Surprise inspection at Yangming finds 'deplorable conditions'

RADNOR TWP., Pa. (WPVI) -- On Wednesday, health inspectors made a surprise visit to Yangming, the Main Line restaurant that is shut down due to a roach infestation.

"There is no way they are even close to reopening. We walked through this place and it's a disgrace. I guess that's the nicest word I can say on camera, it's just disgraceful what we found in that restaurant," Radnor Police Superintendent William Colarulo said.

Colarulo explained there are problems with sewer pipes dripping on food, roaches in the basement, dirty plates, and rat traps that "we don't know if there's anything in them."

Radnor Township Manager Robert Zienkowski added more.

"There's some issues with the structure here, there's some electrical issues, plumbing issues," Zienkowski said.

Since their July inspection, the owners of Yangming haven't gotten up to code, but remained open while they worked with Radnor Township.

Last week, that came to a halt.

"There was a customer here that stated she was eating her entree when there was a roach in it, she replaced her entree with a second entree and while she was eating that, there were additional roaches discovered," Radnor Township Police Lt. Andy Block said.

After one more try this weekend, officials forced the nationally renowned restaurant to close Tuesday.

On Wednesday, utility workers even shut down Roberts Road part of the day to unclog the sewer line, possibly caused by grease dumped by the restaurant.

The manager apologized and said he wants to renovate and do the right thing.

Police are frustrated and think staff ignored glaring issues and won't accept the severity of it all.

"The tables were set for dinner; they had tablecloths, silverware, and napkins set up on the table. I said to the manager, 'What are you doing here?'" Colarulo said.

Customers continue to pull up and even hearing all the details would come back.

"If you can get it inspected, up to par and if people are OK with it, we'd give it another shot, sure," Ben Ovadia of Cherry Hill, NJ said.