A passer-by shot this photo of a rat inside the BBQ Express at Queen and Peter Sts. (Sean Meharg/Special to Sun Media)

Kyle Fisher almost lost his lunch when he discovered a restaurant he frequents has rats.

The Toronto Sun has obtained pictures of a large rat lounging on tables and chairs of the Famous BBQ Express at 385 Queen St. W.

"The disease aspect is scary. I don't want to catch anything with everything else going on," said Fisher, who works at a clothing store a couple of doors down from the restaurant. "I'm shocked. They are really nice people, but I'm not going to eat them anymore."

The Sun took the photos to Toronto Public Health and they immediately arranged for a new inspection of the restaurant, which had a green pass indicating it had received a clean inspection in October.

"There isn't a major problem with rats in that area so the problem could be in the restaurant," said Jim Chan, the food safety manager for public health. "It's not normal for a rat to be sitting on a chair being looked at."

Adam Wang, the manager of Famous BBQ Express, says he has an exterminator come in every month, but he could only provide receipts for 2008.

"The building is old and I try to do my best. There is an old building being torn down behind us and I think that is where they come from," said Wang, who asked for no story to be written. "I feel really bad about it. It could ruin my business in this economy."