Montreal Restaurant Defiant After $12,000 in Food Inspector Fines

What a week for Pushap, a popular Indian restaurant in Montreal's West Island suburb of Pierrefonds since 1989. Last Friday Stéphan Dussault, a reporter who diligently covers the food inspection beat for Le Journal de Montréal, took the restaurant to task for a range of offenses. The violations date back to 2012 and total some $12,000. In his article for Le Journal, Dussault chastised Pushap's French, and described the restaurant's hygiene problems as "incorrigible." Fines were handed down for a lack of general cleanliness, rusty and moldy kitchen tools, and the use of dirty rags to wipe down surfaces.

While inspectors did uncover a number of red flags at Pushap, the City of Montreal conceded to the CBC today that the visits took place in 2011, for the most part, and that the case has been resolved. Owner Vipan Mohan assured that he has since taken steps to address and correct the mistakes of the past. Moreover, despite Dussault's harangue, Mohan claimed "Saturday [was] the busiest day of my restaurant in last 30 years. The problem was our ignorance, we never knew how to reach the level of clean [the City wanted]."