Taken from STOMP
Student Rella, 19, and seven friends were enjoying steamboat at a
restaurant in Marina South when this lizard showed up in the
soup.
"One of its feet was gone and its tail was semi-detached!" she said
in an email today (21 Nov).
The STOMPer said they had dinner at the restaurant on 17 Nov,
persuaded by a "friendly uncle" at the entrance.
"Happily chitchatting and having fun cooking. Eight of us, two
steamboat sets," she said.
"At about 8pm, just as a guy was about to empty the rest of the raw
sotongs (half of these sotongs were already cooked and eaten) into
the steamboat, we realised there was a dead lizard in the
plate!
The STOMPer said they called for the staff who asked his niece to
talk to them.
"A lady came. We showed her the plate of lizard. She immediately
took the plate away. When she came back, I asked her what's to be
done. She replied in a rather rude tone 'you want I change the soup
for you la'."
The STOMPer called a friend for advice. "He told us to ask for
compensation as we hadn't had our fill of the food, and that the
disgusting sight had made our stomach spin," she said.
"What can be done on your side? How would you compensate?" I
asked.
"The lady stared into my eyes and said 'Compensation? NO WAY! You
want, I will change the soup for you. That's all'.
"People from the other table came to me and told us we should get
compensation, and that the lady looked really aggressive," she
said.
"We decided to get the uncle who first invited us in since he was
so friendly and assured us of the best food we can get (I hope the
best food he referred to wasn't that lizard).
"The uncle came and heard our explanation. His attitude changed
too. He stuttered. He said we might have been the ones who put that
lizard into the food. (What a thing to say!)
"He even added that 'Lizard is nothing. We used to have cockroaches
and even rats too. Nobody complained what'.
"A lady from the table next to us came up to me and told us to
report the case, saying that the lizard might be poisonous if
eaten. We tried contacting Ministry of Health that night, but it
was already closed."
The STOMPer said the manager refused to budge, and said "you all
got food poisoning then come find me la".
The STOMPer asked for her namecard and got her to sign on it, below
the words "There was a dead lizard in the plate of raw
sotongs".
"She thought for awhile and signed. We thought we needed some
witnesses in case she denies everything. We got the contact numbers
of people sitting at the tables next to us who saw
everything."
The STOMPer said stiff action should be taken against the
restaurant. "We certainly do not want to know what lizard's tail
tastes like with sotong," she said.
