Rat soup shuts down NYC's popular Gammeeok restaurant
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NYC health inspectors shut down popular Koreatown restaurant Gammeeok on Wednesday, shortly after a couple claimed in a lawsuit they found a dead rat in their takeout soup.
Inspectors reported finding rat droppings, food not being held at the correct temperature and no trained supervisor on site, among other alleged violations.
“The Department of Health closed Gammeeok on March 15, following an inspection,” an agency spokesperson told The Post on Friday. “No New York City restaurant is authorized to have mice or rats on the menu and we are investigating further.”
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 shut down.”
The eatery, which allegedly operated without renewing its permit, can reopen if the reported violations are corrected and any fines are paid.
The Post has contacted Gammeeok for comment.
The restaurant’s location in Fort Lee, New Jersey, was taking orders as of Friday.
Gammeeok previously dismissed an NYC couple’s claims of finding a dead rodent in their sogogi-gukbap 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 Wednesday. “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.”
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, 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.”
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 said she and her husband, Jason Lee, had delivered Saturday from Gammeeok’s Manhattan location.
According to a lawsuit filed by the couple and obtained by The Post, the pair became “violently sick, causing them to vomit and seek medical attention.”
The suit states the two “sustained severe, serious and permanent personal injuries.”
The Post contacted Lucero-Lee for comment Friday.
Prior to Gammeeok’s closure Wednesday, the health department gave the Manhattan location a “C” rating.
A Jan. 18 inspection revealed several alleged sanitary violations, including a food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use; and food, supplies and equipment not protected from a potential source of contamination.
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