A Subway, a Denny’s, rodent dung on a prep table: restaurants failing inspection
A rodent burrow and two chains — not to be confused with 2 Chainz — highlight this week’s Sick and Shut Down List of nine South Florida restaurants that failed state inspection.
An inspection failure gets the restaurant shut down until it passes a re-inspection. That re-inspection usually takes place the next day as it usually takes that long to at least mask all the problems that led to getting closed in the first place.
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, but, rather, click here and file a complaint. We don’t control who gets inspected or how strictly they get inspected. We report without passion or prejudice, but with a gravy boat of humor.
In alphabetical order:
Chicano Express Corp., 4528 N. University Dr., Lauderhill: The first of Chicano Express’ failures started with roach excrement by the three-compartment sink, three dead roaches under that sink and four live ones scurrying around the kitchen, two by a wall where spices are stored.
You might want ice in that Jarritos soda. Or, you might not. “Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine. On the ice deflector.”
Tongs in use were being left on the oven door handle. Utensil holders are cheap, people.
The hood vents were “soiled with accumulated grease, dust or food debris.”
When the inspector returned Sept. 19, the live roach count was one, the dead roach count was six (two in a dry storage cabinet) and the hood vents were still filthy. Guess they figured if they didn’t clean it, maybe the inspector would think it was just a textured decorative look.
Chicano found cleanliness and the inspector didn’t find roaches in Wednesday’s re-re-inspection.
Cuban Buffet, 345 E. 49th St., Hialeah: Google says it’s permanently closed and nobody answered during business hours Monday. But, this place did pass its Wednesday re-inspection after failing Tuesday.
Of the 12 live roaches Wednesday, four were “crawling on a kitchen wall next to the oven.”
The can opener blade had “encrusted material” and the dry storage area had standing water. That’s not a good combination with an unsealed concrete floor.
There was a three-compartment sink. Too bad they didn’t seem to know how to use it. “Observed employee washing dishes at the three compartment sink without sanitation solutions.”
Denny’s of Hollywood 7457, 404 S. State Rd. 7, Hollywood: Thursday, this part of Broward County got deprived of its Grand Slam breakfasts and sausage.
First, the inspector saw parts of hash browns on the floor...no, wait, those were “seven live roaches under the steam table at the cookline. One live roach crawling on the floor at the cookline next to the steam table.”
There was standing water around the dishwasher machine and moisture on the hands of anybody who used the wait station handwashing sink (no way to dry hands).
Inside the four-door freezer on the cookline, you had one dead roach and “gaskets with slimy/mold-like buildup.”
Nobody bothered to cover the cooked turkey in the walk-in cooler. Like there’s not a $1 aisle at Winn-Dixie with food grade containers.
The inspector even did this Denny’s a solid and did a same day re-inspection. Two live roaches under the steam table and two dead roaches in a storage room helped this Denny’s go zero for two on inspections.
Waffles were being served again after passing Friday’s re-inspection.
Fresh Eats, 585 E. Sample Rd., Pompano Beach: From Denny’s daily double of failure to Fresh (?) Eats hat trick plus one of flunked inspections.
The live roach count on Nov. 19 reached nine with three “inside an empty food container under the prep table,” two in a front counter cabinet and two on the floor by the front counter.
The reach-in coolers were tore up from the floor up — two of them had gaskets torn, standing water and “mold-like substance” on the outside.
On top of one of those coolers, a cutting board sat unclean. Inside the front chest freezer, food was uncovered.
The Department of Business and Professional Regulation didn’t provide details on the failed inspections of last Wednesday and Thursday or the re-re-re-inspection passed later Thursday.
The India Palace, 4778 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach: Here’s this week’s Which Is Worse? restaurant.
Is it worse that the inspector found 32 rodent poop pieces, including 10 on a prep table, seven in the dining room and four next to seasoning bottles?
Or, “rodent rub marks present along walls/ceilings.”
OR, “rodent burrow or rodent nesting materials present. Two large holes with gnawing marks on the wall behind the shelf cans.”
Three live roaches seem to have ceded the turf to the rodents. A roach trap behind a prep table had 12 victims.
But the flies showed some heart for the battle, 15 of them “landing on plastic containers, prep table, reach-in freezers, and a covered plastic tray of Naan bread in the kitchen. Operator killed some of them, cleaned and disinfected the area.”
“Operator killed some?” Regular readers know what that means: close the kitchen. You’re done. Inspectors don’t like the violence of death.
Handwashing sinks sat at the front counter and in the kitchen. They would’ve been really useful if either had soap or a way to dry hands.
In other inadequate washing news, the dishwasher’s sanitizer wasn’t at proper minimum strength.
And how long has that cooked rice and cooked goat been in the walk-in cooler? Neither had a date.
Can somebody clean something? “Wall soiled with accumulated grease, food debris, and/or dust- in the kitchen floor and walls.” “Walk-in cooler and/or walk-in freezer shelves soiled with encrusted food debris.” “Fan cover in walk-in cooler/freezer has accumulation of dust or debris.”
That was Thursday. Friday, between watching the manager kills flies and roaches, the inspector counted eight rodent droppings and still saw rodent rub marks on the walls. The inspector came back for a re-re-inspection later on Friday, gave the Palace extended time to deal with some problems, but still saw two roaches crawling on a prep room wall and a fly landing on a shelf in there.
Saturday, the inspector was back and so were the rodent rub marks. Also, the manager killed two roaches in front of the inspector. Fail.
India Palace finally got its stuff together on the second inspection Saturday, fifth inspection overall.
Like W.C. Fields said, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then, quit — no use being a damned fool about it.”
LD Island Cuisine, 360 S. State Rd. 7, Margate: At least they know their roach traps work.
“Five live roaches on glue trap behind cookline. Eight live roaches on glue trap behind cooler next to handwash sink in kitchen...over 10 dead roaches on glue trap behind cookline. Over 10 dead on trap behind reach-in cooler next to handwash sink in kitchen. Eight dead behind Frigidaire chest freezer.”
Maybe they should give the roaches wiping clothes to clean. “Interior of microwave soiled with encrusted food debris” and the cookline oven, the Frigidaire, the shelves in the three-door reach-in cooler all got the adjective “soiled.”
Then again, the wiping cloths weren’t stored in a sanitizing solution but under the cutting board.
LD Island passed the Nov. 19 re-inspection.
Le Jardin International, 1460 N. State Rd. 7, Lauderhill: ”Over 20 live flies by the three-compartment sink landing on garbage containers, clean and sanitized utensils. Over 10 by prep table landing on prep table and uncovered cooked beef containers.”
In case you missed that, that was “clean and sanitized utensils” and “uncovered beef containers” being used as landing pads by the flies.
Six live roaches and 11 dead ones were spotted.
“Employee touched boiled plantain with bare hands and placed in plated food.”
And what is it with places storing food uncovered? Look, people, the demise of Tupperware parties isn’t an excuse for “cooked beef and soup in both Frigidaire chest freezer uncovered...uncovered food in Kelvinator freezer.”
The cooked beef, along with the cooked turkey, goat and soup in the walk-in cooler didn’t have a date on it. The inspector was told all that got made two days before.
A Delfield reach-in cooler had standing water and dirt. The cutting board couldn’t be cleaned.
Somebody grab a broom. “...Old food build up under prep tables and stoves in kitchen.”
Thursday’s re-inspection reported five flies landing on unpeeled onions and flying around the Frigidaire chest freezer and one of the three live roaches was on a bottle of vinegar. Nice try.
Le Jardin came correct on Friday’s re-re-inspection.
Subway, 18710 NW 67th Ave., Northwest Miami-Dade: Did you get a combo with a drink?
Along with our usual favorite, “Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine” there was “Ice chute on self-service drink machine soiled/build up of mold-like substance/slime.”
And on the wall next to the ice machine, there was one of the 15 live roaches the inspector counted.
The Subway ran again after Friday’s re-inspection.
Troy’s Barbeque, 1198 N. Dixie Hwy., Boca Raton: Troy clearly doesn’t know anything about no pest strips, not with 50 flies around the cookline and 10 flies landing on clean utensils in a rear prep area.
In the oven, the mac and cheese cooled to 71 degrees when it needed to be kept at 135. Tossed.
No hot water at the handwashing sink in the rear prep/dishwashing area.
When the inspector returned Wednesday for the try-again, a Stop Sale bombing fell on pork, mac and cheese, rice and beans, baked beans, yams, ribs, chicken and brisket still too warm after cooling overnight in the apparently ineffective walk-in cooler. That and the five flies kept them closed until Troy’s passed the re-re-inspection later Wednesday.
This story was originally published November 26, 2019 at 1:09 PM.
