Vancouver Coastal Health says it has received complaints and is investigating.

The owner of a trendy restaurant in Vancouver says he is “deeply sorry” after a customer claimed to have found a rat in a soup bowl.

A video was posted to Instagram Thursday, alleging someone had found the creature in a bowl of soup at Crab Park Chowdery, a rustic-style cafe in Gastown that serves clam chowder and soup in sourdough bread bowls.

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The establishment’s owner Ashton Phillips, who opened the popular restaurant two years ago, was in shock and disbelief Friday. He said they have very strict food safety measures and he just can’t understand how it got in the soup.

“We are doing everything we can to figure out what happened,” said a very emotional Phillips.

He said two young women were dining at around 3 p.m. Thursday when they alleged they found a rat or a mouse in the soup to a restaurant employee.

Following the social media post, multiple negative reviews began appearing on sites like Yelp, something Phillips says has “absolutely devastated” his staff.

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He said the soup was made in a 50-gallon steam kettle, which has a sealed lid. He noted that as soon as the soup is made it is “lidded.”

“You have to lid soup. This is a food safety measure and we always take it,” he said.

“It’s just impossible that a rat got in there. We are baffled.”

Vancouver Coastal Health Authority said the soup is not prepared on site, but rather at Mamie Taylor’s, a restaurant at 251 East Georgia St.

An inspection of Mamie Taylor’s turned up evidence of rodents, said Tiffany Akins, a spokeswoman for Vancouver Coastal. The restaurant and commercial kitchen were closed immediately.

Crab Park Chowdery has been allowed to continue operations, so long as they no longer prepare their food at Mamie Taylor’s.

“Crab Park Chowdery operates a food truck which they are welcome to continue to cook in,” said Akins.

The owner of Mamie Taylor’s, Ron Oliver, released a statement about the rat discovery.

“It has come to our attention that a rat was allegedly found in chowder purchased at Crab Park Chowdery, a tenant of the commercial commissary kitchen located in the basement of our building,” he said.

“While it is true that Crab Park Chowdery makes its soups in that commercial kitchen, we must stress that its operations and kitchen are completely separate from those of Mamie Taylor’s.”

He said the commissary kitchen is on the basement level of Mamie Taylor’s restaurant and is not used by Mamie Taylor’s, which operates out of a kitchen on the main floor.

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Oliver added that the Chowdery’s commissary space did not pass inspection, but because of that VCH had to shut down the whole restaurant. He said they have been supportive of the Chowdery but also have raised “serious concerns” with the staff about general cleanliness.

Phillips said he did not want to make any accusations against anyone and said he is taking full responsibility for the incident.

“We are deeply apologetic. We will continue to do everything we can to get to the bottom of this.”

“This business has been my dream. And we are a highly rated restaurant. It has been a really tough day … we are trying to do the right thing,” he said, his voice shaking.

The Instagram user who posted the video, pisun_ne_ne, has not responded to a request to comment by Postmedia.

Vancouver Coastal Health Authority says it received several complaints Friday morning about the incident at Crab Park Chowdery.

VCH last inspected the restaurant in October. It had four health and safety infractions, including that the premise was not maintained in a sanitary condition.

Akins noted there were signs of rodents at an inspection in February. She said on Feb. 6 the inspector noticed the issue and made the owner aware of what needed to be done to fix the problem.

She said the inspector went back to the restaurant Feb. 23 for a followup inspection to check on how the infractions were handled.

“At that time the restaurant was free of pests and any signs of pests,” she said.

Akins added that all restaurants in Vancouver are inspected at least once a year.

with files from Harrison Mooney