Everybody knows the “waiter, there’s a fly in my soup” jokes. But it was no joke for Andrea Svensson when she tried to tuck into her French onion soup at a prestigious restaurant in Gothenburg, Sweden. Svensson was on a date with her long term boyfriend and fianc who had splashed out on a romantic evening – but the night took a wrong turn when her starter was served with the floating insect. “I feel sick just talking about it,” said Miss Svensson, 27 years old. “I would have swallowed the filthy insect if my boyfriend hadn’t seen it.” Angry, the pair straight away called over the waiter with their complaint. Now this waiter then proceeded to do the worst thing possible for customer service – thinking they were joking, he laughed off the complaint and walked away! “Sounds like a joke I know, but it wasn’t funny at all. said boyfriend David. “It really killed our appetite – hygiene is really important to me, especially at these prices. To be honest I just got more annoyed when he laughed it off as a joke.” In the end they had to get hold of the manager of the restaurant, who, upon seeing the insect apologised and offered the couple dinner at no charge. This offer was hurriedly refused by the pair, who were by this stage not feeling so hungry any more and decided to leave.

Joking aside, any restaurant knows how big a health and safety nightmare this situation could be. The hot summer weather naturally attracts insects, especially in a food preparation area, and installing a low cost insect killer is an absolute must in any commercial kitchen. This particular restaurant however, not being used to hot days in the Swedish climate, didnt have one. “It’s a warning to us that we need to do something about it,” said the head chef later. “This has never happened here before and we need to make sure it never does.”. We do take hygiene very seriously in our kitchens, and actually have an air purifier already to trap airborne viruses, as well as air conditioners throughout the restaurant.” In a way it’s a blessing for other restaurants, who should really take this opportunity to learn the lessons here. Reputations have been shredded in the past on incidents such as these. Not to mention attracting larger bugs like health inspectors, who can quite easily close an establishment down for something so simple and cheap to prevent.