Worthing Food Hygiene: Finch Rated 0, Two 1s in August

Finch Bar & Eatery on Warwick Street was given a food hygiene rating of 0 after an inspection on 18 August. It is now the only premises in Worthing borough rated 0, out of 1,023 on the register.

The rating was not on the register when we published our August roundup on 1 September. Nor were three other low scores from the same month: two ratings of 1 and a 2. They have appeared since.

That is how the scheme works, not an error. A rating of 5 is published as soon as the council uploads it. Ratings from 0 to 4 are published three to five weeks after the inspection, so the business has time to appeal. (Food Hygiene Rating Scheme guidance for businesses)

It means any list of the latest month’s ratings is mostly 5s by design. Forty September ratings are on the register so far, and 39 are 5s. That share is likely to fall as the rest arrive, so we list them below without calling it a good month yet.

Every figure here comes from the Food Standards Agency’s register, which carries each rating issued by Worthing Borough Council’s food safety team. (Food Standards Agency ratings for Worthing, retrieved 6 October 2026)

The four low ratings from August

The scheme describes a 0 as “urgent improvement necessary”, a 1 as “major improvement necessary” and a 2 as “improvement necessary”.

The register breaks each inspection into three areas. Here is what the inspectors recorded.

Finch Bar & Eatery, 0. Hygienic food handling: improvement necessary. Cleanliness and condition of the building: improvement necessary. Management of food safety: urgent improvement necessary. (FSA, Finch Bar & Eatery)

The Ardington Hotel, 1. Food handling: improvement necessary. Cleanliness and condition: generally satisfactory. Management of food safety: major improvement necessary. (FSA, The Ardington Hotel)

Jenito’s fried chicken, 1. Food handling: improvement necessary. Cleanliness and condition: improvement necessary. Management of food safety: major improvement necessary. (FSA, Jenito’s fried chicken)

Jasmine Thai, 2. Food handling: generally satisfactory. Cleanliness and condition: improvement necessary. Management of food safety: generally satisfactory. (FSA, Jasmine Thai)

In three of the four, the weakest area was management of food safety. That covers the checks a business keeps to show its food is safe, and whether staff know the basics. It is the area where an inspector judges whether standards will hold once they have left.

The register records what an officer found on one visit. It does not say what was wrong in detail, and none of the four has published a right to reply. Each business can:

• appeal the rating in writing within 21 days of being told it
• publish a right to reply on the FSA page at any time before its next inspection
• ask for a re-rating inspection once it has made the improvements

(Food Hygiene Rating Scheme guidance for businesses)

If any of them asks for a re-inspection and the rating changes, we will update this report.

September so far: 40 ratings published

The one below 5 so far is Ginza Sushi, in Dominion Buildings on Dominion Road, which scored 4 on 2 September. That counts as “good” under the scheme. It is also one of the few September ratings old enough for a lower score to have been published.

Thirteen of the 5s went to care homes, nurseries and schools, where the food is cooked for residents and children rather than sold. The rest include names a Worthing resident will know: GAIL’s and Thieves Kitchen on Warwick Street, Saltio on Marine Parade, Trading Post Coffee Roasters on Montague Street, Laughing Dog on Brighton Road and Mr Chippy on Tarring Road.

Expect this list to grow, and its share of 5s to fall, as September’s lower ratings reach the register in October. We will report them in next month’s roundup.

How 2026 has gone, month by month

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Taking each premises’ current rating and grouping it by the month of inspection gives this pattern:

• January: 23 of 28 rated 5, 82%
• February: 39 of 52, 75%
• March: 31 of 44, 70%
• April: 25 of 31, 81%
• May: 11 of 14, 79%
• June: 13 of 20, 65%
• July: 30 of 49, 61%
• August: 26 of 36, 72%

September is not in this list. Its lower ratings are still inside the three to five week publishing delay, so any share worked out now would flatter it.

The register only keeps a premises’ latest rating. When a business is re-inspected, its older score drops out, so earlier months can shrink over time. That is why May and June show slightly fewer inspections here than in our August report.

Including September’s first 40, the register holds 314 Worthing ratings from 2026: 237 fives, 48 fours, 9 threes, 9 twos, 10 ones and the single 0.

The whole register

Of the 1,023 premises on Worthing’s register:

• 763 hold a 5 and 117 hold a 4
• 22 hold a 3
• 17 hold a 2, 15 hold a 1 and one holds a 0
• 48 are waiting for their first inspection and 40 are exempt

Thirteen of the 33 premises rated 2 or below were last inspected in 2025.

What it means for you

• Check before you book or order. Every rating can be looked up free by name or street on the FSA’s ratings site.
• Read the date as well as the number. A low score from August says what an officer found on that day. A business may have fixed the problems since, and a re-rating would show it.
• Stickers are voluntary in England. A window without one tells you nothing either way.
• If something worries you about a Worthing food business, the council’s food safety team takes reports at environmental.health@adur-worthing.gov.uk.
• Looking for somewhere to eat? Our Worthing local business directory lists the town’s cafes, pubs and takeaways.

Sources

• Food Standards Agency ratings API, all 1,023 premises for Worthing (local authority 283), retrieved 6 October 2026
• FSA rating pages for Finch Bar & Eatery, The Ardington Hotel, Jenito’s fried chicken and Jasmine Thai
• Food Hygiene Rating Scheme guidance for businesses, for what each score means, the 21-day appeal window, the right to reply and re-rating inspections