EXCLUSIVE: Meghan Markle’s NYC baby shower hotel The Mark is slammed over RATS ‘spotted in its caviar restaurant’

The luxury New York hotel that hosted Meghan Markle’s famous baby shower has come under fire after allegations of rat sightings at its caviar restaurant.

A mother and daughter dining at The Mark on Manhattan’s Upper East Side told DailyMail.com last week that they spotted two huge rodents crawling under a table a few feet away from them.

At the time, the two horrified men were eating a $500 lunch at the Caviar Kaspia restaurant. He specializes in luxurious fish roe dishes and charges up to $1,100 for a baked potato topped with caviar.

“It was just awful. We were having lunch between a mother and a daughter. We had a potato dinner with caviar and a glass of champagne each,” one of the women, who wished to remain anonymous, told DailyMail.com.

“We were enjoying it and having a good time. We then enjoyed a sorbet to cleanse the palate, after which we planned to go shopping. Then my daughter gasped and screamed that there were two rats sitting under a table four feet from us.

“We were in front and I jumped up. There were two other women sitting at another table who were also horrified.”

This exclusive DailyMail.com photo shows what appears to be rat droppings strewn across the floor of The Mark’s Caviar Kaspia restaurant.

The snaps, taken on Wednesday, were released as staff at the establishment admitted to DailyMail.com that The Mark had recently battled a rodent problem.

A publicity shot of Caviar Kaspia as it appears on the restaurant’s Instagram page, which promises diners an “unforgettable evening”

A selection of dishes that appear on the Caviar Kaspia menu, including a caviar-topped baked potato that costs $1,100

“A waiter approached as I was pulling out my phone to take a picture, but he stood in front of me before I could and said, ‘Oh, I know, that’s a problem. New York, we’re so sorry.”

The dismayed guest claims the hotel would only remove the dessert from his huge bill as an apology for the stomach-ache observation.

And earlier this week, during a visit to the hotel, DailyMail.com witnessed what appeared to be multiple excrement strewn across Caviar Kaspia’s orange shag carpet.

In a later conversation with staff, an employee admitted that the luxurious five-star hotel – whose cheapest room costs $1,000 a night – suffered from a rat problem.

The worker said: “We had a problem, we were told it was solved. »

They claimed that a pest control company had been called in to deal with the rodent drama and that the rodents had come from a nearby construction site.

“We hired a company they contacted and they said they took care of the whole problem. They said they were here (Caviar Kaspia) when we were closed overnight. I saw the receipt where they arrived and we haven’t had a problem since. It had probably been two weeks since they arrived.

“Honestly, I’ve heard people have seen it, but that’s not the case. Lots of construction outside and next door, we share lots of air vents – we were told (that’s it) the culprit.

In recent years, the five-star hotel, which has become synonymous with opulence and style, made international headlines when Meghan Markle hosted her controversial $500,000 baby shower at the five-star hotel, among many prominent friends.

The Art Deco lobby, with its monochromatic striped marble floor and bold geometric shapes, has become the hotel’s signature style.

The hotel supervisor admitted that the sight of rats in the restaurant was not in harmony with the elegant setting: “It’s disgusting and unacceptable”.

The Mark has long been a favorite haunt, known as the official pre-Met Gala hotel, where many guests of the opulent annual fashion gala prepare.

Her reputation was boosted when Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, hosted her baby shower at the hotel’s $75,000-a-night penthouse in 2019.

The star party, which cost around $500,000, brought together luminaries including Amal Clooney, Serena Williams and Meghan’s former best friend Jessica Mulroney.

Guests were soothed by a performance by harpist Erin Hill while receiving gifts including roses, cotton candy and suitcases.

Upon returning to the UK, Meghan traveled on a private jet courtesy of George and Amal Clooney.

The Duchess has repeatedly complained of an invasion of her privacy and expressed fears over climate change, with her behavior during the extravaganza sparking allegations of hypocrisy.

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour dresses in the Mark before making her annual pilgrimage to host the Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Stunning: Fashion designer Donatella Versace and actress Anne Hathaway shared a joke outside the Mark Hotel earlier this year

Model Karlie Kloss is a regular at the Met Gala and makes her annual red carpet debut at The Mark.

The Mark Hotel is the go-to spot for celebrities looking to show off before their Met Gala red carpet debut. (In the photo, Irina Shayk)

Earlier this year, celebrities flocked to the Upper East Side hotel for the Met Gala.

The Mark has been a premier hotel for Met Gala attendees for more than a decade, with Vogue editor Anna Wintour stepping out on the famous logo-adorned red carpet outside the hotel.

Actresses Emily Blunt and Cara Delevingne and model Karlie Kloss are all flocking to luxury establishments to show off ahead of their Met Gala debut.

The iconic 1927 building was transformed into a luxurious retreat by legendary designer Jacques Grange and boasts 100 rooms and 53 suites.

A spokeswoman for The Mark said: “The Mark takes rodent complaints very seriously and as such, several weekly pest control services pass through the property.

“While there was a recent complaint from two diners, to which our management responded quickly, no staff at Caviar Kaspia have ever reported sightings of rats or mice.

“Subsequent visits by our pest control department did not verify the presence of rodents or droppings at Caviar Kaspia. »