Cockroach on the sushi?

I eschew buffets for a reason.

@SecondHandStoke Buffet was not my choice, and seldom, if ever, would be.

I have a worse story about a high-end seafood restaurant in Florida, however.

It’s violation of food hygiene and safety laws. I would report it to the local health department.

Call the health department on them. They would be interested to know. It means they have a huge roach infestation.

^^^ My question ended being copy/paste from an on-line review I’d just written. I at least wanted people warned.

Honestly, probably nothing. Other than letting the manager know.

Clearly this really isn’t a biggie in her culture. While in Asia I have seen other women (and men) reach over and crush them with their fingers. I was practically climbing the walls! No one threw the food away. And I am guessing no one got sick either.

I would not bother doing anything else. They know about the roaches. That is why the food is so cheap.

I was really hoping “cockroach on the sushi” was some kind of metaphor.

As an ocd-germaphobe freak, I would have walked out immediately, and if they’re lucky, I wouldn’t have hollered out about the cockroach to the other diners before leaving. Eh, that is so digusting and wrong. Needless to say I don’t eat out much and I think that’s why I hardly ever get sick.

I’d be bothered that they didn’t say anything: if they didn’t even apologize or acknowledge how disgusting it was. So many other creatures are potentially dwelling on the open food already, though. A cockroach honestly won’t bother me all that much. They may not be as phased as other people since they probably eat them in their native country anyway.

By the way, writing a review for the place is a joke. That’s just complaining. If you have a problem, go to the source. Don’t just passive-aggressively leave and then whine about it later.

Shmoke & a pancake?

I once saw a roach on the wall at the Chinese food I like. It wasn’t near the food. I still ate the food I purchased to go (after searching all of it for bugs, of course). I also saw a roach at an Olive Garden. I have no objections to going back. I used to work at Applebee’s and we occasionally saw a roach. It happens in restaurants way more than people want to know. I guess being in the food industry desensitized me a bit, especially compared to people that freak out at the sight of one roach. And I actually hate roaches – moreso than any other bug.

If there was a roach ON the food, I most likely wouldn’t go back. In your case, I definitely wouldn’t go back – their nonchalant attitude, killing the bug with their fingers, and not scrapping that sushi is just wrong. However, I’m not naive enough to think that this behavior cannot be found behind the scenes in the other restaurants I’ve mentioned, but I still wouldn’t go back to the sushi place just on principle. I wouldn’t do anything other than leave, though.

Yuck! I would talk to the manager and never go back again.

Eat it as a starter with pinworm falafel for the main course.

Guh-rose!!!

Call the health department and report the restaurant. They’ll have to either pay a fine or a bribe, so at least there will be some consequences. Writing online reviews is an excellent idea, under the circumstances (i.e., if you have a legitimate complaint and you know that management is not going to care). This is probably the most effective thing you can do to protect others from having the same experience.

@Smitha, @snowberry, @Valerie111 @glacial I think (I hope) that the couple I was with might have reported it to the health department. I stumbled into a review of the restaurant accidentally on-line and they had 5–5 stars and excellent rating. Because of that, I wrote the review posted above in the question.

@LuckyGuy I think it’s probably important that she realize she’s out of her culture, just as you didn’t demand Western standards in Asia? I mean if she’s in charge.

@dxs Part of what bothered me was that they didn’t even make a show of being concerned. They could have at least put the freaking shushi plates in the fridge in back until we left.

@livelaughlove21 I have a lot of food service experience myself, and I know things beyond you’re control happen. The day AFTER an exterminator visits is the worst…drunken bugs stumbling around in broad daylight. I’ve seen single roaches on a the floor or wall, seen a mouse dart and had a hair in my food without more than slowing down. THIS freaked me out.

@Dutchess_III, @tom_g, @ucme, @janbb,....well Bon Appetite!

All I keep thinking is, did she wash her hands afterwards?

@Adagio Given that she didn’t remove the sushi or wash the plate…

:(

@ibstubro exactly

Delicious roach sushi for all!

@glacial Lucky for you, the manager has fresh soy sauce…say when…

I used to go to a little hole in wall Thai place, great food, gardens out back, and once I found a green striped beetle in my stir fry. ( Thoroughly stir fried )
Oh well…must have come in with the basket of veggies from their backyard garden, fished it out, kept eating. lol
Now a ROACH that was still alive and happily scurrying about and nobody removing the items it hiked across…hmmm…not in good taste. Pun intended.

Of course, the old ” what you don’t know can’t hurt hurt you” probably is true when it comes to bugs and various other little critters in our food. haha

I would have left so they did not get the benefit of my (our) money.

I would have called the Dept of Health the next day. It’s important for the proprietress to realize that although this may be acceptable in the country she is from, in our country, this is not acceptable. I don’t feel it is the responsibility of the patron to educate the restaurant owners, it’s the responsibility of the Health Dept.

I would probably also post a review on a site like Trip Advisor.

@Coloma I’m all pins and needles? What did you do with the green striped beetle?

Did you EAT it?
Did you PUSH it to the SIDE?
Did you RETURN it?
Did you SAVE it and make a nice BROOCH?

@jca Yes, Trip Adviser is where I posted a review. I ran into the site accidentally and I was incensed that they had a 5/5 star and #7 out of 100 rating. Of course, being a smaller town, there were only about 7 ratings, total.

I think my friend turned the restaurant in to the health dept. I worked with food enough to know that if the customer’s unhappy, a production needs to be made.

@ibstubro I picked it’s sauteed little carcass out of my bean sprouts and tossed it. lol

@Coloma I’m shocked. SHOCKED, I say!

Were it me, I probably would have shown the owner, then kept on eating, or eaten the bug as part of the meal.

I’m far from squeamish, but there’s a certain decorum. :D

@ibstubro It was take out, I was already at home. Oh well…good thing I am not an overly squeamish female. It was rather shocking, but damn, their spring rolls were to die for. Close your eyes and take a big bite and don’t look. lol

Oh, hell. You should have fished the little booger out, washed him off, and kept him as a trinket. lol Just think what a stylish earring you could make now. lol

@ibstubro TripAdvisor is for tourists. Also go to Yelp, UrbanSpoon and Chowhound. ;)

Pfft. tripadvisor. What a joke. Along with all the rest of those rating sites. Don’t waste your time making yourself look stupid.

@dxs How does writing a review on a site which publishes reviews make the reviewer look stupid? Isn’t that the point of the site publishing reviews in the first place?

Are you saying that online reviews shouldn’t exist because you, personally, don’t read them or take them seriously?

@glacial I’ll just send you a message instead. I can send one to you, @ibstubro, too, if you want.

Me too!

I’m not sure why this was sent to PM, so I’ll simply paste my response to @dxs here.

Everyone knows that some people who leave bad reviews are simply being vindictive, just as we know that some people who leave good reviews may be working for the establishment. Anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together will read these reviews with a grain of salt. This doesn’t mean that there is no reason for the reviews to exist, and it doesn’t mean that valuable information can’t be extracted from them.

I can understand if you were telling the OP not to leave a fradulent review, but he is looking for a way in which to caution other people like himself that this specific restaurant is violating health code regulations. This is a legitimate use of online reviews. He is not “butt hurt” about anything, nor is his concern “silly”.

Nothing about posting a legitimate review online (or reading them and gleaning information from them) is stupid or foolish. Just because some people misuse this kind of forum, that doesn’t mean that the entire concept should be disregarded or disparaged. I’m sorry you had a bad personal experience, but that doesn’t mean that no one else can ever get or share good information this way.

@glacial I felt like it was off-topic and hi-jacking. This is another question.

I usually average the reviews out. I realize there are some people who would be dissatisfied with services that i would be thrilled with.

I feel like I can usually spot the reviewers with an agenda. Pro or con.

The body of my Trip Adviser review I posted here. Did it appear to have an agenda?

I’ve worked in LOTS of restaurants and I know the drill.

Reminds me of a visit I had to a chain restaurant that prides itself on its pies. As I came up with a fork full of pecan pie, I noticed some movement on the fork! Upon further investigation, I saw the abdomen of a roach, legs still moving, on my fork. I then saw the rest of the unfortunate creature in the remaining pie on my plate. I immediately called the manager, and received the meal free. I declined the offer of a free dessert!

It’s funny how we make such associations, like the vehicle itself had something to do with it. A roach was in that one slice of pie, so we don’t want to eat any of the desserts…yet a roach could be in the hamburger or the french fries too!

Our local Goodwill had to be evacuated when the workers going through a box of donated stuff found a live hand grenade! Now people are afraid to go in the store! It wasn’t done intentionally. It was an accident, but now people are afraid to go in the store!

I trust you didn’t eat at that particular franchise again, @Yetanotheruser?
I’ve never been back to the roach buffet, even though it’s the largest and most popular in town. IMO if a restaurant is the original occupant of the building it’s in, there’s no excuse for having roaches. Re-purposed buildings, I give a little more slack.

@ibstubro I never went back to that particular store; it was during a road trip, and I’ve never been back that way anyhow.