ONE of York’s highest rated restaurants has scored one-star for food hygiene.
Damastique at 63 Goodramgate received the rating, meaning major improvement necessary, following an inspection on August 11.
The Food Standards Agency website says that for hygienic food handling, it was a matter of improvement necessary.
The same rating was given for the cleanliness and condition of the facilities and the building.
But for management of food safety, the rating was major improvement necessary.
Damastique opened early in 2025 and is owned by Qusay Amer.
Qusay told the Press: “We believe the inspection process was fair and we fully accept the findings.
“We take responsibility for the issues identified and have used this as an opportunity to improve.”
“The report highlighted areas including food storage, cleaning standards, maintenance, kitchen floor, flaking walls, and documentation.
The interior of Damastique (Image: Tripadvisor)
For example, while food in our cold room was covered and labelled, some items such as eggs were not stored on the correct shelf.
“There were also issues with record-keeping on the day, partly due to a temporary failure of our digital food safety system, and some communication challenges with staff.”
His statement continued: “There was no evidence of any reported illness or harm to customers.
However, we recognise that the required standards were not fully met on the day and we take that very seriously.
“We acted immediately to correct all issues raised.
This included reorganising food storage, completing a full deep clean, carrying out repairs, improving procedures, and retraining staff.
We worked closely with environmental health officers, who have since revisited and confirmed they are satisfied with the improvements made.
Qusay added: “We are now awaiting a re-inspection and are confident our rating will improve.
This has been a valuable learning experience, we took it the positive way and we remain fully committed to maintaining the highest standards of food safety and hygiene.”
Since Damastique opened in early 2025, the authentic Middle Eastern restaurant has received many rave reviews.
Tripadvisor rates the venue as “excellent”, giving it 4.9 stars out of five based on 736 reviews.
The website ranks it 6th out of 939 York restaurants and also awarded a 2026 Tripadvisor Best of the Best Award for 2026.
Google awards Damastique 4.7 stars out of five based on 1972 reviews.
The most recent Tripadvisor review said: “Slight bias as I love Lebanese/med food and this did not disappoint.
We had the cold started platter and chicken Shwarma (we actually weren’t that hungry) and the cacophony off tastes that came through from the cold platter was truly amazing to the extent where I feel I could go there every day and have the same meal and not feel disappointed.
“Five stars for me for both the food and the excellent staff, particularly our server Kriti.
Wonderful place and superb food.
Well done to the owner!!”
The most recent Google review said: “Brilliant place.
Food is excellent.
Not expensive, great service.
Highly recommended.”