INDIANAPOLIS—The owner of the the chicken and fish restaurant at 42nd and Post has made a statement to WRTV regarding the viral TikTok video that showed mice in the restaurant and food on the floor, saying that it was all a misunderstanding.
Omar Siedahmed, is the owner of the Jordan's Fish and Chicken location which is officially registered with the state as SDN Market Inc.
Omar said that employees have previously had issues with the man recording the video.
“He’s been coming there for a while and caused some problems and always wants to get some free stuff,” Omar said.
Omar says the establishment isn't responsible for the mice.
“The mice, I believe he is the one who brought it in with him to ignite the situation,” Omar said.
The man, who wants to remain anonymous, tells WRTV he was ordering a pan of chicken for his family on New Year's Eve when he recorded the video below.
“As far as the food in the back that was a catering event and that was the leftovers. So everything there was going to be thrown away actually.” Omar said. “The guy took advantage of the situation so it's a complete misunderstanding, but we will have more to say on this statement.”
WRTV's Rachael Wilkerson asked Omar:
"To clarify the misunderstanding, you're saying that the was leftovers, none of that food was being served to the public although we did see some containers that were in that area
and you are saying the viewer... the one that recorded that brought in that mouse?"
"Correct. Correct," said Omar.
Omar says that as the owner things may have gone differently if he was there at the time the video was recorded. He told us the customer violated the rules.
“He wasn’t even supposed to enter that area. That was employees only area. He entered it. You can tell in the kitchen area the employees serving the food to customers, they were standing on the left side next to the grill and fryers. Thats the food served to the public.” Omar said. “Food in the back. Thats leftover. Thats all going to be thrown away. This is why you see a lot of mess on the ground and stuff. All containers and so forth and this is very far from the cashier end.”
WRTV's Rachael Wilkerson asked why wasn't the food just taken to the dumpster if it was trash.
Omar says that the food on the floor was just about to be thrown away and an employee even had on gloves to take it to the dumpster.
He says they want to be transparent to customers.
“Been open for 20+ years and this doesn’t happen. This is ethic- hard work. We try to make everything transparent,” Omar said. “Customers see food being cooked from fryers straight on plates to customers hands.”
“There’s no logical explanation why we would serve that food on the floor to customers.” Omar said.
Omar says that he will have a spokesperson make another statement soon.
A sign saying closed to protect public health and safety still hangs at this far east side restaurant.
We searched the Marion County Public Health Department's inspection records for this restaurant.
Since March of 2021, records show violations were found on 8 out of the 12 inspections.
The last inspection was in October following a complaint that a family of 5 became ill, with nausea, vomiting and a headache shortly after eating here.
The inspector noted: the chicken is brought in from Chicago weekly and stored.
The inspector also noted the person in charge at this time did not know the safe cooking temperature for chicken.
That problem records show was corrected.
