Picture above by “rversde23” taken in 2006, when Kati Roll was probably still a decent place.
On Sunday September 7, 2008 at around 8:30pm after a hard day of homework at NYU, a classmate and I decided to get some food! We walked down MacDougal St. in NYC looking for something Yummy that had a Vegetarian option for my classmate, since she does not eat meat. We found this place called Kati Roll located at 99 MacDougal St. between Bleecker St. and W 3rd. St. It seemed like a nice place so we ordered and paid for a chicken Kati roll for me and two potato and egg rolls.
We ended up getting a chicken roll and some strange meat roll that seemed to be goat. When we went up to the counter to try to tell them that we received the wrong thing, We immediately started to get yelled at by the cashier person in a very thick foreign accent that we got the right order. Since I did not want to deal with the yelling, I asked for an extra potato and egg Kati Roll. I told them that I would gladly pay for the Roll but I was very disappointed that they would not carter to the needs of their clientele. To our surprise and the surprise of the people around us, the cashier person started to yell at us and told us to “Get Out!”
I asked the cashier person, what his problem was and why he was being so loud. He immediately walked around the counter yelling get out, and literary pushed us out the door.
Frightened by this event we called the police, which arrived to the scene not too long after. We explained the situation to one officer while the other went inside to get the cashier’s story.
The officers then talked for a bit and they both came over and told us that we needed to pay for the food. We then clarified that we indeed pay for the food and wanted to pay for a vegetarian Kati Roll (egg and potato) when the police office went back in to ask if we had paid, they cashier confirmed that we did pay and immediately started getting an attitude with the officer as well and was talking with a very loud, almost screaming voice. The officer came back and apologized and told us that there is nothing he could do about it. And we where not able to purchase an other Roll. We thanked the police and took a picture of the guy who was yelling at us. as soon as the guy saw me take the picture, he came running out to the door and started kicking and punching the air like a mad man while yelling “Get out now!” “get out!” so we did, horrified by the service.
I was kind of glad we ended up leaving, reflecting on the situation, I remember seeing the kitchen staff sitting behind the counter on the greasy filthy ground of the kitchen eating what seemed to be a Kati Roll. He put his hands on the ground to get up and make our rolls, no hair net and with out washing his hands.
Apparently we are not the only casualties of this treatment. Roughly a year ago this same incident happened to a group of four fellow New Yorkers.
“… he interrupted in now a very loud and angry voice “Get out nowâ€. He then came out of the counter with his fist at me (He placed his fist on my cheak). My wife and 3 friends were forcefully kicked out of the restaurant. We were all completely shocked at what happened.”
09/24/2007 Posted by dipenpatel33 on citysearch.com
This was just the frosting on the cake and is enough for me to never go back to this restaurant. And I urge you not to go either.