Song Thai on 5th: nightmare (it gets worse, way worse)

Song's waitress breaks the silence!

CHE wrote: Not as a response to the bad experience xenusleeps had—about which: that sounds terrible, I hope you feel better—but as a response to the tiny implosion in Song's reputation which the thread as a whole fosters:

Just based on my own experiences, Song is a really outstanding restaurant. I don't know any restaurant in New York which simultaneously optimizes for flavor, price, and portion size as successfully as they do, and the service is reliably swift, friendly, and courteous. I eat there nearly every week as a regular thing with a friend, and have since shortly after it opened. I specifically recommend Vegetable Spicy Noodles and the delicious Mango Salad.

And I hope there will be no other bad eating experiences to report!

This is truly awful. I have to agree with that previous poster - I've had nothing but good experiences with Song. We eat there weekly, and the service has always been courteous, and the food great. (No, I don't work there, or even know anyone who does.)

Ok NOT to call bullshit on this in any capacity, because I do totally believe that the OP smelled/felt exactly what he/she described...however-

the solutions made to clean deep fryers are degreasers AND are usually water based. Filling a fryer with oil if it contains much of this cleaner would be almost impossible because it would pop/sizzle/foam beyond anyones ability to ignore (think of dropping water in a frying pan filled with oil.) I say this based on managing restaurants for many years and having 16 year olds miss the aforementioned steps. There is almost no way that smell came from the fryer.


HOWEVER
it could have come from any food prep area, the container OR something being accidentally sprayed on it when cleaning a prep space. I just doubt its from the fryer specifically.

pima wrote: Deep fryers are cleaned by:
1) draining old oil out through filter (may or may not be used again).
2) fill fryer with water and caustic cleaning solution, especially designed to remove grease.
3) bring fryer back to boil, letting caustic solution clean the fryer, drain caustic solution.
4) fill with clean water to rinse.
5) wipe out with paper towels.

Seems like somebody missed a step.
I would call poison control and go see your doctor.

Ewww, ewww, ewww! We did NOT order from Song last night.

pitu wrote: [quote=modsquad][quote=vidro3]i guess you didn't save the offending spring roll?

Yea really! Without the toxic evidence don't waste your time. Unless somebody has started a blog to get victims lined up for class action against this restaurant there is nothing to do but complain about it here anonymously. Without corroborating evidence you run the risk of being sued!

In the original post, OP said they saved the rest of the spring rolls.

I want to know if the Dept of Health actually takes the evidence and tests it. I hope the OP has one spring roll for DofH and one or two left to send to a lab. And the resources to send it to a lab...

I'd look at the NYTimes online for where they send stuff to be tested for stories like 'mercury in fish.' I wonder if you should freeze the evidence or not?

but wouldnt the defense against that be easy?

It was a delivery. The person could have put any chemicals in the rolls after it left the delivery persons hand.


edit:

seems everything is past the doubt stages sinc the DoH got involved.
If you can get that manager to back what you said, you may have something. But if you speak to the Owner again, I suggest it be in person with a recorder on you. If it is in person, you dont legally need to tell them the conversation is being recording since it is your conversation.

edit2:

Since you are not the legal type, as you said before, I would print out flyers all over PS showing the thread linked to it. Make little tabs with the URL for people to pull off so they can type it into their iphones or whatnot. Just for piece of mind or something

Carmen wrote:

to be fair, it would be much more disgusting if they didn't follow thse steps once a week (when fried food tastes burned, its generally because the oil hasn't been cleaned and there's food residue on the coils)

Oh, I'm not saying Ewww over the steps. I approve of changing oil and cleaning processes.

In London, they used to use the same oil over and over again for fish and chips - for as long as they could get away with it. After a while it goes rancid and disgusting..

raw wrote: What do the restaurants do with the wrong food that they reclaim that's been left alone with a customer in the privacy of the customer's home?

I'm sure (I hope to god I'm sure) that they just toss the food.. maybe let the delivery guy eat it, should he be so brave. The requirement that you return the meal is probably just to ensure that they're not being scammed by people trying to get a free extra dish.

I had something similar happen to me while eating at SONG. I think we *just* thought the food was bad. I'll have to ask the person I was with ... I only vaguely remember although it was within the last three to six months. I was worried but didn't have any ill effects (inflamed throat, etc.). It also smelled like ammonia or some chemical. I cannot remember what the dish was tho' but doubtful it was crab.

How many violation points can a restaurant get and still function (be left open)?