Al-Azhar said it closed Tampines branch to cook for foreign worker dorms - SFA reveals its license was suspended

Popular supper spot Al-Azhar Eating Restaurant may have gotten some praise for shutting its Tampines outlet to provide food for foreign workers amid the Covid-19 crisis — but it turns out that the restaurant wasn't telling the full story.

In actual fact, the outlet's license was suspended by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) from April 20 to May 3 for offences including:

• Failure to keep the licensed premises clean
• Failure to maintain the temperature of the chiller
• Failure to ensure that appliances are kept clean

The restaurant, which had accumulated 12 demerit points over the last 12 months, was also fined a total of $900.

Al-Azhar, which has two other outlets located in Geylang Serai and Bukit Timah, broke the news on its temporary closure in a Facebook post on April 19, saying that it was a "preventive measure in the action against Covid-19".

In an interview with BERITAmediacorp, Al-Azhar's boss Husain Mansoor explained: "The Tampines branch is smaller than our two outlets. So we are worried that too many people are coming to such a small place."

Husain also told the Malay news website that the restaurant was temporarily halting operations at its Tampines branch as they had been engaged by the government to provide meals for foreign workers residing in dormitories.

With the closure of the outlet, Al-Azhar's central kitchen would be able to divert more resources to preparing food for the workers, Husain claimed. 

"That's why we decided to temporarily suspend operations at the Tampines branch," he said.

"This is to enable us to focus on cooking for foreign workers."

A total of 21 dormitories have been gazetted as isolation areas as of April 23. Foreign workers in other dormitories are also effectively on lockdown and are forbidden from leaving the premises.

The Ministry of Manpower is working with caterers to provide nearly 180,000 meals to the dormitories each day, CNA reported.

While it is indeed a worthy cause, perhaps Al-Azhar should have told the full story.

AsiaOne has reached out to Al-Azhar for comment.

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/AlAzharSG/photos/a.862091630472019/3463895336958289/?type=3&theatre[/embed]

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kimberlylim@asiaone.com