Huey's Restaurant Brought out food with a roach in it and made me pay for it. Memphis, Tennessee

     On Saturday Morning, November 21, 2009, at approximately 12:57am myself and (3) three friends arrived at the Huey's Restaurant located at 7825 Winchester Rd., Memphis, TN 38125, (901)624-8911. After placing our order and receiving our meals we discovered that there was a small roach on one of the french fries (see attached photo & sales receipt). Upon the discovery of the bug we immediately notified our waitress (Jennifer) of it. After personally inspecting the french fries and identifying the roach, Jennifer removed the plate that contained the roach from the table. We subsequently notified Jennifer that we had not eaten any of our food and that we no longer wanted it. Jennifer then informed us that she would have to get the manager on duty to address our concerns, at which time Mr. Abraham (the manager) came to our table.

     Upon his arrival at our table Mr. Abraham informed us that he was going to charge us half price for the meals that we did not eat, despite the fact that they sent a roach to the table in one of the orders. We went on to point out to Mr. Abraham that we did not eat any of the food and that we did not expect to pay since there was a roach in the food and we had not consumed any of it. Mr. Abraham told us that we had [no] reason to be dissatisfied with the food that did not have a roach in it, despite the fact that much of it had to be cooked together (i.e. 2 orders of fries and 2 orders of tenders). He further stated that he had [no] authority to void a ticket regardless of what type of complaint we may have. A review of the receipt attached, on line item (8), clearly states that there was a 'BUG ON TEND/FF". Health Department regulation require that a Restaurant keep its facility free of rodents and infestation. However, Huey's and Mr. Abraham has taken the position that it is acceptable to send bugs out with orders and as long as the bug is not present on your portion of the order, you should pay for it "because you ordered it" regardless of whether or not you still desire to eat at a facility that is in violation of Health Department sanitation requirements.

     Mr. Abraham did eventually remove the charge for the order that contained the roach, but told us that he would file criminal charges against us if we did not pay for the food that we did not eat. We then contacted the Memphis Police Department and they arrived at the scene at approximately 2:46am. We advised them of the situation and determined after talking to them that we should pay for the uneaten food, although they agreed with our position on the matter. We feel that Mr. Abraham told a [bold] face lie in stating that he had no authority to take the meals off our ticket, because the authority to remove the one order had to be derived from somewhere. So how could a resonable person opine that he could unilaterally remove one meal in its entirity, but only possess the power to other meals by only 50%. It is common in every reptuable restaurant establishment to take meals off of tickets if the patron did not consume it due to being dissatisfied with some portion of the service or meal. We are forwarding this complaint and photo to the Shelby County Health Department on Monday. We would greatly appreciate any attention you can bring to this atrocious act.