09-05-2025
Customer's disgusting surprise in salad leaves her scarred for life
A woman in New York City was horrified after she bought takeout only to find a rodent mixed in with her salad leaves.
Hannah Rasbach, 27, ordered a salad from a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan but was disgusted by the unwanted addition.
'When I tried to cut it, it didn't feel right, it felt like a fatty piece of meat or something...' she told ABC 7 grimacing.
'I took a better look and I saw the tail and eyes.'
Rasbach was halfway through her meal when she found the rodent and immediately took the container of food back to the restaurant.
Footage showed her inside Ongi on West 37th Street on Monday afternoon talking with an employee before handing over the food.
'[The employee] asked if I thought it had come from the spring I'm not sure where it came from,' Rasbach continued.
She rushed to the doctor and was put on antibiotics as a precaution, concerned that the rodent may have urinated or defecated on the food.
'We had no idea how this animal died, it could have been rat poison, it could have been disease, any number of things,' she said.
Rasbach told the outlet she can't imagine eating out again ever again.
The owner, Ray Park, handed over the footage to the outlet insisting that the rodent didn't come from his restaurant.
'I was thinking, how can it be happening here, because we have a high standard to run every single day here,' Park told ABC 7.
He added that he had no idea where the rodent came from, and didn't want to guess, as he revealed the establishment had combed over the footage countless times.
'If I use my finger, it's this big including the tail. It's not small,' Park continued.
He said that the kitchen is clean and there had never been evidence of droppings. He kept Rasbach's meal as evidence, he told the outlet.
Rasbach filed a complaint with 311 and the Health Department said it's investigating.
'I would like them to be shut down or investigated,' she said.
