Rat Spotted in Kitchen of Popular Shanghai Restaurant Chain

By Urban Family, March 21, 2019

This article originally appeared on our sister website, Urban Family Shanghai.

By Yuzhou Hu

How would you feel if you discovered the kitchen where your meal was just cooked was infested with huge rats? Customers at The Grandma's, a renowned restaurant chain specializing in Hangzhou dishes, were unfortunate enough to find out.

According to Kankanews, the scandal took place at their Hongkou Longement Shopping Center branch. While diners were enjoying their food on Monday, they suddenly spotted a rat in the kitchen through the 'see-through stove' system -- a livestream platform of the restaurants' kitchens. Ordered to be implemented by the China Food and Drug Administration, the surveillance gives customers a better idea of what's going on behind the scenes.

Image via Kankanews

Boiling with disgust and fury, diners tipped off the city's watchdogs. It didn't take long before Hongkou's market supervision department arrived and terminated the restaurant's operation. Pest control service has been ordered for The Grandma's and the branch won't resume normal operation until it passes further examination.

The outlet has been ordered to shut down. Image via The Paper

Surprisingly, this is not the first time the restaurant chain has been found to have hygiene issues. Last week, undercover journalists at a The Grandma's outlet in Nanjing exposed other problems, including cooks walking on the chopping blocks and using expired ingredients. When asked why they would behave in such a manner, "The customers couldn't see us anyway," one of the staff flagrantly responded.

Cue netizen fury: "Every time something bad happens, they apologize and beg for forgiveness," wrote one netizen on Weibo. "Why couldn't they do something before things went south? Bad Grandma."

"I will never have a meal at this restaurant," said another. "Unless their manager eats this rat up."

Meanwhile, others couldn't help but worry about the circumstances of other restaurants and bistros.

"I'm afraid other places have the same problem," suspected one netizen. "They are just lucky that they don't get caught or exposed.”

[Cover image via The Paper]

This article was originally published by our sister magazine Urban Family Shanghai. For more articles like this, visit the Urban Family website, or follow the Urban Family WeChat account (ID: urbanfamilyshanghai).