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NYC restaurant Gammeeok shut down over DEAD RAT in beef soup and rodent droppings

Health inspectors found health and safety violations such as rat droppings, food not being held at the correct temperature, and no trained supervisor

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Popular Korean restaurant Gammeeok in New York City was shut down on Wednesday, March 15, after a couple filed a lawsuit claiming that they found a dead rat in their takeout soup. Health inspectors reported finding a series of alleged health and safety violations such as rat droppings, food not being held at the correct temperature, and no trained supervisor on site.

“The Department of Health closed Gammeeok on March 15 following an inspection,” an agency spokesperson told the New York Post on Friday, March 17. “No New York City restaurant is authorized to have mice or rats on the menu and we are investigating further. Our top priority is protecting the health of New Yorkers and if a restaurant has conditions that threaten our city’s diners, they will be shut down,” the department said. The restaurant was allegedly being operated without renewing its permit and can reportedly reopen if the reported violations are corrected and any fines are paid. As of Friday, the restaurant’s branch in Fort Lee, New Jersey, was taking orders. 

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Gammeeok called the couple's claims 'nonsense'

Despite the evidence, Gammeeok previously dismissed the couple’s claims of finding a dead rodent in their sogogi-gukbap and argued it as “nonsense.” “We are open 24 hours and there are at least 3 or 4 people in the kitchen at all times,” the restaurant wrote in a series of Instagram posts that showed footage of chefs supposedly preparing the couple’s order. “As you can see in the video, it doesn’t make sense for a rat to avoid people and enter a pot on a hot fire. When we transferred the soup, we served it four times with a ladle while the staff watched it with their eyes. If there was a mouse that big, there’s no way I wouldn’t 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,” Gammeeok wrote on Instagram.

The couple filed a lawsuit

Magazine editor Eunice Lucero-Lee and her husband Jason Lee have filed a lawsuit against the restaurant. Lucero-Lee posted a series of photos and videos on Instagram of her meal which showed a dead black rat floating in her beef soup delivered on Saturday, March 18, from the restaurant’s Manhattan location. According to a lawsuit filed by the couple, the pair became “violently sick, causing them to vomit and seek medical attention.” The lawsuit states that the two “sustained severe, serious and permanent personal injuries.”

TMZ reported that the health department did, in fact, found rat droppings at the restaurant earlier this week. Moreover, their Manhattan location has been graded a 'C' rating. Records show that that the restaurant received 15 violations in a January 18 inspection.