Dried hanging fish, apparent rat droppings and a live roach in a cooler lead to shutdown of Mattapan takeout place
A city health inspector on Friday shut China Sea, 1202 Blue Hill Ave. for a variety of health issues, some of which could have put patrons at risk of a foodborne illness, after a disgusted customer posted a Facebook video of a rat scurrying through its waiting area.
According to the inspector's report, the violations included a "hand sink observed being blocked by strung up fish and mop bucket" - but at least that sink was working, unlike another sink intended for cooks that wasn't, and which was covered over with a large can.
Also found: "Cooked egg rolls observed being stored in card board that was previously used to store raw chicken;" cooked meats left sitting at room temperature on counters, raw shrimp thawing at room temperature, and "dried fish observed being hung from a long light bulb in the main kitchen area."
A cooler was just generally disgusting, including having "evidence of a live cockroach;" there were what appeared to be rat droppings on the kitchen floor and "what appears to be a raw sewage line in the basement storage area is open and appears to be draining into a bucket."
Trappa Jay posted his video on Tuesday. Jed Hresko alerted the city to the video on Thursday.
After cleaning up the issues, the eatery can apply for a new inspection.
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Comments
4-5 stars
Every online review for this place gives it 4-5 stars. Hilarious.
https://www.google.com/search?q=China+Sea%2C+1202+Blue+Hill+Ave&sourceid...
And,
Still doesn't mean the food isn't good.
Blech
I think I got food poisoning just reading this story!
Love it
I'm not going to lie I used to eat there often. Never got sick.
And I got double food poisoning from this line:
Letting them reopen is not a bad idea. At least you know which place to avoid the people who'd let this happen in the first place.
Not sure if this is the same
Not sure if this is the same place, but there was a video floating around on facebook of a place on Blue Hill, with a large rat walking around and the employees doing nothing just watching it.
Yep
Just posted a link to the video in the original post - in fact, it was the video that alerted the health department to the problems (via a tweet by Jed Hresko).
This is why...
This is why you should always be wary of Yelp listings with fewer than 50 or so reviews, in areas that aren't necessarily foodie havens.
FIxed it for you
fixed it back
This is why you should always be wary of Yelp listings with fewer than 50 or so reviews, in areas that aren't necessarily foodie havens.
Depends on the foodie
Some foodies might claim that it has the authentic atmosphere of dining at a market in China (5 stars!).
nah
Easiest thing to do is to check yelp for the reviews.. if a user has two reviews and both are negative, it's probably an "I'm pissed off so I am going to sign up for yelp and leave a bad review".
Low review numbers on accounts are usually spam, the owners themselves, or stupid people. I always look for power yelpers to know if a place is good or not.
(I'm a power yelper too)
Among other things that Cybah
Among other things that Cybah uses the adjective 'power' in. LOL.
shuttup LOL
LOL
(I must know you off here... I haven't been called that in years..)
As A One-Time Yelp "King" Of Boston ...
... I can tell you that Yelp is a game that can be easily played. There are useful reviews, but not always on the surface. With a little skill and practice however, you get better at sorting them out.
Sami W?
Is that you?
I used to date a guy who
used to take me there all the time. I loved their Pu Pu Platters
Pu Pu Platters
Hah!
Are you sure that you did not
Are you sure that you did not get rat pu-pu in your platter??????
It adds flavor!!
All rat connoisseurs know that!!
This is fundamental food handling 101
Utterly amazing that anyone could - or would - run a kitchen like this.
Why is this all left to the cities and towns, on an emergent/complaint basis anyway? It doesn't need to be as intense as California is with inspections, but MA can do far better.
The next job for the Health Inspector
should be to clean up Trappa Jay's mouth. Good grief.
Another example
Big government wasting our tax dollars and keeping the little man down. If people were worried about the conditions at this business, they would figure it out themselves.
Nanny State!
If they're really serving food with rat feces in it, the free market will take care of it all by itself.
How do I report another
How do I report another restaurant in Boston.
From the city Web site
Call the Division of Health Inspections at 617-635-5326, Fax 635-5388 - 8am to 4pm Monday - Friday. It is not mandatory to give your name when making a complaint.
Call the Mayor's 24-Hour Help Line, 7 days a week, at 617-635-4500.
You can also use Citizen Connect: https://mayors24.cityofboston.gov/reports/list_services