A kebab shop owner has issued a public apology over a customer’s “terrible experience” while he was away on holiday and admitted feeling betrayed” by the staff he left in charge.

Cafer Zorlu, who owns House on the Hill, in East Hill, Dartford, was devastated when he returned from a week-long break to find a post on social media complaining about his business.

Having taken over the shop in 2011, Cafer, who has worked there since he was 17, was outraged to hear about the customer’s experience.

He posted a heartfelt apology on Facebook revealing he had made staffing changes in light of the situation and always worked hard to give his customers the best.

“I want to put across my apologies to the customer who had a terrible experience at my takeaway,” he wrote.

He said he was “appalled” at the quality of the food the customer was served and “felt betrayed” by the staff he had left to run the shop.

He added: “I have warned my staff members of what happened and how betrayed I felt and I have made changes to who cooks and serves from now on as some of my workforce has shown that they are not capable of it.”

Explaining why he took such public action, the 37-year-old said: “I was worried we had lost the trust of customers. We are not here to do over our customers. We respect our customers and I pride myself on offering a quality service.

“My aim has always been to try and give the best experience we can to the customers who pick us to eat from.

“I felt like I had to let the community I have been a part of for over 20 years and from which I have made many friends know how I felt as an owner and how appalled I was at something that had come out of somewhere I had put a lot of my time into.”

Since the apology Cafer says he has a very positive response from customers.

“I was feeling quite ill and down about it all in those first few days,” he said. “But we have had some good feedback and it has really boosted morale again.”

“Takes a lot of courage to come up front. Wishing you well in the future...”

His honesty went down well, with hundreds of comments praising him for his refreshing attitude.

One woman said: “Best kebab shop in Dartford by a mile, it won’t put us off.”

Another said: “Takes a lot of courage to come up front. Wishing you well in the future.”

Another customer agreed. “Been going to House on the Hill for over 20 years and have never had a bad experience. Well done to the owner for coming forward and expressing his disappointment in his staff. Still going to order from them.”