Roaches Shutter Lao Sze Chuan's Chinatown Flagship [Updated]

By Anthony Todd in Food on Sep 9, 2015 10:58PM

Lao Sze Chuan in Chinatown was shut down by the city last Friday for, among other things, a roach infestation. Yuck.

Eater Chicago first reported the story Friday. They've got the full health department report, but here's the highlight:

"Adulterated food found in kitchen area, found dead cockroaches mixed up with sugar and corn starch in large bins under prep table....Evidence of insects infestation found. Over 30 live cockroaches in kitchen crawling under prep tables and walls."

If that doesn't give you nightmares, what will?

Restaurants fail their health inspections all the time for tiny things (remember when Alinea failed its inspection for a potato soup that was too warm?) but serious insect infestations are another thing altogether.

The inspection report notes that the inspection was a result of a customer complaint. We got curious and checked Yelp - a customer complained of a roach in their food (and included a picture, ew) on July 10. Perhaps bitter Ashley A from Rockford called in the authorities? Or someone else found a bug in their orange chicken.

Also, we checked the city's inspection records (which are open to the public—search for your favorite restaurants!) and Lao Sze Chuan's Uptown location failed its inspection as well on Sept. 3. That restaurant group is having a bad week.

The inspector of the Uptown location cited mouse droppings and bags that had been chewed open. That location is still open for business, and is presumably cleaned up.

Update, 9/10, 3:40 p.m. : Eater now reports that Lao Sze Chuan is back open, after (presumably) cleaning up its act and being re-inspected. The restaurant was shut down for almost a week.