West Co’z Cafe investigating incident of cockroach nymph found in diner's fish head curry

Submitted by Stomper Chua

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West Co’z Cafe is conducting investigations after an incident where Stomper Chua found a cockroach nymph in his fish head curry dish from the restaurant, a spokesman told Stomp.

Stomper Chua said he had travelled from Buona Vista to West Coast Plaza with his family on Sunday (Feb 17).

At around 2pm, they stopped for lunch at West Co’z Cafe, which is located in the shopping mall.

One of the dishes that the family ordered to share was fish head curry.

Chua told Stomp: "We were eating halfway and I took a scoop of curry, ready to put it in my mouth, when I saw something resembling a cockroach nymph."

Chua said his family immediately stopped eating the dish and informed staff about his discovery, adding: "The servers apologised profusely and waived off the cost of the dish from our bill.

"However, that's not what I am after. I am just sharing this so that the overall hygiene awareness of food and beverage vendors can be raised.

"This could have happened anywhere. In a developed country like Singapore, we pay quite a lot of money for dishes like that. So we should expect food that is hygienic and safe."

According to Stomper Chua, the incident caused him to lose his appetite.

He added: "What could have been a pleasant Sunday lunch ended with an awful feeling in our gut.

"Fortunately, the carcass of this cockroach was detected before being ingested."

In response to a Stomp query, a spokesman for West Co’z Cafe said the management has reached out to Stomper Chua for more information and is conducting investigations at its restaurant.

The spokesman told Stomp: "Food hygiene is utmost of importance in our company policy and we always remind our staff to enforce it in their daily work at the restaurant.

"We also have weekly pest control personnel coming to our outlet for inspection and maintenance of pest control measures installed in our premises.

"We have given all our staff stern warning on the consequence of hygiene lapse, while investigations for this case are still ongoing through review of CCTV.

"We also constantly remind them to refresh themselves with materials from food handling courses by the NEA which have fundamentals to food preparation and food handling.

"Our staff must understand that they are preparing meals for other people and they should treat it like preparing the meal for a loved one at home.

"Our signature curry fish head is our crowd favourite and we have rave reviews with people coming from all over just to savour the dish.

"Further, as a Halal-certified restaurant, our aim is to provide affordable local favourite ZiChar dishes to everyone. This has been so since we opened in 2007.

"While investigations are still ongoing, we will keep Stomper Chua updated. It is truly unfortunate this happened and the management of West Co’z Cafe is determined to make it right."