and it took six days for the restaurant to reopen.
The council conducted a surprise visit on the restaurant after receiving six separate complaints from customers who had seen mice scuttling around inside.
Environmental health officers from the council closed down the popular restaurant in Bedford Place, Covent Garden, on July 2, 2008 following its inspection.
It was found to be riddled with mouse droppings, including on an open bag of sugar and on a shelf next to drinking straws.
The insides of some of the kitchen units were also encrusted in a thick layer of yellow fat and grease and there was no hot water in the hand basins, said Westminster Council.
The restaurant pleaded guilty to six offences under the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006 at City of Westminster Magistrates on Wednesday 26th August 2009, and was ordered to pay the maximum fine of £5000 per offence, as well as covering all the council's costs.
Environmental health manager James Armitage said: "A restaurant of the size and stature of TGIs should be an exemplar to others, but this is one of the worst cases I've ever come across and the restaurant was virtually a breeding ground for rodents. It was made all the worse by the fact that staff had known about the mice infestation for over year."
