Expensive Sea Food Restaurants in Charlotte

[monsoon]

Did anybody catch the WCNC special where they tested the fish served in a number of Charlotte seafood restaurants and found they were substituting much cheaper and sometimes dangerous fish for the real thing. This includes such expensive places as McCormicks at SouthPark and places near the Center City.

[dxartist]

that doesn't surprise me. Not to name names, but I know for a fact one restaurant around town used to do (or maybe still do) the same thing. One of the former cooks of that place use told me about it. When I found out, I simply stop eating the fish there. As a consumer, I would like to get what I pay for. Anything fish related for me now is bought at the store.

[Raintree21]

WCNC's article on the fish story is here for those who want to read it.

[Neo]

This has been well known for some time nationwide. NPR ran a similar story a few months ago where even expensive restaurants were substituting certain fish for cheaper similar tasting fish.

Did WCNC have anything about proposals to remedy the problem?

[rockhilljames]

That's good reporting. I wish more local news would do stuff like this.

[swh1972]

That's disappointing for M&S, as they seem to go out of their way to tell you the type of fish and where it was caught on their menus.

[cinco]

it would seem to me... this would be grounds for a lawsuit? i'm not a very letigous minded person, but outright lying to people and making money off of it - seems criminal and should be stopped in some fashion (lawsuit).

[monsoon]

It's against the law for sure. The reporter on the TV station said the NC state something or another was going to investigate the restaurants and suppliers who did this.

[uptownliving]

The Investigative Reporter who did this report is Stuart Watson. He used to work for WRAL in Raleigh so he has lots of State goverment contacts and if you watch his reports most of them end up being investiagted by some type of NC Government official. He is an excellant reporter and WCNC is lucky to have him.

[monsoon]

One of the more disturbing things about it, they showed an Australian undercover expose on these Asian fish vendors, especially the ones from Vietnam, and they showed fish being grown in very toxic enviroments in filth and chemicals. A number of the restaurants in this report used fish from these kinds of sources.

[RiverwoodCLT]

This is a tip of an ice burg. Any food from China is not safe in my opinion. It is the biggest danger in our food supply is food from outside of the USA.

On Coast To Coast AM, there have been shows on the danger of food from China and other counties. We have no one in government watching our food supply.

[swampfox43]

I saw those reports. Great job Stuart!!!

Another offender was Vinnie's in South End. What they advertised as Grouper was actually Catfish!!

I'm glad I'm a shrimp guy. What could a restaurant possibly substitute for that?

Maybe I shouldn't have asked......

[RiverwoodCLT]

If the shrimp is from China and is farm rasied, they have chicken coops over the ponds. All the waste goes into the pond. So much for your shrimp.

[swampfox43]

If the shrimp is from China and is farm rasied, they have chicken coops over the ponds. All the waste goes into the pond. So much for your shrimp.

[DigitalSky]

I saw this report on TV too. It was just shocking because where our food comes from and WHAT exactly it may be are things we put in the trust of the restaurant's hands...

[A2]

The report from WCNC is just scary as hell ! I had NO idea !!!

Those Catfish in the river just about made me lose my own meal I just ate!

A2

[peaceloveunderstanding]

On Coast To Coast AM, there have been shows on the danger of food from China and other counties. We have no one in government watching our food supply.

[monsoon]

I wonder if this isn't just a part of a scare campaign by domestic food producers to keep people buying domestic foods.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

What the restaurants, and/or the suppliers are doing is a scam and they should be punished by lawsuits and a hit to the share price. There's no debate there.

The post was in response to the claim that we ought to be worried about the international trade of food and that a heavy dose of regulation is needed for what is potentially an exaggerated problem.