Did she order the rat-atouille?
The New York City Health Department is investigating a woman’s claims that she found a dead rat in a takeout salad that she bought from a Korean restaurant in Midtown Manhattan.
“I’m not physically sick, I’m upset. I’m traumatized,” Hannah Rasbach, 27, told People magazine of the revolting alleged incident, which occurred on May 5 at the Ongi location on West 37th Street.
Surveillance footage confirmed that Rasbach was at the restaurant on that date.
The customer said she was halfway through her to-go bowl of spring mix, grilled salmon and beef bulgogi and toppings when she noticed the unwanted accouterment.
“When I tried to cut it, it didn’t feel right; it felt like a fatty piece of meat or something, yeah, sorry…. I took a better look and I saw the tail and eyes,” Rasbach told Eyewitness News.
Rasbach also shared a picture of the rodent, which she estimated to be around four to five inches long. She said she didn’t find it initially because she hadn’t shaken her salad, leaving the rat hidden at the bottom of the bowl.
Horrified over the discovery, Rasbach claimed she vomited in her office bathroom before returning to Ongi to alert them of the unexpected ingredient.
She said she was shocked and confused over the manager’s seeming nonchalance.
“She asked if I thought it had come from the spring mix … Obviously, I’m not sure where it came from,” said the appalled customer.
Reps for the restaurant have since refuted Rasbach’s claim, alleging that the security footage showed the squeaky clean preparation process, as well as the customer leaving Ongi without a rat in her salad.
“Upon review of that video and other evidence, we concluded that the contaminant was not put into the customer’s lunch at our restaurant,” a spokesperson told People.
“We strive for excellence and pride ourselves on delivering quality Korean-inspired food to our customers on a daily basis. We have never before been subject to allegations of contamination.”
Owner Ray Park, who submitted the footage, told Eyewitness News, “I was thinking, ‘How can it be happening here, because we have a high standard to run every single day here?’ ” He insisted that their kitchen is clean and they have never found droppings, adding that they kept Rasbach’s bowl as evidence.
As for the customer’s photo of the rat, a spokesperson for Park told People, “The contaminant in the bowl is not something that was in the bowl when it was sealed and handed to Ms. Rasbach at the restaurant.”
“It is implausible to suggest that such a large foreign object would not have been noticed or felt by the meal preparers,” they added. “The video of the entire preparation process refutes Ms. Rasbach’s claim.”
Rashbach deemed it ridiculous for Ongi reps to insinuate that she may have planted the rodent, arguing that there was nothing to gain as she wasn’t “pursuing legal action.
“There’s no benefit to me putting a rodent in my bowl,” the incensed customer told People. “Where would I have gotten the rodent? I don’t understand how that would have happened.”
Rasbach has since filed a complaint with 311 with the hope that Ongi gets “shut down or investigated,” per Eyewitness News, which added that the city’s health department is currently probing her claim.
Following the incident, Rasbach also reported to a doctor, where she was administered antibiotics as a precaution, just in case the rodent had defecated or urinated in the food.
In light of the ordeal, the customer said she’s “too scared to go out and get takeout at this point for lunch at all.”
“I’m going to bring my lunch from now on, because I just feel like I can’t trust what’s in anything,” she told People.
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