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| - I just returned from a trip to Be's Noodles and Banh Mi. I eat here probably three times a month as I work across the street. Unfortunately, today was my last visit. I sat at the counter and ordered the grilled pork rice plate as I always do, which is quite flavorful.
What happened next is enough for me to never return. I watched the cook remove a pork chop from the grill (presumably mine) in order to plate it and witnessed it fall on the floor. The cook then picked it up off the floor with the tongs he was cooking with and proceeded to place it back on the grill! I managed to make eye contact with him and he knew immediately that I was horrified. He then moved it off the grill, with the still dirty tongs and placed it in the drip tray of the grill. I brought this to the attention of my server, who sent over another employee to talk to me. She stated she was the "foodsafe" employee for the restaurant. She advised me that she feels she "isn't in the restaurant often enough".
Throughout this ordeal, no one had moved the previously fallen pork chop from the drip tray. I am completely convinced that someone else will receive this pork chop on their plate at some point today. I am no expert on food safety, but I would think the appropriate way to handle this would have been to pick up the fallen pork chop (with a napkin or other disposable item) as not to contaminate anything else and then throw it out. Instead, the tongs touched the floor and were continued to be used even after I voiced concern about this.
After having witnessed this, I took note of the personnel working in the kitchen and noticed, none were wearing hairnets. I may be nit-picky, but after having seen what I saw, this gave me an even more uneasy feeling, yet for some reason I wound up staying.
I am not one to bash a restaurant intentionally, but I feel that in this situation, no attempt was made to conserve me as a customer or apologize for the behavior. It seems more like they were sorry they got caught than sorry for breaking food safety protocol. No apology was issued on behalf of anyone at the restaurant. It was more like they thanked me for bringing it to their attention.
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