Rat Soup closes NYC’s popular Gammeeok restaurant
Eat Drink
March 17, 2023 | 4:53 pm
Gammeeok is located on the second floor of 9 W. 32nd St. in Manhattan’s Koreatown neighborhood.
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NYC health inspectors closed the popular Koreatown restaurant Gammeeok on Wednesday, shortly after a couple claimed in a lawsuit that they found a dead rat in their takeout soup.
Inspectors reported finding rat droppings, food not being kept at the proper temperature, and no trained supervisor on site, among other alleged violations.
“The Ministry of Health closed Gammeeok on March 15 following an inspection,” a spokesman for the agency told The Post on Friday. “No restaurant in New York City is authorized to have mice or rats on the menu and we are continuing to investigate.”
The department added, “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 closed.”
The eatery, which was reportedly operating without renewing its permit, can reopen if reported violations are corrected and any fines paid.
The Post has contacted Gammeeok for comment.
The restaurant’s Fort Lee, New Jersey, location was taking orders as of Friday.
Gammeeok previously dismissed claims by a NYC couple that they found a dead rodent in their sogogi gukbap as “nonsense.”
“We are open 24 hours a day and there are always at least 3 or 4 people in the kitchen,” the restaurant wrote in a series of Instagram posts on Wednesday. “As you can see in the video, there’s no point in a rat avoiding people and entering a pan on a hot fire.”
Gammeeok added: “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 I would never 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.”
On Monday, magazine editor Eunice Lucero-Lee posted a series of photos and videos to Instagram of what appears to be a dead black rat floating in the beef soup she and her husband, Jason Lee, said they delivered Saturday from Gammeeok’s Manhattan location.
According to a lawsuit filed by the couple and obtained by The Post, the couple “became violently ill, forcing them to vomit and seek medical attention”.
The lawsuit states that the two suffered “serious, serious and permanent personal injury”.
The Post reached out to Lucero-Lee on Friday for comment.
Prior to Gammeeok’s closure on Wednesday, the health department gave the Manhattan location a “C” rating.
An inspection on Jan. 18 revealed several alleged hygiene violations, including a food contact surface that was not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use; and food, supplies and equipment that are not protected from a potential source of contamination.
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