Rat fiasco continues — Bánh Mì Saigon pulls up with receipts & solutions

Most of us are aware of the alarming rat-in-a-Vietnamese-eatery saga that occurred recently. On 23 May 2023, Bánh Mì Saigon responded to the accusations with receipts of what happened and the solutions it will implement.

For those unaware of the recent fiasco, the deets are rather simple. Tiktok user @vinnography posted a TikTok showing a rat having a food party among packets of instant noodles at Bánh Mì Saigon. Now, the eatery has followed up with a second response to show their side to the story.

For the past 4 days, they have conducted investigations to find out the facts of this case. According to the eatery, the user (Melvin, who uses the TikTok handle @innography) exaggerated the time it took for employees to react to his complaint about the rat.

Rat chews on instant noodles at popular Vietnamese stall in Ang Mo Kio, stall apologises

Rather, Bánh Mì Saigon claims that instead of that 15 minutes Melvin claimed, the staff on that night reacted just 6 minutes later. One of them approached Melvin for more clarification on the issue. However, Melvin and his partner had left before they could speak with either of them.

This is all proven by the CCTV footage that the eatery released, which they have featured as a Facebook post.

It is important to note that most of Bánh Mì Saigon’s staff are not well-versed in both English and Chinese. As such, it is understandable that there would be some confusion over what was conveyed that night.

The Vietnamese eatery has taken several steps to prove that they maintain food safety standards. Both an independent pest control company and their current contractor, Premier Pest Control have informed them that the rat was from the surrounding grassy areas. Furthermore, the eatery has had its premises professionally sanitized twice apart from multiple sanitizations done by the staff since 19 May 2023.

The instant noodles featured in the video, as well as all the other food items on the shelves in question have been discarded. The Vietnamese eatery has also made the decision to place only non-food items on their shelves so a repeat of the incident can be avoided altogether. Rat traps have been set inside and around the eatery as a further precaution.

With their sales dropping by a whopping 20%, Bánh Mì Saigon has asked for the public’s understanding of the situation. They have had to relieve 3 staff members (through the legal process, of course) due to lack of income and they hope to still be able to pay their remaining staff and earn a living.

As of 24 May 2023, the eatery has announced that it will only be selling take-away food.

Was this an unjust act or a simple misunderstanding? What about you — do you think either participant was in the wrong?

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