Get ready to lose your lunch! A popular Upper East Side restaurant has been caught storing what appears to be trays of raw pork sitting on boxes atop the filthy basement floor of the building it’s located in.
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Pho Shop is a popular Vietnamese restaurant located at 1716 First Avenue (at 89th Street). When a tenant of the same building (who requested anonymity) went down to the basement to throw out her garbage at about 5:45pm on Saturday, she noticed a faint smell of rotting meat. Confused, because the garbage cans were empty, she headed back to the elevator only to see the heaps of meat in an open room adjacent to the laundry machines.
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“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” the resident told us. “In order to prove I was not hallucinating, I snapped a series of photos and waited.” She called out but the room was empty.
(The restaurant leases out the ground floor, the cellar, and an additional room in the residential portion of the basement – where the meat was found.)
“I finally went to show the doorman the photos,” she continued. The two of them went downstairs to find out why the meat was being kept on the floor, completely uncovered in a heated room with no refrigerator in sight.
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“My doorman finally knocked on the restaurant’s door and pointed to the meat and said they could not keep it there,” the nauseated whistleblower detailed.
The resident said they seemed annoyed but muttered something about addressing it.
“I yelled they could not serve this meat. There are sometimes water bugs and mice downstairs by the garbage and the puddles of blood were unhygienic. Further, no one should be served meat which could be salmonella-ridden after being kept out in the heated cellar for so long while uncovered on the filthy floor!”
The tenant went back to the basement a bit later on Saturday and saw that the door had been closed.
We reached out to Pho Shop for comment and connected with Allen Cho, who says he is a manager of both the Upper East Side and Upper West Side (141 West 72nd Street) locations and would immediately contact the staff and owners about the issue. The Department of Health was also notified and we’re awaiting a response.
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According to public records and a sticker in the eatery’s window, Pho Shop currently has an “A” health rating.
This aside, it’s unclear whether inspectors would know to check out the “meat room” because as we mentioned above, it’s in the residential portion of the basement.
Public records via NYC Open Data indicate that the UES Pho Shop’s last violation was in September 2022. The description of the violation indicates that several foods were being held at temperatures that were too high. According to this same source of public information, the restaurant was issued ten violations during 2019; here’s an Excel file with that info.
Yeah, whatever, food is still good, it’s what makes it taste so good.
Oh. My. Goddddd. This should go to the NY Post. Seriously – awful. Now I know why multiple friends have fallen ill after eating here. Thankful I’ve skipped this place.
I’m not sure the “manager” would necessarily want to contact the “owners” about this…although they probably know now.
FYI…I stopped by there this morning (April 1st – this is not an April Fools Prank…it’s real) to see if the city shut it down. The kitchen door was open and the place was filthy. The guy behind the grill appeared to be working and smoking a cigarette. This is insane. I live in the neighborhood and I always see the cooks outside with no gloves on, wearing their aprons full of food, and smoking.
Sadly…I’m pretty sure that this isn’t just this restaurant. Cutting corners, paying off inspectors, poor food safety is business as usual in this industry.
Can you please report that to 311 or online to NY DOHMH?
Funny. I’ve been meaning to try this place ever since moving to the neighborhood 3 years ago. But I always seemed to forget about it or ended up choosing a different option. Certainly not happening now.
I walked past there a few minutes ago and they are still open. How can the city allow this? This disgusting place and people that own it are putting people at risk. Unbelievable!!!!
I ate there once and was deathly sick for three days afterwards. Why is the city allowing this to continue?Shut them down. 😡🤢
I walked past again this morning. I would have thought the place would be crawling with Local & State Inspectors. But, it is business as usual. I noticed their “A” rating was from September 2022 so, it’s been a long time since it has had a thorough inspection. This is why since the article broke…I would have thought it would be under tight scrutiny.
Time to look into their employment practices as well perhaps.
Our sincere apologies from Pho Shop. We are currently undergoing a new turnover in staff.
Once we receive notice of this we immediately took action to discard the meat. This will not happen again.
You’re sorry you got caught. You’re there everyday. You knew it was going on.
Pho Shop…may I suggest that you get a complete deep cleaning of not only your entire location(s) but, your entire staff, operations, and ownership structure. First…shut down for one day and get a professional cleaning service to come in and make it brand new. Next, train your staff on food safety and sanitation and then keep them accountable. Then, look deep into your operations (as aspects), and then look at yourselves as an ownership group and take responsibility for this. An apology isn’t enough at this point…fix it. Your staff is outside smoking with their aprons/uniforms on, the door to the kitchen is filthy as well as inside that door. The kitchen is filthy as well. As I said…shut it down and clean it up to get the confidence of the public back.
You’re sorry that you got caught. Your chefs walk around barefoot and smoke cigarettes nonstop in the kitchen and on the sidewalk. People have become very ill because of your horrendous lack of food safety. You should be shut down, retrained, and monitored extremely closely if you want to do business in nyc.
He should be arrested knowingly serving contaminated food. Lock him up.
They should lock them up for endangering people’s lives.