Rodent pellets under the beans and rice among the boo-boos that got restaurants closed
Sweet and sour chicken almost as old as China itself and more regular rodents turn up in the inspections on this week’s Sick and Shut Down List of South Florida restaurants that fail inspection.
What follows comes from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation restaurant inspections. If you see something and want a place inspected, do not email us. Go to the Florida DBPR website 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 side dish of humor.
In alphabetical order:
Cubanbuffet, 345 E. 49th St., Hialeah: It is a Cuban buffet, so maybe it’s no surprise that the inspector found over 20 pieces of rodent poop on the floor under the rice and beans shelves.
That’s in addition to eight on the back storage shelves and 10 on the back storage room floor.
Wonder if the rodents can swim, as standing water covered the kitchen floor.
As far as food safety goes, the temperature abuse inflicted on these dishes turned them into an armada of bacteria boats. Stop Sales rained on chicken salad, rice, beef, yuca, cooked beef, fried yuca, ham sandwiches and yogurt (oh, you better be happy the inspector got rid of those last two).
Some food, such as the fried yuca, got piled into too large containers (deeper than 4 inches) to allow for proper cooling. Such a widespread problem indicates that equipment might not be doing more than using space and electricity.
“No container installed for catching grease from hood drip tray.”
Cubanbuffet got things back in line to pass Friday’s re-inspection.
Fon Lee Chinese Take Out, 4645 Gun Club Rd., West Palm Beach: Read enough of these reports and you realize, often as not, when we go out to eat, we’re eating leftovers.
But nobody should be tested by 12-day old sweet and sour chicken. That got a Stop Sale.
The rodents marked their territory near the water heater and the three-compartment sink. Two live roaches dared cross onto the rodents’ turf while six other live roaches hid under cardboard on the floor in front of the cookline. Four other live roaches were inside an oven, so maybe those weren’t almonds in your rice.
Six flies in the dishwashing area.
Oh, that cardboard under which the roaches hid? They could’ve made a home there. “Cardboard used on floor as anti-slip measure not replaced every day or when heavily soiled, whichever comes first on cook line.”
Thursday, the inspector returned to see “one live roach on lid of BBQ sauce across from dish area. One live roach on frame of glass door refrigerator on cook line. One live roach on wall behind smoker, next to triple sink.” Four more flies in the dishwashing area.
A same day re-re-inspection got Fon Lee back open by Friday’s rushes.
Los Tanitos, 9562 SW 137th Ave., South Miami-Dade: Look inside the cookline cooler’s soiled door gasket and you’ll find five or six live roaches. One promenaded across the handwash sink connected to the three-compartment sink.
Drying by hand flapping at the handwash sink next to the dishwasher that didn’t have any paper towels or blowers?
Not sure which is more worrisome — the ceiling tiles with water damage or the door with a gap that opens to the outside. The manager sealed the gap right then and there, which makes you wonder why he didn’t do it before.
Los Tanitos passed Tuesday’s re-inspection.
Punta Cana Restaurant, 9119 Taft St., Hollywood: Not often a place regresses from “follow-up inspection required” (You can stay open, but, come on, now, let’s get it together) to “facility temporarily closed” (You’ve got so much wrong going on that we’re not letting you even try to dual task). Usually a warning gets through to places.
Guess some places, like most teenagers, are hardheaded as the day is long.
The live roaches tried to help out the Punta people during the Feb. 17 inspection by crawling behind an unsealed wall when the inspector showed up. Three dead roaches had the decency to die behind the ice machine.
Speaking of the ice machine, “Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine.”
Despite 17 total violations, three of which were High Priority, the inspector left Punta at “Follow-up inspection required.”
But upon returning Wednesday, the ice machine remained moldy, the roaches increased in number, both alive and dead. One walked on a “pot of uncovered soup on prep table with other uncovered food items.” Five others sat “grouped under the wall-mounted dish drying rack in the kitchen.” The dripping dishes provide a roach shower?
And the inspector saw someone fixing food without a hair restraint or a beard restraint, just as on Feb. 17.
So, Punta failed the re-inspection and got closed. And failed the first Feb. 20 re-re-inspection.
It passed the Feb. 20 re-re-re-inspection.
