New Thai Elephant has been pulling in solid reviews since opening on Bay Street in North Beach — a 4.7 on Google, a following of regulars who come back specifically for the pad kee mao and yellow curry, and a location that puts it within easy walking distance of Fisherman’s Wharf tourist traffic and a dense residential neighborhood. On Tuesday, the San Francisco Department of Public Health walked in for a routine inspection and found a facility with rodent droppings in nine distinct areas of the restaurant, live cockroaches in multiple locations, spoiled food at unsafe temperatures, a broken refrigerator, standing water around a water heater, and a dead rat on the floor. The health permit was immediately suspended. The closure placard went up.
What the Inspection Found
The SFDPH inspection report, available through the department’s inspection database, reads like a facility that has been losing a long, simultaneous battle on multiple fronts.
On rodents: Inspector Michael Mooney documented droppings on the clean drain board of the dish machine, on the tray where tea is prepared, under the three-basin sink, in the corners of the kitchen near the door, under a table holding boxes of noodles, in the basement under shelves, and in corners of the dry storage room. Then there’s the dining room — droppings on the lids of dry storage items in the hall, under the bar, along shelves in the hallway leading to the kitchen, and behind the booths where customers sit and eat. A dead rodent was found on the floor under the shelves next to the exit sign.
On cockroaches: live roaches were observed under a prep table in a corner near the prep top, with heavy cockroach droppings in the same area. More roaches in the wall of the hallway shared with the cook line, in the door frame behind the mesh, and on adhesive boards under the bar and along the wall near the kitchen handwashing sink…