A roach in the rice, rodents under the prep table. Restaurants failing state inspection
Three counties get represented in this week’s Sick and Shut Down List, a list that includes a manager killing bugs in front of the inspector and a restaurant lying about its fish.
And a grilled cheese joint almost giving customers that Rappers Delight mac and cheese.
Come on, now...
What follows comes from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation restaurant inspections. If you see a place you think should be inspected, don’t email us, click here and file a complaint. We don’t control who gets inspected or how strictly. We report without passion or prejudice, but with two-handed seasoning of humor.
And we go in alphabetical order:
Eddie’s Thai, 2571 N. Hiatus Rd., Cooper City: You’ll find this restaurant on the Florida DBPR site spelled “Edddie’s Thai.” The roaches didn’t need to spell to find the place, as 10 live ones were on a wall above the kitchen prep table and one was inside a rice container. One roach, one Stop Sale on a whole lot of rice in the dry storage area.
In addition to that old favorite, “Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine,” the inspector added “Interior of refrigerator soiled with accumulation of food residue. Observed bloody residue on walk in cooler floor.”
Blood on the floor and “ceiling/ceiling tiles/vents soiled with accumulated food debris, grease, dust, or mold-like substance.” Also, “grease accumulated on kitchen floor and/or under cooking equipment at cook line. Hood soiled with accumulated grease, dust or food debris.”
Eddie’s is in a strip mall, larger than a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, but it is a restaurant with a “hole in or other damage to the wall, behind the prep table in the kitchen.”
The reach-in cooler wasn’t working for Friday’s inspection, resulting in won tons, bean sprouts, tofu, raw duck and raw chicken being too warm for safe usage. After the repairman cleaned the cooling coils and the condenser, it still didn’t work on the Saturday re-inspection and Stop Sales got dropped on the raw chicken bean sprouts, dumplings and tofu.
Eddie’s got open again after Saturday’s re-inspection, but will get a third visit.
Frutas Naturales, 4215 NW 167th St., Miami Gardens: Cooked pork wasn’t covered in a walk-in cooler. Not sure why you’d leave any food uncovered anywhere when you’ve got rodents leaving 10 dump duds under a kitchen prep table and 20 more in dry storage, but that’s how they choose to do their thing.
There’s no mystery how the rodents might’ve gotten into the kitchen when you see “Hole in or other damage to wall. All around kitchen area.” Also, “exterior door has a gap at the threshold that opens to the outside.”
Something unsettling at a time when you want true relaxation is “Bathroom located inside establishment not completely enclosed with tight-fitting, self-closing doors.”
Frutas got it together to pass Friday’s re-inspection.
Go Sushi, 4595 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach: Go Sushi? Go LIE.
“Establishment advertised red snapper on the menu/menu board but served another type of fish. Operator serves Tilapia as Red Snapper. No invoice is available for Red Snapper only Tilapia. Tilapia is not on the sushi menus, but is stored and cut to be used for Snapper at the sushi bar.”
Also seen at the sushi bar, “Soiled dry wiping cloth in use. By the sushi chef.”
Want something to drink? With ice? “Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine.”
There’s an unsealed concrete floor, so it’s a little surprising the inspector didn’t see vermin issues.
Another thing we don’t see is a re-inspection that got Go Sushi back open. No one answered Monday at 11:10 a.m., 10 minutes after the usual opening time. Veterans Day might affect that, however.
Grilled Cheese Gallery, 422 Northwood Rd., West Palm Beach: Talk about staying in your lane — this place couldn’t keep the mac and cheese properly warm, letting it dip to 109 degrees when it needed to be at 135 degrees.
Wonder if that bothered the 21 live roaches spotted by the inspector. Eight of them must have been clean, as they were inside and on top of the dishwasher. Nine were behind an upright freezer or inside its seals.
“Wall soiled with accumulated black debris in dishwashing area.”
When the inspector came back Thursday for a second once-over, there was “one live under three-door glass cooler in the kitchen. Manager killed.” Regular readers know you can stop the inspection right there. Something about seeing the roach or rodent slain sends the inspection straight to fail.
But to finish the re-inspection, which was pretty much a roach count, “One dead under two-door glass door cooler in the dining room. Several dead behind the white chest freezers in the room next to the kitchen. Manager cleaned. Four live under a rolling basket next to the white chest freezer in room next to kitchen. Manager killed some. One live on black painted glass window facing the street in the room next to the kitchen. Manager killed.”
The gallery was back serving up grilled cheese and mac and cheese after Saturday’s re-re-inspection.
Planet Juice, 1951 N. Federal Hwy., Boca Raton: It didn’t take much for the inspector to close this kitchen on Tuesday. And we’re not talking about the filthy cutting board at the front counter flip top cooler.
“....approximately 30 rodent droppings in the dry storage room in the kitchen area. Ten rodent droppings in the ice machine/cooler area in the kitchen area.”
The Planet was back open after Wednesday’s re-inspection.
