'Has this place been robbed?' Dominos eyesore riles customers

An Auckland Dominos customer has been left with a stale taste in his mouth after the dire state of the takeaway outlet's kitchen.

Karlos Pomare made the behind-the-scenes video after a staff member ran next door to get some Indian takeaways for dinner, while his boss remained on the phone at the back of the store.

The footage, posted on the Glenfield Facebook Community page, shows pizza trays, sauce and drink bottles, rubbish and food strewn all over the floor.

Other locals were so horrified by the mess the wondered what'd happened, with one posting "Ummm u sure they haven't been robbed again," while another wrote "were they robbed or something?"

Dominos has put the situation down to a "moment in time" when the sole staff member was busy cleaning.

The Glenfield local said he went into the Chartwell branch sometime after 8.30pm yesterday, after placing an order online, and was shocked at what he saw.

"I went to pay for my meal first and I walked in there and saw the mess and thought to myself, 'eh, what's going on?'."

He was told his sides were not ready so he waited. Pomare said the staff member then ran out a side door to the neighbouring Indian takeaways.

He watched as his sides were ready and sat there for several minutes.

"I just looked back and this Asian fulla was on the phone, behind the oven ... I said to him 'excuse me, my [sides] are ready it's been sitting there for three minutes now' and he said 'oh sorry, sorry and was looking around'.

"I said 'oh what's going on' and then his mate comes running in the door and [manager] goes 'where have you been?' and he said 'oh I was next door ordering food'."

Pomare said that was why there was no one in the video as he filmed.

He said as well the two staff members there was a third in a "back room".

"The fridge was open, there's sauce all over the ground, there's flies everywhere it was just a mess, a complete mess.

"If you look the fridge was open as well, and if you look through the oven he's actually just standing there on the phone."

He was shocked at the state of the place.

"I have been to this Dominos before and plenty of times, I'm born and bred Glenfield, North Shore and it's the first time in my life I've ever come across this there."

He said he had been contacted by the store through a third party to go down and get a refund, but he wasn't interested.

"It's not the point, eh, I don't want the money and that back all I want is to let people know that it's not right to have your workplace looking like that.

"I just want Dominos to sort it out eh, it's not right."

However, a Domino's spokesman said there was only one staff member on at the time who was restocking the fridge when a stack of pans fell to the ground.

"The video reflected a moment in time last night; the single team member on duty was restocking the fridge when some stacked pans fell from a bench. He immediately stopped what he was doing to gather cleaning materials, which was when the video was filmed."

Despite the varying version of events, the company and the Glenfield franchisee admitted they were "disappointed in the presentation of our local store last night".

"Store cleanliness is important to us and is regularly audited by Domino's and the local council. The Auckland City Council's awarded the store an A rating on its most recent inspection."

The spokesman said it was an isolated incident and the company had rigorous training and inspections of food safety and handling procedures.

"Every store's food preparation areas cleaned and sanitised at least every 90 minutes. All pizza make-rings and tools are swapped for clean equipment at the same time."

The company apologised to Pomare and invited him into the store to make it up to him and speak with the franchisee.