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Kota Kinabalu: Never say no when nature calls. But, finding a clean restroom in restaurants or coffee shops is no mean feat, especially when everyone seems to have a 'toilet horror story' to tell. But not for enterprising couple, Zarifah Mohamed Fowzi, 28, and Muhammad Anas, 29, who run the Nook Café in Australia Place along Jalan Dewan here.

The loo to their establishment is impeccably spotless, and was awarded a four-star rating in the City Hall's 'Cleanest Restroom in a Restaurant or Coffee Shop Competition' on Monday.

They came in second after a Korean-run restaurant, the only five-star rating recipient, took the top prize.

According to Zarifah, dirty toilets had always been a pet peeve and hence, keeping the toilet area, along with other areas spotless had always been the priorities at Nook Cafe when it started operating in January this year.

"It reflects our hygiene standards which is especially important in food service," the former pharmacist told the Daily Express, here.

One of the approaches, Zarifah said is to schedule servers on duty to keep check and make sure the toilet is always clean and constantly dry.

For the feat, the couple received RM1,500, a certificate and a plaque which was handed to them by Mayor Datuk Yeo Boon Hai in a ceremony here.

She said she would use the money for the operations of the café that serve specialty coffee, sandwiches, waffles and western food.

Six premises all of which are concept restaurants were named winners of the competition including Nook Café.

Yeo said 12 premises were shortlisted the best from 1,100 restaurants and coffee shops in the competition and judged based on the star-rating guidelines of the Local Government and Housing Ministry.

According to him, the quality of restrooms in most of the establishments are generally 'fair' but the competition only awards the best.

On another development, Yeo said his men has removed a 'provocative' restroom sign installed at a restaurant in Inanam.

The gender restroom sign showed the male icon climbing against a partition to peep at the woman icon in the next room.

Yeo said the action was taken after noting a report in a local paper of a woman complaining that the sign was suggesting that there was nothing wrong for men to peep at women during the call of nature.