The Royal Masala on Chertsey Road was rated 1 in August. It is one of 16 August ratings below a 5 that only reached the register after our last roundup.

The Royal Masala on Chertsey Road has been given a food hygiene rating of 1, “major improvement necessary”. The inspection was on 12 August 2026. The rating was not on the public register when we last checked, on 2 September.

It is not the only late arrival. Sixteen August inspections in Woking borough have now been published with a rating below 5. None of them was visible three weeks ago.

Why the lower ratings turn up late

This is how the scheme is designed, not a council delay. The Food Standards Agency’s guidance for businesses says ratings of 5 “will be published as soon as the information is uploaded by your local authority”. Ratings of 0 to 4 “will be published 3 to 5 weeks after the date of inspection to allow for an appeal to be submitted” (Food Standards Agency).

So any list of a month’s ratings taken early in the next month shows the fives and almost nothing else. Our 2 September roundup said August was “another clean sweep”. That was wrong, and we have added a correction to it.

Bar chart of Woking's 28 food hygiene inspections in August 2026 by rating: 12 rated 5, 8 rated 4, 7 rated 3, none rated 2, 1 rated 1 and none rated 0. Only the twelve 5s were on the register on 2 September.
Chart by Woking Online. Source: Food Standards Agency register, retrieved 24 September 2026.
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The register now shows 28 Woking inspections dated August 2026:

Rating August inspections
5, very good 12
4, good 8
3, generally satisfactory 7
2, improvement necessary 0
1, major improvement necessary 1
0, urgent improvement necessary 0

What the inspector found at The Royal Masala

Inspectors score three things separately. The FSA’s page for The Royal Masala at 39 Chertsey Road records:

  • Hygienic food handling: improvement necessary
  • Cleanliness and condition of facilities and building: generally satisfactory
  • Management of food safety: major improvement necessary

That pattern is familiar in Woking. When we looked at the borough’s 27 businesses on a 1 in August, every one of them had scored badly on management of food safety: the records, training and checks a business can show an inspector. The Royal Masala’s management score is the same 20 points.

No right to reply is published against the entry. The business can still appeal, publish a reply, or ask for a re-inspection once it has made improvements.

The seven rated 3

A 3 means “generally satisfactory”. These were all inspected in August:

The eight rated 4

September so far: 14 fives

Fourteen Woking businesses have September inspection dates on the register, and all 14 are rated 5. Given the publishing rule, that tells you who did well. It does not yet tell you who did badly, and any lower September ratings should appear by mid-October.

The fives include four school kitchens and three childcare or care settings:

And places people eat and shop:

Where the borough stands

Woking’s register now lists 783 establishments. The borough still has no business on a 0.

Rating 2 September 24 September
5 495 492
4 137 141
3 56 60
2 4 4
1 27 27
0 0 0

A further 56 premises are exempt from rating and three are awaiting a first inspection. The number of fives fell by three over the same three weeks, even though every September rating so far is a 5. The register does not say which entries changed, so we cannot tell how much of that is re-rating and how much is businesses closing.

What it means for you

A rating is a snapshot of one visit, and the FSA register is free to search at ratings.food.gov.uk.

Two things are worth knowing when you look:

  • A very recent 5 can appear within days. A lower rating takes three to five weeks. If a place you use was inspected recently and nothing new shows yet, check back.
  • Open the three component scores. They show whether the problem was the food handling, the building or the paperwork.

For more local reporting, see what the end of Woking’s saturation zone means for licensed premises, and our guides to parking in Woking and Woking planning applications.

Sources