THE owner of an East Oxford Nepalese restaurant hit badly by a low hygiene score hopes a new four star rating will bring customers back.

Tilak Upadhya said people stopped dining at his Everest Nepalese Restaurant in Howard Street after council inspectors found cockroaches and cobwebs in the kitchen.

But environmental health officers revisited at the end of January and were satisfied all improvements had been done and issued a four star rating.

Mr Upadhya said he was pleased to get back on track and hoped it would bring customers back to sample his Nepalese food.

He said: "We did everything the inspectors asked of us and have made everything clean.

"We are happy to get a four-star rating and feel that we maybe even deserved a five but we are still pleased.

"The staff underwent training and we sorted out our temperature checks and the cleanliness of the place."

The restaurant, set in the former pub the Donnington Arms, won the Golden Poppadom Award from the Oxford Boys Curry Club in 2010 after it opened a year earlier.

It is also popular on reviews website Trip Advisor and rated in the top 70 out of 470 restaurants in Oxford.

But when Oxford City Council paid a visit in February last year inspectors found a hefty list of hygiene horrors at the establishment, which included cockroaches, cobwebs and kitchen dirt.

Traps had been laid following a pest control visit before the inspection and staff were ordered to continue to monitor them ahead of a hygiene revisit.

At the time the management admitted to the Oxford Mail that there had been a pest problem but that it had been eradicated, adding they were confident of returning to a high score in the future.

The report issued a number of improvements the team were legally required to make

Staff were also ordered to clean the entire kitchen, get a thermometer that works, replace a cracked window, ensure doors were shut to prevent pests wandering in and redecorate the place where possible.

The owner said the damaging score had been keeping loyal customers away.

He said: "It has stopped people coming along, we have noticed it.

"The important thing now is that we have done everything and we are really positive and I hope customers start coming back to the restaurant."

The restaurant and bar, in Howard Street, opens seven days a week between 12pm and 2pm and then again from 5.30pm to 11.30pm.