Flies in the rice, shrimp and flour, roaches falling in restaurants failing inspection
We were starting to wonder if inspectors were giving South Florida restaurants more leeway after Rona re-opening. Turns out, they were just waiting for the other roach to fall and the other fly to land.
After two low volume weeks, the Sick and Shut Down List contains six restaurants representing three counties. Let’s get to it.
What follows comes from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation restaurant inspections. If you see a problem in a restaurant, don’t email us. Go here and file a complaint. We don’t control who gets inspected or how strictly. We report without passion or prejudice, but with a doggie bag of humor.
And we go in alphabetical order:
Chicos Restaurant, 4070 W. 12th Ave., Hialeah: Chicos didn’t have a good encounter with The Man.
Let’s start with the 55 live roaches, over 20 of which were on the wall behind the cookline and 10 on the floor in front of the cookline. That’s a lot of things crawling in the same region with stuff that’s going to go into your stomach.
Food storage at the proper temperature seemed to be a problem this week in a few places. Food too warm to prevent bacteria buildup got hit with a summer storm of Stop Sales: yellow rice, chicken, pasta, ground beef, cooked potatoes, pork and more beef.
As we used to say at Mickey D’s, you got time to lean, you got time to clean: “Interior of reach-in cooler soiled with accumulation of food residue.” “Wall soiled with accumulated grease, food debris, and/or dust.”
As tag team duos go, this is one that’ll give The Road Warriors problems: “Unsealed concrete floor in food preparation, food storage, warewashing area or bathroom” and “Floor area(s) covered in standing water.”
Three live roaches caused Chico’s to flunk Thursday’s callback inspection.
Chicos satisfied The Man to get the restaurant back on for Friday night.
Dragon Teahouse, 1327 E. Commercial Blvd., Oakland Park: The cooked rice in this place got stored at 91 degrees, which means a bowl of rice comes as a bowl of bacteria.
Even had it been stored at the proper temperature, it was part of the violation “stored food not covered.” Which was why “Rice was discarded due to contamination by flying insects.”
This place had a fly problem it would’ve taken a village firing Raid and swinging fly swatters to stop. The inspector counted about 100 of them.
Along with the cooked rice (15 flies landing there), flies got into open bags of flour and raw shrimp. Stop Sales landed with the flies.
The inspector also saw 30 flies “landing on clean utensils at the dishwashing area” and 40 “landing on cans and containers with seasoning in dry storage area.”
If you can’t grab a fly swatter, get a rag and deal with the “wall throughout kitchen soiled with old food residue.”
The Dragon breathed a sign of relief after passing Wednesday’s re-inspection.
Human Wok, 3355 Sheridan St., Hollywood: Three live roaches and six dead ones dotted the restaurant.
So, what’s the violation you really don’t want to see if roaches or rodents run about a place? “Bags of flour and rice not covered in dry storage area.”
Unlike the Dragon Tea House, the inspector didn’t see any insect-food mixing.
“Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine.”
The Wok walked the line properly on Tuesday’s re-inspection.
Jojo’s Take-Out, 1700 45th St., West Palm Beach: No hot water or soap at the handwash sink.
There were 60 dead roaches spread around the place: “under cooking equipment, the three-compartment sink, the manager’s office, the dry storage area, the water heater, and under the pickup counter.”
Makes the 14 live roaches, five of which were under the pickup counter, seem paltry, eh?
The inspector came back by Monday and Jojo’s still had the no-nos of dead roaches (two) and live roaches (six).
Sadie’s Grill & Deli, 1301 W. Copans Rd., Pompano Beach: Sadie’s possessed an expired state license and “grease accumulated on kitchen floor and/or under cooking equipment” but here’s why they really got dinged.
“Live roaches fell from inside the paper towels dispenser at end of cookline. Approximately 10 live roaches under rack at end of the cookline. Approximately 10 live roaches under ice chest next to back door, not in kitchen.”
Sadie’s got re-opened Friday.
Villa Rosano, 9858 Clint Moore Rd., Boca Raton: Lot of manos de yuck problems here.
Obstruction on the path to the handwash sink in the dishwashing area and objects in said sink says that’s a low traffic or no traffic area.
Not what you want to see when there were also these problems.
“Single-use gloves not changed as needed after changing tasks or when damaged or soiled…touched raw chicken with gloves and then engaging prep food.”
“Employee touching ready-to-eat food with their bare hands…grabbed tortilla with bare hands to make a wrap.”
“Approximately over 20 live roaches in the soda boxes by the ice machine at kitchen.”
Stop Sales dropped on the balsamic vinaigrette and tomato sauce, each tossed after being kept at too warm a temperature.
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