Hot Pot Culture suspended after rat found in porridge dish: NEA

By Elizabeth Soh Yahoo Newsroom


The National Environment Authority (NEA) has suspended Hotpot Culture Restaurant after a rat carcass was allegedly found in one of its dishes.
"The restaurant has been instructed to suspend its operations immediately while NEA conducts its investigations," said its spokesman in a media statement to Yahoo Singapore. 
What was supposed to be a value-for-money porridge buffet for a group of colleagues turned into a stomach churning experience after a customer allegedly spotted a dead rat in one of the restaurant’s free-flow dishes.
Ms Caron Chan, who declined to reveal her occupation, was with four other colleagues at Hot Pot Culture’s porridge buffet at Marina Square when they made the grisly find.

According to her, a colleague had spotted what she thought was a rat’s tail in a vegetable dish. Chan then proceeded to scoop out the rest of the mystery meat, to discover to her disgust that it was a whole rat carcass.

She then approached a staff member.

“The staff member didn’t even react quickly, she handled something else first, then came to us and told another employee to remove it. She just said sorry and that they would serve a new batch,” said Chan.

“What about the other customers who already ate it? That was so gross. They should have quickly stopped operations.”

Completely turned off by their find, Chan and her colleagues left the restaurant without paying, but informed the table next to them, which had already eaten the dish.

“The lady at the table next to us told us that she was still charged by the restaurant. She has already lodged a complaint with the National Environment Agency,” said Chan, who posted photos of the rat dish on her Facebook account, which has since been shared widely.
When Yahoo Singapore called Hot Pot Culture, the manager on duty said she was unaware of the rat incident.

“As far as I know, I just heard that the dish wasn’t fresh and so we replaced it,” she said.

When pressed further for information from the management, she took down the contact of this reporter and said the owner would be in touch. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yucks! it really sucks!!!