A family celebrating a milestone birthday got a side of parasitic worm along with their dinner at a popular Asbury Park restaurant over the weekend.

The next day, they got an unwanted second helping from the restaurant, when staff criticized the diners for posting a now viral video of the worm on Facebook.

Jim Guinee, of Middletown, was out to dinner at Stella Marina Bar & Restaurant Saturday evening with his 80-year-old aunt, girlfriend Jennifer Morzano and several other family members. As Morzano, who had already eaten about half of her cod dinner, went to cut around the skin that wasn't quite cooked to her taste, she saw the worm, slender and pale, wiggling out of the mix of rice and fish.

"She saw this worm squirming out of the codfish on the plate," Guinee said in a phone call with NJ Advance Media Monday afternoon. "I just videotaped it because, one, I thought it looked pretty gross, and we weren't sure what it was. We weren't sure if she was going to get sick."

He posted the video to Facebook Saturday night, and it's since caught the eye of more than 100,000 people who have likely now lost their appetites.

But it's also drawn ire from the restaurant, which addressed the incident in a Facebook post, decrying Guinee's video as a "callousness and irresponsible reaction of an attorney of law to attempt to destroy our reputation & possible livelihoods due to something that could have happened to anyone, whether cooking at home or in a restaurant."

Guinee is a practicing attorney, but said he hasn't taken any legal action against the restaurant. He posted the video to Facebook and tagged it the Stella Marina's page, but said he doesn't see how his career has anything to do with the video.

"If I had been a plumber, would they have said I'm a callous plumber?" he said. "It wasn't meant with any ill-intent. I definitely didn't think that many people would view it, and I just didn't want them to keep serving the cod."

Guinee said the restaurant cut the bill down by about one third, and that the staff was extremely apologetic, telling the family that nothing of the sort had happened there before. But he also said another patron came up to the family's table, saying he had found a worm in his dish as well.

In the post Sunday afternoon, the restaurant defended its practices while acknowledging the unfortunate addition to the meal. The post noted that worms in codfish are common, and can slip past inspectors and cooks regularly to be found both in restaurants and by those preparing fish at home.

The Monmouth County Health Department did not immediately return an inquiry regarding the restaurant's inspection history late Monday afternoon.

Nearly 400 Yelp reviews of the restaurant have left Stella Marina with a mixed ranking of three out of five stars. Some describe delicious meals with exceptional service, while others note the presence of dirty plates and silverware.

Management at Stella Marina did not return multiple calls seeking further information about its response and the incident.

Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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