food and drinks
March 15, 2023 | 23:49
Stop if you’re squeamish: A photo shared by Lucero-Lee appears to show a rat floating in soup.
Instagram/@eunichiban
A NYC couple claims they found a dead rodent in soup they ordered from a popular Koreatown restaurant over the weekend, but the eatery is dismissing that claim as “nonsense.”
Eunice Lucero-Lee posted a series of photos and videos of what appears to be a dead black rat floating in the soup she said she and her husband had delivered Saturday from Gammeeok in Manhattan.
“We ordered the sogogi gukbap, which is kind of a hearty Korean beef soup,” Lucero-Lee told NewsBreak via email.
The Post reached out to Lucero-Lee, a senior editor at Hearst, for comment.
She reported filing a lawsuit against the restaurant, which also has a location in Fort Lee, NJ.
“After seeking legal advice, my husband and I are now comfortable sharing something that happened to us over the weekend,” Lucero-Lee wrote this week on Instagram.
“We ordered from a well-known restaurant called Gammeeok in K-Town and found our food most disgusting.”
She continued: “We have been going to this restaurant for a decade and are otherwise proud supporters of Asian cuisine and culture. This incident is in no way to fuel racial hatred or prejudice and I will take issue with anyone who using these posts to fit that narrative.”
Lucero-Lee said the couple is sharing their allegations to “spread awareness and hopefully make sure the right people are held accountable.”
She also said she contacted the NYC health department. On its website, the agency lists a “C” rating for the Manhattan location.
A Jan. 18 inspection revealed several alleged sanitation violations, including a food contact surface that was not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use; and food, supplies, and equipment not protected from a potential source of contamination.
Posten contacted the health department and Gammeeok for a comment.
In a set of Instagram posts Wednesday, the restaurant said the couple’s claims don’t “make sense.”
“We are open 24 hours a day and there are at least 3 or 4 people in the kitchen at all times,” the restaurant wrote. “As you can see in the video, it doesn’t make sense for a rat to avoid people and go into a pot on a hot fire.”
Gammeeok added: “When we transferred the soup, we served it four times with a ladle while the staff looked at it with their eyes. If there was such a big mouse, I would not have missed it. There is also a video recording of the recording process . We checked the whole process of making the soup, but we couldn’t find any problems.”
The restaurant claims the couple wrote a Yelp review six years ago about finding “a big flaw” in takeout soup.
“It is a rare experience for most people in their lifetime,” Gammeeok wrote. “They are removing the review now. Why?”
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