In a rare move, Yukon health inspectors ordered the owners of the New Oriental to close their doors and clean up their act last week after finding unsanitary conditions in the downtown Chinese restaurant.

"For us to issue a closure notice is very unusual,” Pat Living, a Department of Health and Social Services spokeswoman, told the Star last Thursday afternoon, hours after the restaurant was permitted to re-open.

"... I can't remember any closure (in Whitehorse) in at least a decade.”

The establishment was shut down last Tuesday following its routine annual inspection, Living said.

Cleanliness was the primary problem, according to Living. The kitchen did not have hot water when inspectors arrived, she said, and the dish washing machine was not working.

There were neither soap nor hand towels for staff to wash their hands with, Living said, and the kitchen was not clean.

Inspectors also noted that "potentially hazardous” food had not been properly refrigerated, Living added.

Generally, inspectors issue "corrective notices” when they come upon one or two of the problems listed above, Living said, but the situation they encountered at the New Oriental was bad enough to earn an immediate closure notice.

By last Thursday morning, the restaurant's management had cleaned up the kitchen, fixed the dish washer and turned the hot water back on, and were permitted to re-open.

The New Oriental will now be subject to more regular visits from the health inspectors, Living said.

The department employs five environmental health officers, three of whom inspect restaurants.