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Thai restaurant written up after inspector finds rodent droppings in sauce dishes

The inspector reported finding "hundreds" of rodent droppings throughout the kitchen.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It’s a restaurant that allows customers to bring their own fish to be cooked up fresh, but the latest health inspections from Siam Garden on North Martin Luther King Jr. Street in St. Petersburg might have some customers wanting to bring their own sanitizer instead.

State health inspectors cleared Siam Garden to reopen two days after its March 28 emergency closure. The restaurant will receive another re-inspection in the coming weeks.

An inspector with Florida’s Division of Hotels and Restaurants documented 20 violations on the restaurant’s March 28 inspection. The violations included mold-like growth inside the dish machine, rodent gnaw marks on a bag of dry seasoning. Hundreds of rodent droppings were reported on the shelves next to dried onions, chili peppers and inside the sauce dishes.  

The inspector also reported a dead rodent in the kitchen along with dead roaches near the cook line. 

“Hearing all this I really don’t feel comfortable eating here,” one customer said on her first visit to the restaurant.  “I’ll see if we can go someplace else. There’s plenty of other restaurants that serve Thai food.”

Employees allowed 10News to bring the camera into the kitchen and showed us where the rodent problems were the worst.

“Under the sink,” a kitchen employee said, pointing out where the health inspector found rodent activity on the previous inspection.

The cooking staff said they have pest control coming on a regular basis and insist any issues are fully cleaned up.  

Customers we talked to said they hope to see more clean health inspections before coming back.

“I think they need to be closed down for more than a few days,” one customer said.  “I think they need to get another inspection done before they open.”

Siam Garden was previously shut down for both roach and rodent activity in October of 2017.

You can view the establishment's full inspection history here.

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