New China Wok near 50th & France had mouse droppings on food holding table

By Aaron Rupar Tue., Sep. 25 2012 at 11:31 AM

Mouse droppings were a staple part of New China Wok's cuisine, according to the city.

Would you like some cream cheese and mouse droppings wontons?

SEE ALSO:
-- Delta serves needle sandwiches on Amsterdam-MSP flight
-- Semen-filled cupcake scandal rocks St. Paul's Como Park High School

According to testimony at yesterday's Minneapolis Regulatory, Energy & Environment City Council Committee meeting, that would've been an appropriate question for servers at New China Wok, 5033 France Ave., to ask patrons.

New China Wok has been shuttered since August 27 because of health code violations, and yesterday, the RE&E committee voted to permanently revoke its license. The full City Council could act on RE&E's recommendation as soon as October 5.

According to Southwest Patch, owner Xiu Ben owes the city more than $17,000 in fines stemming from health code violations, some of which date back to 2008. The Southwest Journal reports that a representative for Ben yesterday begged RE&E to give his client more time to clean up the restaurant and pay back the fines, but the committee opted to push ahead with revoking New China Wok's license.

The Star Tribune details some of the violations (emphasis mine):

An Aug. 4, 2011 inspection alone found 30 violations, 10 of which were considered critical, or more likely to cause foodborne illness. The city shut down the restaurant until violations could be addressed.

Inspector Mohammed Yusuf found that Ben Lan "continuously failed to understand and demonstrate understanding of the food code requirements and responsibility of the food manger in the establishment. In each and every inspection in the last two years, [Ben Lan] blames violations [on] the actions of his kitchen employees and in each one of these inspections I explained to him that he's responsible to train employees and supervise them regularly," according to an inspection report. Ben Lan was ordered to employ a new certified food manager before the restaurant re-opened.

Other violations that day included "slimy mildew" inside the ice machine, storing and thawing hazardous food at room temperature, storing bulk dry food and single-serve containers in an area littered with mouse droppings, mouse droppings on the "hot [food]-holding" table and no sanitizing solution set up or in use at the time of the inspection.

That's definitely a secret ingredient cooks would've been best off keeping out of the kitchen.

Tags:

50th and France, New China Wok

We Recommend

Scoops

You know if government would just get off our backs we could eat our mouse dropping in peace.. Damn you obama for shutting this place down..

Tim Clausen

This is news?

Jill Kasper

Soo gross.

Pinko Thinker

gahhh, that was my fave rodent-poo spot. now you blew it up. it'll be crawling with neophyte poodies! I'll never get a table again.

Sendero Flamenco

I managed the store next door to this restaurant about 11 years ago and we had a HUGE mouse problem even back then. The owners would deny, deny, deny that the mice were coming from their restaurant and suggested that we were leaving food out that attracted them. Hmmmm. Let's see. Would mice rather hang out where there are huge bags of rice on the floor or where there's a bag of chips way up on a shelf. I worked at that location for 6ish years and never ate there once.