Daninfo.com - "Cesspool" sludge and decaying mouse carcasses doomed the much-buzzed-aboutMission Chinese Foodrestaurant, according to a lawsuit filed by celebrity chefDanny Bowienand his partners against their former landlord.

The restaurateurs are demanding at least $500,000 from Abraham Noy, owner of 154 Orchard St., to make up for their lost profits and "immeasurable harm to their reputations and brand" after the restaurant was shut down twice by the Health Department and closed for good last year, court records show.

The lawsuit, filed July 31 inManhattan Supreme Court, accuses Noy of leasing Mission Chinese a space that was not up to code and then refusing to make repairs even though structural issues contributed to a rodent problem so severe that a "cesspool" of sludge and mouse corpses was discovered in a storage closet, according to the suit.

“As a result of these wrongful acts... [Mission Chinese] was forced to discontinue and abandon their use of the property," the suit says.

Noy's lawyer said his client denied the lawsuit's allegations, but declined to comment further. The lawyer for Mission Chinese declined to comment. Continue!