“I went to the restaurant with several friends for a reunion. We were eating and chatting, and suddenly large mice were heard moving on the platform above. Suddenly all of us were surprised and stood up,” Nini said.

Nini tried to tell the waiter and the cashier what had happened, but they only responded with grins.

Thinking it was just a one-time event, Nini went to the same restaurant again with her spouse.

“We were eating, and a rat was passing by the floor. I told the waiter but he only grinned and said there were a lot of mice in there,” she said.

“Okay, now I will not be eating there, if even the waiter said that then I am not the only victim,” Nini added.

She then tried another restaurant in an upscale mall in South Jakarta, but had a similar experience as she saw several rats scurrying around a nearby drinks vending machine.

Experiences like Nini’s could be reported to the nearest municipality’s health agency to inspect the troubled restaurant, Jakarta Health Agency deputy head Khafifah Any said.

“If residents find [an unhygienic restaurant], they should just report it to us to follow it up,” Any told The Jakarta Post.

Any said that despite not having the authority to give out licenses, which is handled by the Jakarta One-Stop Integrated Service (PTSP) Agency, food establishments still needed to obtain a food hygiene certificate from the Jakarta Health Agency.

“They [restaurants] must take a course to obtain that certificate to receive a permit to operate from the PTSP Agency,” she said.

Any said that for catering businesses, the agency enlisted the help of the Association of Culinary Businesses to organize the training in each municipality.

“If we find something that is not up to standard yet, we will have to warn them, meaning that they should not operate yet.

Besides that, the agency also holds on-site inspections at food establishments, including street vendors, which proliferate during the fasting month of Ramadan, offering takjil (breaking of the fast snacks).

Any said that each community health center (Puskesmas) in districts and subdistricts organized health inspections by taking samples and running tests. She said that despite only publishing a certificate, rather than a permit, culinary businesses still had to regularly obtain a new certificate if their permit had expired and needed to get a new one at the PTSP Agency.

Malls in the city, on the other hand, claim to have kept their establishments hygienic to make sure customers do not see pests running around.

Indyruwani Asikin Natanegara, the trading and property director of PT Sarinah, which manages Sarinah mall in Central Jakarta, said the mall had about 50 food and beverage partners. The mall management has rules that partners are required to comply with.

“Their food as well as the quality and hygiene of the stalls must be well kept, food must only be loaded and unloaded at designated times, and they must follow the local regulations on drainage and waste disposal,” Indyruwani said.

Sarinah also carries out pest control every week as part of its own program, meanwhile the city agencies usually inspect the infrastructure of the buildings, such as fire extinguishers, AC, lifts and escalator.

Grand Indonesia mall spokesperson Annisa Hazarini said that each of the 146 food and beverage tenants must fulfil hygiene requirements such as having a kitchen hood, water filter, good housekeeping, their own pest control, storage and obtaining health certificates from the Health Agency to operate in the mall.

For pest control, Grand Indonesia cooperates with its pest control vendors.

“They are tasked with controlling pests and helping us supervise Grand Indonesia’s tenant areas. Each food and beverage business must also have its own pest control vendor for its area,” Annisa said.

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