Have you ever looked at your food and wondered if that’s seasoning or a bug? It’s a worthy question for one place in particular on this week’s Sick and Shut Down List.
What follows comes from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation restaurant inspections. If you see a problem in a restaurant, do not email us. Go to the DBPR website and file a complaint. We don’t control who gets inspected or how strictly. Restaurants that fail inspection remain closed until passing a re-inspection.
We report without passion, prejudice or wine, but with a side order of humor.
In alphabetical order:
▪ Bohio Latin Flavors, 2179 N. State Rd. 7, Margate: The inspector counted 24 live roaches, including eight hanging out at the cookline, and 25 dead roaches, 12 of which lay “throughout the back of the house.”
Over where the dishes were stored, 10 live flies danced in the air.
“Observed stored food not covered in the reach-in freezer.”
“Accumulation of food debris/grease on a food-contact surface. Observed reach-in freezers in the dish and kitchen area were soiled.”
Bohio got back open after Wednesday’s re-inspection.
▪ China Palm, 2702 W. Atlantic Blvd., Pompano Beach: “Cookline hand wash sink blocked by a stack of food buckets,” but this was all about the roaches.
That’s the 92 dead roaches, 20 of which were in the dining room and 10 in the restroom, and the 18 live roaches, including three in the dining room (“One of three eliminated”).
They passed re-inspection Friday.
▪ La Casa De La Decada, 5779 SW Eighth St., West Miami: Why would you put a pot of cooked pork on a walk-in freezer floor?
Especially when you’ve got enough live roaches that four of them hung out on the wall behind the kitchen area steam table, perhaps acting as lookout for the one live roach exploring inside the steam table.
Also, La Casa had one of those Stanley coolers. You know, a cooler that’s so uncool, it can’t keep things at 41 degrees or under. A storm of Stop Sales came down on ham, cheese, milk, cooked rice and raw shell eggs.
At the handwashing sink next to a white reach-in cooler, there was no soap, paper towels or mechanical hand drying device.
And that was the case during Friday’s re-inspection, too. Nobody could stop at Navarro for some soap and Brawny? Another thing that hadn’t changed was the inspector seeing live roaches.
La Casa passed Saturday re-inspection
▪ Los Perros, 8410 W. Flagler St., West Miami-Dade: At least the standing cooler in the kitchen with five live roaches didn’t have any food inside.
The cutting board was described as “stained/soiled.” Never understand how new cutting boards aren’t in the weekly budget.
“Soiled reach-in cooler gaskets.”
Los Perros passed re-inspection on Wednesday.
▪ Lucky Star Chinese Restaurant, 318 S. Flamingo Rd., Pembroke Pines: We’ve got a Wayne Gretzky Award winner this week — a hat trick of failed inspections.
Some violations you don’t see from restaurants that pass inspection. Such as “Objectionable odors in bathroom or other areas of the establishment.”
OK, this one just turned out to be “a very strong odor of cigarette smoke through the facial mask” in the employee restroom.
Then, there was “observed one live roach inside rice container in dry storage area.”
That’s a Stop Sale and you could’ve stopped the fight right there. Throw the daggone towel.
After a roach romping through the rice, you don’t even need to know about the 50 live roaches and 30 dead roaches inside empty soy sauce buckets and on the dish draining shelves with clean cookware, on the box of sauces at the cookline, under the rice cooker…
“Observed bag of onions on the walk in cooler floor.” Can’t imagine how roaches get in the food.
More Stop Sales for cooked chicken wings, rice, sweet and sour chicken and bean sprouts not kept cool enough to prevent bad bacteria growth.
Anybody who did use the handwash sinks next to the three-compartment sink or the employee restroom had to use their shirt or windmill their arms to dry their hands.
“Soil residue in food storage containers.”
“Gaskets with slimy/mold-like build-up. Throughout.” Throughout.
The inspector was back for Thursday’s re-inspection and so were the roaches — eight live ones on the floor of the dry storage area, one under cooking equipment.
The soiled food storage containers and the mold-like build up on the gaskets? Still there.
The re-re-inspection featured four live roaches, one on a dining room chair. And, still with the gaskets…
A re-re-re-inspection, done on Friday, got Lucky Star back open for some weekend revenue.
▪ Ruchi Indian Restaurant, 17085 Pines Blvd., Pembroke Pines: “Observed rat traps set under counter at wait station.”
Nobody puts rat traps out until they’ve seen Willard or Ben already. Or evidence thereof…
“Observed about 60 droppings in the three-compartment sink at front counter; on the floor under the three-compartment sink; on the prep table in the kitchen; on the dry storage shelves; under the microwave at wait station; and on top of the dish machine.”
About 11 live roaches spread out around the establishment. But the inspector got out the abacus to count “over 250” dead roaches.
Some of the cringe-y places the inspector found the bug bodies: a front counter shelf with clean wine glasses, under a dining room buffet station and on the dining area floor.
About 20 flies shot around the dry storage room, landing on containers.
The inspector saw food residue “on the base of the blender; the interior lids of the rice cooker; the exterior of the rice cooker; and on prep tables.”
“The interior of microwave soiled with encrusted food debris. Food-contact surfaces encrusted with grease and/or soil deposits. Observed flat top grill and stove top heavily soiled.”
Not the place you want to see no chlorine sanitizer in the dishwasher.
Ruchi passed re-inspection Monday.
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