Did St. Pete Restaurant Serve Rats?

WTSP-Ch. 10 is reporting that a complaint filed with state code enforcement officials alleges that a local Vietnamese restaurant cooked and served rats.

Thuy Cafe on 34th Street is at the center of a complaint that WTSP reports was filed anonymously with the state in May. The complaint alleges that restaurant workers caught rats running across the restaurant roof and in the dumpsters to cook in a tin shack behind the facility.

The TV station sent a reporter to the restaurant and tried to question an employee, who declined requests for an interview. After the station's report aired a week ago, the restaurant owner contacted the TV station, which had a tour of the kitchen to see that everything was in order. (See video.)

The TV station filmed a tin shack behind the restaurant during its initial visit, but found no evidence of rodents.

According to WTSP, a June 4 health inspection by the state cited the restaurant for 18 critical violations, including:

1.) temperature violations;

2.) food and equipment stored on the floor;

3.) food stored in Home Depot paint buckets;

4.) rodent droppings around the water heater and on top of the freezer.

A followup insection last month cited the restaurant for only three critical violations.