Vancouver man finds dead mouse in poke bowl: "I notice the legs and everything"
A Vancouver man said he found a dead mouse in his poke bowl last month, an experience that has put him off eating out and led to questions about the restaurant’s response.
Kam Kakwan visited Poke Bar at Kingsway and Broadway on July 29, deciding to treat himself to a nutritious lunch while at work. He brought the bowl back to the office and had eaten half of it when he realized something wasn’t right.
“I come to something that seemed like a chunk of lettuce or cabbage in the corner. I was trying to get it into pieces, but it just wasn’t separating,” he said. “As I’m trying I see the tail. And I’m like, that’s a weird part of a cabbage. I’m trying to follow it and I notice the legs and everything. As I wipe the sauce and have a better look I realize it was a mouse.”
Kam Kakwan/Submitted
Kakwan was shocked, describing the feeling as a punch in the stomach. He immediately lost his appetite and showed the bowl to his colleagues to confirm they saw the same thing he did.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said. “Once in a blue moon I go and get something, and this happens.”
Worker screams when showed mouse
Poke Bar at 280 East Broadway
Kakwan went back to the restaurant at 280 East Broadway and showed the bowl to staff. Upon seeing the mouse in the bowl, he said one of the women behind the counter screamed.
“If you have a reaction like that, imagine how I’m feeling now,” Kakwan said.
The workers called the manager and offered him another poke bowl. Kakwan accepted, but after taking it away realized he didn’t want to eat it — not knowing if the food was the same as before.
Customer meets with franchise owner
Kakwan eventually got in touch with the franchise owner, Michael Hwang who met with him alongside the location’s ex-manager to discuss what happened. In an audio recording of the meeting provided to Daily Hive, the franchise owner suggested adding cameras to the food assembly line so the restaurant could keep a closer eye in future.
The franchise owner suggested they were both victims in the incident and offered Kakwan $500 to make the situation right. The owner indicated he’d prefer if the $500 were donated to a charity of Kakwan’s choice.
In response to the idea that both the restaurant and the customer were victims, Kakwan said, “You didn’t have a dead mouse in your lunch, with all due respect.”
The interaction left Kakwan with a sour taste in his mouth, as he felt the restaurant’s owner didn’t believe him. At one point he suggested it may have been present in a delivery from their supplier.
“It felt rude, and felt like there was an injustice done to me,” Kakwan said. “I think [the restaurant owner] has no idea what it feels like to find a mouse in your food.”
In the end, no money was exchanged, and Kakwan decided to go public with the story.
He posted the mouse photos in a Google Review, which the restaurant’s management, in a response comment, called a reckless attempt to discredit the business.
“We demand that you delete this post immediately and get your lawyer to reach out to us directly so we can continue to work towards a resolution that respects both your concerns and our commitment to integrity and quality,” the comment on the review reads.
Poke restaurant investigates what happened
Hwang tells Daily Hive he was just as shocked by what happened as the customer, adding he’s at a loss as to how the mouse ended up in the bowl.
“We’ve been scratching our heads. We just could not understand how this could happen within our premises,” he told Daily Hive.
He explained that ingredients arrive in sealed packaging and are moved into secure containers in the fridge upon arrival. Rice is stored in rice cookers with closed lids, and food used to prepare the poke bowls is kept in refrigerated containers behind the counter, visible to both staff and customers, as bowls are customized.
Tongs or small scoopers are used to add ingredients, and Hwang didn’t know how a mouse could’ve gotten into the bowl without someone noticing.
Kakwan told Daily Hive $500 for agreeing not to speak about the incident was far too low. He suggested $5,000 instead. But to Hwang, that alerted suspicions that the customer could be seeking a payout.
“In my mind, there’s equal chance this could be real, or it could be extortion — staged,” Hwang said. “It leaves reasonable doubt in our mind.”
Vancouver Coastal Health monitors the cleanliness of restaurants in the city, and the most recent report available online for the Broadway and Kingsway Poke Bar from March 2024 didn’t find any issues with pest control.
A health inspector visited the location on July 31, two days after the mouse incident. In a report about that visit that Hwang shared with Daily Hive, the inspector noted the complaint “cannot be verified” and was satisfied by the manager’s demonstration of how poke bowls are prepared. The inspector noted a small amount of mouse droppings were visible behind the grease trap and on the floor behind a dry storage shelving unit. The inspector instructed staff to clean the droppings and call in a pest control company if they found new ones.
The restaurant has also notified its suppliers about the incident so it can be looked into.
Hwang told Daily Hive he prides himself on the restaurant’s cleanliness, saying it meets or exceeds health standards. As for Kakwan, he hopes changes have happened.
“They’re going to think twice before they serve a bowl of mouse to the next person,” he said. “I don’t want anyone else to go through that.”