‘We have nothing to hide’: Serangoon eatery rejects customer’s $5,000 demand after allegedly finding cockroach in food
A customer who claimed he found a large cockroach in his char kway teow order from a Serangoon eatery requested $5,000 in compensation, a demand the managing director rejected as they had “nothing to hide”.
Threads user @shortangryman shared a video of the incident on Sept 16, saying that he had “found a huge cockroach” in his meal at Al-Majlis Serangoon Road, a multi-cuisine halal restaurant.
In the clip, the camera pans across a plate of char kway teow, zooming in on a brown cockroach tucked among the pile of noodles.
In the comments section, user @rafidhicloud said they were one of the customers involved, and attested that the incident “was real”.
“I did not plant this roach, this is my favourite restaurant,” the comment read.
Shortangryman later added that responses to the post were “getting too far”, saying the incident had left them unable to dine out.
The restaurant responded in a comment, saying that the customer’s claim came “long after (the) alleged incident and coincided with financial demand”.
“We welcome genuine feedback but will not tolerate bad-faith allegations,” it said.
The customer, 35-year-old Syed Rafidhi, told AsiaOne that the incident happened on Aug 22. He said that he flagged the issue to staff members who offered to replace the meal, but he declined.
He then met with the restaurant’s owner on Sept 9, requesting a $5,000 compensation.
Incident was ‘unlikely’: Managing director
Speaking to Stomp, managing director of Al Majlis Serangoon Road Niyas Babu said the management first learnt of the alleged incident on Sept 4, when the customer’s sister contacted the business through WhatsApp.
By then, almost two weeks had passed, so staff were unable to inspect the dish or the cockroach.
Babu said the restaurant found the account “unlikely”, as they had “no pest issues” at the restaurant.
After reviewing the video, he also questioned how the cockroach could have remained intact after being in a dish stir-fried at high heat.
He added that they believe the cockroach was “placed there afterwards”.
‘We have nothing to hide’
Babu said that the customer’s sister continued to contact the restaurant, saying that they were traumatised by the incident and could not eat.
Despite having “serious doubts” about the customer’s account, the restaurant’s owner agreed to meet the customers on Sept 9.
When they requested $5,000 in compensation, Babu said management “declined their allegation”.
“We have nothing to hide, and paying to keep the matter quiet is not something we could do in good conscience,” Babu explained.
He added that the management has carried out internal and third-party pest control checks, which did not find any trace of pests.
Babu said this was also the first time such a complaint has been made against them, urging the public to consider all the facts before drawing conclusions.
Stomp has reached out to the Singapore Food Agency for more information.
Additional reporting by Karissa Yip.
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