An 80-pound iguana, moldy pudding and bad salmon in restaurants that failed inspection
Not often you see “80-pound iguana” on a restaurant’s inspection report, but these seem to be unprecedented times for the Sick and Shut Down List as well.
For the second consecutive week, there aren’t many restaurants from the area we cover in this weekly feature (Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe, Palm Beach) — but they do have many violations.
What follows comes from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation restaurant inspections. If you see something in a restaurant and want it inspected, do not email us. Click here to file a complaint. We don’t control who gets inspected or how strictly. We report without passion or prejudice, but with a side dish of humor.
In alphabetical order:
Amaranthine, 9801 NE Second Ave., Miami Shores: Let’s start in the restroom, which wasn’t “completely enclosed with tight-fitting, self-closing doors.”
Nobody on either side of the restroom door should want it any other way than tight-fitting and self-closing.
This week’s Amityville Restaurant winner had “25-30 small flying insects in preparation area, landing on spice containers and vacuum packaging machine” and another six flies were using the dishwasher as a landing pad.
In addition to flies seemingly swarming the vacuum packaging machine, the salmon wasn’t frozen throughout the vacuum packing process. So, eight portions got hit with a Stop Sale.
That might not have been a leek in your salad. “Employee with no hair restraint while engaging in food preparation.”
“Ceiling/ceiling tiles/vents soiled with accumulated food debris, grease, dust, or mold-like substance.”
“In-use tongs stored on equipment door handle between uses.” Better than between equipment, but still pretty lazy.
Amaranthine got it together for Wednesday’s re-inspection.
Pizza Mambo, 7404 S. Dixie Hwy., West Palm Beach: Time to play, “What’s The Worst?”
Would it be moldy food, the beans and pudding in the walk-in cooler and an orange in the food prep area?
Over 20 pieces of rodent poop under a dry storage shelf?
“Pots or other cooking equipment not being sanitized?”
Or, an 80-pound iguana in a chest freezer “received from an unapproved source or friend, no invoice provided to verify source?”
(Six dead roaches doesn’t make this contest. Maybe if they were alive, but not dead.)
Otherwise, we’ve got a cook washing his hands in a bucket. With soap, but in a bucket.
Maybe because the “handwash sink [has been] removed from the food preparation/dishwashing area. It must be reinstalled in the same location where it was removed.”
“Slicer blade and blade guard soiled with old food debris.”
And, Pizza Mambo’s license is expired.
This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 9:18 AM.
