A restaurant in Manhattan’s Koreatown was shut down Wednesday following an inspection triggered by a purchaser’s report of a dull rat in soup delivered to their home over the weekend.
Eunice Lucero-Lee and her husband ordered sogogi gukbap — a spicy beef soup dish — on Saturday from Gammeeok, a popular spot inside the area. The couple had been visiting the enterprise for a decade, nonetheless they’re now suing it for leaving them “disgusted and violently sick.”
A video and images Lucero-Lee posted on Instagram current what appears to be a dull mouse floating inside the stew. “Which may be a rat in our soup,” she confirmed in her submit, describing it as a result of the “most disgusting issue.”
The invention left the couple “disgusted and violently sick, inflicting them to vomit and search medical consideration,” based mostly on their swimsuit filed this week.
They declare to endure from “excessive, crucial and eternal accidents” and accused Gammeeok of “negligent infliction of emotional distress.”
Gammeeok, which has one different division in Fort Lee, New Jersey, remained open even after the couple notified the restaurant regarding the order, Lucero-Lee acknowledged. In an change, she well-known that the incident was moreover reported to the New York Metropolis Effectively being Division, which reportedly took movement by shutting them down on Wednesday.
As of Thursday afternoon, Gammeeok has a “C” rating on the nicely being firm’s website, which has however to be updated. Inspections on March 3, 2020; June 15, 2022; and Jan. 18, 2023, all revealed sanitary violations, ranging from failure to protect meals from “potential provide of contamination” to the presence of filth flies, or “meals/refuse/sewage associated to (FRSA) flies.”
Lucero-Lee, {{a magazine}} editor, maintained that she and her husband keep “proud supporters” of Asian meals and warned in opposition to using their experience to fuel additional anti-Asian hate.
Now we’ve been going to this restaurant for a decade and are in some other case proud supporters of Asian delicacies and custom. This incident is by no means to be used to fuel race-based hate or prejudice and I’ll have a problem with anyone who makes use of those posts to swimsuit that narrative.
Gammeeok, then once more, has retaliated with Instagram posts of its private, denying seeing any rat whereas preparing the soup.
In response to the restaurant, it reviewed security footage and “couldn’t uncover any points.”
“After we transferred the soup, we served it 4 cases with a ladle whereas the staff watched it with their eyes,” Gammeeok stated. “If there was a mouse that massive, there’s no means I wouldn’t have missed it.”
Gammeeok went on to say that the couple had made the identical nonetheless now-deleted Yelp consider about one different restaurant in Koreatown, this time involving “flies.” The enterprise moreover refuted allegations that it tried to bribe their means out of the incident with $5,000.
For now, Gammeeok has a “closed” sign on its entrance door.
Fabien Levy, a advisor for Mayor Eric Adams, confirmed the restaurant’s closure in a press launch to TMZ.
No New York Metropolis restaurant is allowed to have mice or rats on the menu and we’re investigating extra. Our excessive priority is defending the nicely being of New Yorkers and if a restaurant has conditions that threaten our metropolis’s diners, they will be shut down.
Effectively being inspectors reportedly found rat droppings on the restaurant, TMZ well-known. The enterprise moreover allegedly didn’t retailer meals on the best temperature, lacked a talented supervisor and had been working with out appropriate permits.
How Gammeeok plans to indicate its future spherical is however to be seen. In a comment under Lucero-Lee’s submit, the restaurant reportedly acknowledged it plans to take licensed movement in opposition to the couple for “attacking us through social media.”
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