Police said that a popular Main Line Chinese restaurant, once named the nation's best, closed after an infestation of roaches has made improvements and could open as early as next week.
But, that didn't stop Radnor Township from citing Yangming for a trio of charges including failure to control insects or rodents, improper food storage and keeping food in unsanitary conditions, said Radnor Township Police Superintendent Bill Colarulo.
Radnor Township health officials closed Yangming indefinitely on Aug. 18 and posted a health citation in the front window that listed "Gross Facility & Equipment Sanitation" and "Insect/Rodent Infestation" as reasons for the closure.
The next day, police could be seen pulling roaches from the restaurant, which was originally closed down briefly on Aug. 14 after a teenage customer twice found a roach in her food.
When officers arrived, "there were roaches that were in plain sight" in the kitchen, said Radnor Police Lt. Andy Block.
"What we found today was deplorable, so imagine what it looked like five days ago when it's still deplorable -- we're pulling out roaches and expired food," said Radnor Police Chief William Colarulo last Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the restaurant told NBC10 that they were still working to get the restaurant reopen. The restaurant said they already made tens of thousands of dollars of repairs to their out-of-date HVAC and exhaust systems, to the electrical and plumbing systems, to remove and clean equipment and also made improvements to meet fire regulations.
Colarulo said Friday that the restaurant has made improvements to its nearly 100-year-old building and that a more thorough inspection revealed the building violations weren't as serious as first thought.
He said Yangming could reopen next week.
Earlier this week, Yangming apologized for the infestation and said it hoped to regain the trust of its patrons.
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));A sincere apology to our patrons. We are very very sorry for the problems which caused the Township to temporarily... Posted by Yangming on Monday, August 24, 2015
The eatery, popular among Main Liners and area college students, has a history of praise. In 2011, Yangming beat out about 45,000 other eateries to top Chinese Restaurant News’ “Best Chinese Restaurant” list.
