A restaurant in New York City has refuted a woman’s claim that she found a dead rodent in her salad, saying that the security footage does not show it being put in.
On Monday, Hannah Rasbach picked up a salad for lunch at Ongi, a Korean restaurant in Midtown, and partway through eating it, says that she discovered a dead rodent in the bowl.
“I ate probably, like, half to maybe two-thirds of the salad, I would guess, and I just kind of saw part of it covered – I thought it was a piece of beef bulgogi that was not fully chopped up, and it was kind of buried under the lettuce,” she said in an interview with People.
“So I started trying to cut it with a knife, and something didn't feel right, so I moved the lettuce over and could tell what it was pretty quickly. I was in shock.”
She ended up showing the bowl to the restaurant’s manager, who only asked her if she thought the rodent was in the spring mix. The owner of the restaurant later called her in an attempt to rectify the situation, but the restaurant claims she never called the owner back.
A photo of the salad shows a dead rodent lying in the middle of a bowl of salad.
A spokesperson for Ongi told the publication that after refunding Rasbach for her meal, they were inspected by the New York City Health Department on Wednesday, where no rodents were found.
“Ongi prides itself on its excellent staff and training. We adhere to strict food safety standards and stand behind our staff and our production practices. We have also been consistently rated ‘A’ by the New York City Department of Health, most recently in March 2025,” the spokesperson said.
“That ‘A’ rating was confirmed and renewed on May 7, following the health department inspection requested by the customer. The inspector provided the following report, ‘Allegation: Vermin. No vermin were observed on the premises at the time of inspection. Last extermination conducted on 5/5/25. Allegation not founded.’”
The restaurant also claims that after looking through their security footage from Monday and watching Rasbach’s salad be prepared, they did not see a rodent being put into the bowl. “Upon review of that video and other evidence, we concluded that the contaminant was not put into the customer’s lunch at our restaurant,” the spokesperson said.
Rasbach has since claimed that she was telling the truth about a rodent being found in her food, and wouldn’t lie about it. “What am I getting out of this? I am not pursuing legal action. There's no benefit to me putting a rodent in my bowl,” she said.
“Where would I have gotten the rodent? I don't understand how that would have happened.”
