Restaurant boss Kunal Soni was fined almost £4,000 (Picture: SWNS)

An exotic steakhouse has been slapped with a fine of almost £4,000 after diners were unwittingly served horse meat when they had ordered Zebra.

The Steakhouse in Watford, Herts, was found to be serving the equine delicacy when undercover trading standards officers visited the restaurant.

After placing an order for zebra and wildebeest, the inspectors conducted an on-the-spot search of the kitchen.

They found tickets for their orders, which read: ‘1 venison, chips and salad; 1 horse, chips and salad’ – with no mention of the wildebeest or zebra they had chosen.


The meat was subsequently sent for tests – and the zebra meat was identified as horse, while the wildebeest turned out to be red deer.

The Zebra meat served at the restaurant was discovered to actually be Horse

A subsequent search of the establishment by trading officers then unearthed 22kg of horse meat in the restaurant’s freezer.



Kunal Soni, 32, who served the officers on April 25 last year, didn’t deny the offences but claimed he was only helping out at the restaurant.

But magistrates in St Albans argued otherwise – having discovered that Soni had previously described himself as the manager to local authorities on three separate occasions.

Soni, of Hemel Hempstead, Herts, was slapped with a fine of £3,860 and also received a 12-month conditional discharge following a trial on Monday.

Richard Thake, the Hertford County Council cabinet member for community protection, said: ‘The public must have confidence in the food that is put in front of them when eating out.

‘Passing off food as something that it is not puts other competing businesses at a disadvantage and undermines the trust in the market.’