Magazine editor Eunice Lucero-Lee said she and husband Jason Lee received the “most disgusting thing” in an order from Gammeeok, a Korean restaurant on West 32nd Street, on March 11, according to her Instagram post and the couple’s lawsuit.
“If you’re squeamish, skip my next two stories,” the Instagram post states. “That is a rat in our soup.”
The lawsuit filed on their behalf by Carrion Accident & Injury Attorneys, a personal injury law firm, argues that the couple suffered “severe, serious and permanent injuries.”
Upon discovery of the alleged rodent, the couple “became disgusted and violently sick, causing them to vomit and seek medical attention,” the lawsuit contends.
Lucero-Lee and Lee also accused the eatery of “negligent infliction of emotional distress.”
But Gammeeok owners fired back with Instagram posts of their own stating the couple once made a similar and since-deleted claim involving a bug in their soup from another restaurant.
The restaurant also disputed the significance of “C” Health department rating, cited in the lawsuit, arguing most of the violations came down to a bad refrigerator.
Health department records show the grade was issued on Jan. 18 when inspectors found, among 79 points worth of violations, conditions conducive to rodents and various pests, food from a prohibited or unknown source and filth flies.
The restaurant also posted that video footage from the kitchen they say proves no rat could have made its way into the order.
“When we transferred the soup, we served it four times with a ladle while the staff watched it with their eyes,” the restaurant posted. “If there was a mouse that big, there’s no way I wouldn’t have missed it.”