A city centre restaurant has apologised after foul-mouthed lyrics from a song being played at the premises left customers shocked.

Diners were stunned to hear an obscenity blaring out as families enjoyed Good Friday meals at the buffet@bradford Chinese eaterie. To make matters worse, the offending word was printed out on the screen each time it was used.

One man was so offended he complained to staff in charge. He later told the T&A: “Would the manager like his children listening to this while enjoying a family meal?”

Bradford Council’s lead member for communities, Imran Hussain, said the affair was “distasteful”.

But the restaurant’s manager said the offending lyrics were due to an automatic music system which plays tracks at random. Dominic Leung apologised and said: “We will do our best not to let this kind of thing happen again.”

Retired biological researcher Stephen Lilley was eating alone on Good Friday afternoon when he picked up on the song’s obscene lyrics.

“It was simply not appropriate,” said the 67-year-old grandfather. “It was blaring out. There is no way children could avoid it.”

As he left, Mr Lilley voiced his concerns to staff and thinks other people also made complaints. “I think they realised they had made a blunder,” he said. “I was shocked, especially as this was Good Friday. We shouldn’t have to put up with this sort of thing.”

Coun Hussain said: “Whatever the day or time, in restaurants and public places, great care needs to be taken as to what people are exposed to.

“It is not the sort of thing I would expect to hear in the middle of the afternoon and people are right to raise concerns. I certainly wouldn’t want to be in that kind of environment.”

Coun Hussain said people with concerns about such matters should inform the council which could channel the issue to the relevant department.

Mr Leung said: “We apologise for any offence.

“Because we were busy, we put our music system on to auto rather than manual and so tracks were played on a random basis. We are really sorry.

“When we use the manual system, we can choose the music, but on this occasion that was not the case. We usually pick which songs are played.”