Photo Courtesy of Eunice Lucero Lee / Instagram
The New York City Department of Health has shut down the Korean restaurant that gained national attention after a couple publicized that they found a rat in their soup from the restaurant.
According to the inspection document News Onyx obtained, the restaurant Gammeeok on 9 West 32 Street in Manhattan got an inspection on March 15. As a result, Gammeeok received six sanitary violations.
“Food, prohibited, from unapproved or unknown source, home canned or home prepared. Animal slaughtered, butchered or dressed (eviscerated, skinned) in establishment. Reduced Oxygen Packed (ROP) fish not frozen before processing. ROP food prepared on premises transported to another site,” the first violation read.
The second violation consisted of the inspector finding rat droppings, proving that rats had been in the establishment, whether in the food or non-food areas.
Other violations were food, supplies and equipment being exposed to contamination sources due to improper storage. Other issues were that food items weren’t stored at the correct temperatures, the manager didn’t have a Food Protection Certificate (FPC) and the restaurant failed to maintain a clean state to prevent pests from inhabiting.
The health inspector gave Gammeeok a D for the inspection (67 points). Gammeeok’s assessment before the recent one occurred in January, where they received a C.
According to TMZ, the restaurant had been warned numerous times to get the proper permits and correct their violations, but everything went downhill, leading to the shutdown. The Health Department placed a closed notice on their door. The restaurant put its own sign on the door saying they were closed for “maintenance.”
News Onyx previously reported that couple Jason Lee and Eunice Lucero Lee fell severely ill to where they required medical treatment after finding a rodent in the soup they ordered from Gammeeok.
The restaurant defended itself by posting a security video of supposedly the couple’s soup being made. A rat wasn’t seen in the video.
On Eunice’s Instagram page, she announced last week that she and her husband were taking action against the restaurant. The post included a video of Jason explaining that they found the rat in their soup.
The restaurant took a screenshot of Eunice’s caption, where she said Gammeeok staff didn’t give them utensils. They posted the security video of a worker packing their order in a to-go bag with napkins and chopsticks.
Gammeeok went further and researched the couple and revealed they’ve previously used the pest in food bad review tactic before for another restaurant.
Commenters questioned how the couple only spotted the rat after eating despite pouring the soup into their bowls and mixing in their rice.