A lot of restaurants might look nice from the outside, but it’s a completely different story behind the scenes. A North Carolina man exposed this when he shared a video from what is supposedly the kitchen of a popular soul food restaurant, and it was enough to make anyone rethink eating out, not just at that place.
The video had an unsettling vibe from the start, made worse by the flickering lights. At first, you could see several boxes stacked on top of each other, which wasn’t alarming on its own. But what came next definitely was.
Food was sitting in open boxes with no lids, no wraps, nothing covering it at all. Even worse, these containers were placed dangerously close to the floor, which is definitely not sanitary. To make matters worse, the floor itself wasn’t clean either.
As the video continued, even more problems inside the restaurant became obvious. There was what appeared to be raw chicken sitting in an open container filled with still water, a perfect setup for bacteria to grow. Several other containers, including ones that seemed to hold mac and cheese, were also left uncovered. One had a cardboard box sitting directly on top of it. How is that even remotely acceptable?
Some of the containers held food that didn’t look identifiable at all. And aside from the lack of lids, there were no labels, no dates, nothing indicating when the food was prepared or how long it had been sitting there. There was even cooked chicken left exposed in another open box, and tongs had been left inside a separate container, as if someone had just walked away mid-task.
This short video was more than enough to reveal major issues with the restaurant’s food handling and sanitation. According to the man who posted it, the place shown in the video was Chicken Box on Sugar Creek Rd in Charlotte, North Carolina.
People Reacting to the Footage Inside the North Carolina Restaurant
It is safe to say that people were absolutely disgusted by what they just saw inside the North Carolina restaurant. Several people asked the man who posted the video to contact the health department. “Call the health dept immediately this could kill somebody with underlying conditions it’s your responsibility,” one person wrote. Another person said, “Please report this restaurant to the health department before someone gets seriously sick or dies from food borne illness.” Someone else agreed and added, “Health Department..ASAP.” One comment even joked about the situation as they wrote, “literal soul food bc it’ll take u to heaven.” It did look like it could take a person out.
With the number of violations shown in the video, some viewers couldn’t even identify everything that was wrong. One person broke it down clearly, saying, “Chicken not on the lowest level, no labels on a single item. No dates, boxes directly on the ground, improper cooling methods, doubt the temperature is correct, cooked food on top of raw food, no lids, fried chicken cooked sitting in a bus tub, tongs sitting inside food. I could list 15 more.”
Another person pointed out the obvious risk of contamination. “The amount of bacteria growing on it… If food poisoning was a person, this would be the prime example,” they wrote.
A local viewer chimed in with a blunt warning: “I mean, it’s on Sugar Creek… if you eat anything on that exit, that’s on you.”
Hopefully, not every restaurant looks anything like this behind the scenes.
