Rodent infestation contributes to shutdown of Squirrel Hill Thai street food restaurant

An Allegheny County Health Department inspector shut down a Thai street food restaurant in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood after finding its kitchen was overwhelmingly contaminated by rodent droppings.

The department on Tuesday ordered the closure of Took Took 98 on Murray Avenue.

While the restaurant said on its Facebook page that they had addressed every concern, the closure order remained in place on Saturday.

According to a food safety report, 14 food safety violations, four considered high risk and three to be imminent risks, were discovered during the inspection, as were five general sanitation violations.

Not having any bins to store trash was cited as possibly contributing to the restaurant’s active rodent infestation, while an accumulation of non-essential items in the basement is a harborage area for rodents, the report states.

Rodent droppings were a concern cited throughout the report, including a fresh mouse dropping seen in a large container of cooked rice and a dry wiping towel at a prep table that was soiled with three fresh droppings.

Rodent droppings were “too many to count” on the floors throughout the kitchen, especially behind an ice machine and the cookline, and in the basement storage room on shelves, the floor and sealed containers of food. Fresh droppings were seen on shelves and other surfaces throughout the kitchen, according to the report.

A recently dead mouse and two decaying mice were seen in a basement dry storage room, the report states.

Food safety risks included foods stored in boxes originally containing raw chicken; an open package of shrimp cakes resting on top of a pan of tofu in water; raw ground pork resting on top of uncovered eggs; raw shrimp resting on top of cases of scallions on top of a case of bok choy; pans of raw beef and chicken behind a pan containing a cut lime and cut herbs; a pan of raw pork behind a pan of raw tofu in water behind a pan containing fresh herbs; and a bag of carrots sharing a pan with a bag of raw tuna.

For the closure to be removed, the health department said the dead rodents, droppings and all adulterated foods will need to be removed and the restaurant will have to be cleaned and disinfected.

Its staff needs to be retrained in food handling, food storage and cleaning and sanitizing, and the owner was encouraged to add an additional certified food protection manager to the staff.