Diners tucking into £4.50 plates of Chinese food are blissfully unaware Safi-Tix Noodle Bar restaurant has a serious problem with hygiene.

Its owner Lalbaz Safi from Croydon, and manager Fung Tiang Lim, pleaded guilty at Croydon Magistrates’ Court on Friday to three charges of violating food hygiene regulations.

The restaurant, which serves a buffet and takeaway, remains open as Croydon Council urgently seeks to get it shut down for good.

Lim and Safi, who waved and smiled as they left the court on Friday, are due to appear before magistrates on November 26 to argue why their restaurant should remain open.

Food safety officers were alerted to the filthy state of the restaurant, which seats 50 people, by a customer who spotted a rat.

On December 10, 2009, shocked officers inspecting the kitchen basement were confronted with a dead, rotten rat in the wash-up room, dropped chicken wings mouldering behind the freezer and mice and rat droppings in bags of spices and basmati rice.

In a large storage room near the kitchen there were rodent droppings in spilled potato starch and flour that showed small animal footprints and tail marks.

Food safety officers reported a strong smell of urine at the top of the staircase leading down to the basement, synonymous with a rat infestation.

They discovered raw chicken that had been left to defrost in a basin next to another, which had not been washed for some time and was encrusted in dirt.

Rice and cooked lamb were left exposed in the rat and cockroach-infested basement, to cool overnight.

Food had spilled out on to the shelves where it was contaminated with rodent droppings and the carpet tiles in the storage room were sticky with grease and encrusted with food.

Revolted inspectors shut the restaurant down for five days while pest control contractors worked to eradicate the rats, mice, cockroaches and larder beetles found on the premises.

The owners were told to use heavy duty degreasers and detergents to clean the grease and dirt encrusted on the floors and walls of the kitchen and storage rooms and rat droppings out of the cupboards and the toilet areas.

But after several inspections Lim and Safi were taken to court for serious breaches of health regulations after failing to carry out basic hygiene tasks.

Councillor Steve O’Connell, cabinet member for community safety said: “Our officers have been quite shocked by the lack of co-operation from the owners of this restaurant. We have spent considerable time trying to get them to improve their standards, but even after repeated visits we have been unable to get them to meet some of the most basic food hygiene rules and guidelines.

“In taking this case to court we hope that we are not only protecting the health of potential customers, but also sending out a strong message to other food operators to ensure that we don’t see this sort of situation arise again.”

Mr Lim and Mr Safi pleaded guilty to failing to provide adequate procedures for controlling pests, failing to protect food against contamination that was likely to render it unfit for human consumption and failing to keep the premises in good repair and condition.