As of: February 11, 2024, 11:05 a.m
By: Nina Bautz, Andreas Thieme
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Closed: the Türkitch branch on Humboldtstrasse.
© Photo: MM, symbolic image: Imago
Mold, cockroaches, mouse droppings.
Disgusting and hard to imagine?
But unfortunately it's a bitter reality in Munich's most popular snack bar, Türkitch.
Almost everyone in Munich was familiar with the long queue at Türkitch on Humboldtstrasse - in July 2023, the city banned operations there and sealed the doors.
The background is only now becoming clear: there were massive hygiene problems on site, as can be seen from documents from the district administration department and judgments from the administrative court.
Accordingly, food inspectors not only found dirty extractor hoods directly above the kebab skewer, but also broken glass on refrigerated counters, “large amounts of rodent droppings” and damaged electrical appliances.
Doner sauce was “prepared and stored in a plastic tub not suitable for food.”
Ugh deifi!
The KVR had identified deficiencies as early as May 2016, and mouse infestations were documented until spring 2023.
“The food produced, processed and marketed at the facility was exposed to a risk of contamination,” says the inspectors’ test report from May 16, 2023. Shortly afterwards, the Türkitch snack bar was closed!
“Repeatedly identified deficiencies”
Its boss, Hayri Onbasi, is bureaucratic.
He tells our newspaper through his lawyer: The company closure “was in connection with commercial law issues that are not primarily related to poor hygiene.”
The KVR, on the other hand, cites “persistent misconduct regarding food law regulations” that Onbasi had not remedied “despite verbal instructions and the imposition of fines,” says Matthias Prinzler, spokesman for the administrative court.
There, Onbasi had filed a lawsuit against the snack bar's closure - without success.
The judgment states: The repeatedly identified deficiencies show that “the plaintiff is unwilling or unable to comply with food law standards.”
Onbasi, on the other hand, says that “any complaints were always resolved promptly.”
According to the court, it wasn't his doing - but "only after previous, sometimes repeated checks and requests" from the city.
She even banned Onbasi from trading in February 2023.
The restaurateur also unsuccessfully sued against this.
The KVR reported the hygiene violations at Türkitch several times.
In September 2022, Onbasi received a penalty order from the district court: He had to pay 3,600 euros for intentionally placing “food unsuitable for human consumption” on the market.
Onbasi also had to pay a penalty in October 2023 for hygiene deficiencies from June 6, 2023 in the branch at Bahnhofsplatz 1, as the district court confirmed.
This time 6000 euros.
Since then, the Türkitch boss has had a criminal record.
However, two cases against an employee were dropped, and another is still ongoing at the district court.
As Onbasi lawyer Rene Hundertmark reports, Türkitch is planning to restructure the management of the snack bars on Humboldtstrasse and at the main train station - the latter is also now closed.
“The KVR did not order the branch at the main station to be closed,” explains spokesman Julian Chauve.
In addition to new management for both branches, Hundertmark also plans to “rent additional business space on Humboldtstrasse.”
Meanwhile, the snack bars at Rotkreuzplatz, Feilitzschstrasse and Türkenstrasse as well as at Pasinger Bahnhof are “open during normal operating hours”.
Pretzl: “Individual cases damage the entire industry”
When asked, Manuel Pretzl, CSU boss in the town hall, said: “Munich's gastronomy is of a very high quality overall.
Such blatant individual cases damage the entire industry.
The extent of the incidents is apparently serious.
It is important and right that hygiene violations are consistently punished by the city.
It is a great shame for the many Munich customers that such a popular snack chain apparently could not meet the requirements of a regulated and clean operation.”