A KOREAN restaurant in Frideswide Square has been slapped with the lowest possible food hygiene rating after council inspectors found "filthy" conditions in the kitchen.

Bamboo in Park End Street was given a zero rating by environmental health officers and even voluntarily closed down for a day after being branded "an imminent risk to health" following the inspection at the end of June.

The risk level was dropped and the restaurant re-opened following a revisit but staff have been given a long list of improvements to make.

The restaurant - which is described on its website as "the home of Korean food" and the first Korean restaurant in Oxford - was rated 'Bad' in the Food Hygiene and Safety category with filthy surfaces, salad being stored underneath drying old rags and a risk of pests all being mentioned.

The report read: "Food and hand contact surfaces were in filthy condition including light switches, door handles, etc.

"A programme of cleaning must be in place to ensure that surfaces are cleaned and disinfected as necessary and at regular intervals.

"In the corridor adjacent to the external door, salads were being chopped and prepared on a temporary surface.

"The salads were then placed in a large bin above which old rags were left hanging to dry - salads must be washed and stored as to prevent any further contamination to the food."

Inspectors also said open toilet doors had led to "foul air" wafting through to the food store and ordered staff to keep doors closed and consider installing self-closing devices.

Health and Safety breaches such as the meat slicer not having a safety guard and the damaged cord of a hair dryer being taped together were also noted.

Staff were instructed to undertake a Level 2 Food Hygiene qualification and a proper system for dating and preparing food needed to be put in place.

It said: "There was no clear system in place to separate the preparation of raw meat and poultry from other foods.

"This is necessary to reduce the risk of cross contamination and in particular E. coli contamination.

"In both cold rooms the chiller unit was malfunctioning causing water to drip from the unit onto the floor and food stored beneath - this is not acceptable owing to the risk of contamination."

Wipe cloths were also found to be unclean making it harder to then use them to clean surfaces.

Oxford City Council's environmental health officers gave the restaurant six weeks to make the changes which runs out at the end of this week.

Bamboo Restaurant failed to respond to a request for comment.