I watched Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares last night, and I could barely keep my food down. Rat traps, cockroaches everywhere, green meat, and rotten veggies… blech. I seriously thought I was going to throw up. But it got me thinking: How does a restaurant in midtown Manhattan get away with this? I know that NY’s a big place and there are too many restaurants to keep tabs on, but this was an egregious mistake on the part of the NY Health Department. And I think more than anyone, they should be embarrassed and ashamed. I’ve actually considered calling the Health Dept lately—there’s a teeny, tiny restaurant at the end of my block that is disgusting. They are infested with rats. I can’t walk by without seeing at least 6 of them scatter across my path. And they basically throw their garbage down into the cellar for the rats to feast on—no bags, no cleaning, no nothing. So, should I do it? I’m morally conflicted. I don’t want to be a tattle-tale, but it’s food and it could seriously make someone sick. What’s the right call?
PS—there’s some talk over on the YumSugar boards about the hottie, Vikas Khanna, that Ramsay brought in to turn the Purnima Restaurant around. They’ve also put up a poll about whether you’d consider eating at Purnima now. Tough question. It’d be hard to turn down Vikas’ food, but even harder to get the image of those cockroaches out of my head.
