A Watford restaurant has failed to improve its 1/5 food hygiene rating, despite addressing several issues.

Inspectors gave Creed Restaurant and Lounge the second lowest possible score after an inspection on September 26, despite rating hygienic food handling and the cleanliness and condition of the facilities and building as 'good'.

“Major improvement” was necessary at the St Albans Road eatery in the management of food safety category, according to the Food Standards Agency.

Last week, Watford Borough Council confirmed that a revisit was carried out on October 18 to check whether Creed had addressed the 10 issues it had identified.

Measures to address five of the issues were found to have been completed, and “good progress” was made on three.

However, one of the remaining problems, food in storage not being in their original containers and being unlabelled, was still only partly completed. Inspectors said this was important so staff know best-before dates and can ensure traceability.

The final issue, replacing the plastic seal to the preparation area wash hand basin, remained outstanding.

It was decided that “whilst progress has been made”, Creed Restaurant and Lounge will retain the 1/5 rating awarded at the original inspection until the next routine inspection or a rating reassessment inspection is requested.

Owner Aziz Rasuli said that since the revisit Creed has now “improved everything”.

“I have applied for reinspection that probably will be done for around January,” he added. “Now everything is perfectly fine we are happy with the bits and pieces they asked us to improve.”

The other issues found, which have seen improvement, included documentation problems such as not using and downloading food safety management systems, not recording test cook temperatures, not documenting allergens, and not making a record of staff training.

A disorganised preparation area containing personal items and shisha equipment as well as food, items in the freezer not being labelled and dated, and a poorly organised servery area were also noted and addressed.

The restaurant held its official opening on July 20 this year, and serves a mix of traditional Afghan food, burgers, curries, vegetarian options and steak.

The shisha bar offers over 20 flavours of heated tobacco as well as an extensive mocktail menu.