A dirty, roach- and rodent-infested East Village sushi joint ordered shut by city inspectors brazenly continued to dish raw fish to unsuspecting customers last weekend.
After it flunked three consecutive health inspections and was forced to close up shop, you’d hope customers would think better of picking up a chopstick at Fu Sushi on Avenue B — even if it were the last Japanese restaurant on earth.
City agents had plastered a large yellow sign to the door June 23, ordering the eatery to shut down.
But all managers had to do was prop the door open — obscuring the sign from plain sight — and suddenly, a place deemed a health hazard was doing a bustling business, neighbors said.
“They did business with the door open . . . They were packed,” said Village resident David Halladay, 57, adding that the restaurant would open up only after 6 p.m., when city inspectors wouldn’t be around.
“You could smell it — the basement stinks — and I thought, ‘It’s a restaurant that serves raw food!” said Halladay, who reported the eatery to the city Health Department.
The restaurant’s health-code violations involved everything from vermin in the cooking areas to an overall lack of cleanliness and staff hygiene, records show.
Workers raised the gate at the restaurant yesterday afternoon — but quickly closed when approached by The Post. One employee even chased a photographer down the street.
The owner could not be reached for comment.
A C grade is given to restaurants receiving 28 or more violation points during an inspection. On March 3, inspectors slapped Fu Sushi with 30 points, and on June 9, the joint was slapped with 70 points.
On June 23, it was hit with a stunning 99 points.
The next day the owner agreed to pay more than $7,000 in fines, bring in pest-control experts and have his staff retake a food protection class, officials said.
But the restaurant could not reopen until another inspection could be scheduled, a Health Department spokesman said. The owner has yet to make an appointment.
The restaurant may now be in even more trouble.
“The department’s policy is to reclose any restaurant . . . if it has reopened without authorization,” a department spokesman said. “Fu Sushi will receive an inspection to monitor that they have remained closed.” [NY Post] By Rebecca Rosenberg and Jeremy Olshan