Roaches on a prep table among the violations at South Florida’s filthy restaurants
The Sick and Shut Down List has condiment packets the rodents reached and roaches around the roasted chicken and hot water not in places you need hot water.
So, here’s where restaurants in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach fell short this week.
What follows comes from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation restaurant inspections in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties. A restaurant that fails inspection remains closed until passing re-inspection. If you see a problem and want a place inspected, contact the DBPR, not us.
We don’t control who gets inspected nor how strictly the inspector inspects. We don’t include all violations, just the most moving, whether internally or literally moving (because it’s alive or once was alive). We report without passion or prejudice but with dollop of humor.
In alphabetical order:
Avocados Food, 9469 W. Atlantic Blvd., Coral Springs: You want to talk about priorities being out of order in this state sometimes, how the heck is “No running water at establishment” an Intermediate violation and not High Priority?
“Per employee water pump broke (Thursday). Employee fills up bucket of water from the establishment next door mop sink to fill up three-compartment sink. No water at hand sink.”
This isn’t Little Restaurant on the Prairie — places need running water.
Avocados dealt with the problem in time to pass one of those Friday same-day re-inspections that have been common in Broward during the pandemic.
Barbie’s Place, 935 Foresteria Dr., Lake Park: “Gnawed packets of condiments observed.”
That diet apparently didn’t hurt the rodents’ regularity. The inspector counted 29 pieces of poop, including four “at the waitress area at the back on the dining room and under booths in the dining room.”
The roaches got spotted, 20 live and 78 dead, two live and five dead under dining room booths. About 50 lay dead at the electrical panels near the dishwasher area.
What do you least want to see with all these roaches and rodents scurrying about? Regular readers know it’s food on the floor. And what did Barbie’s have? “Raw frozen fish in a hotel pan stored on the floor in a prep area. A pot with boiled potatoes stored on the floor in the prep area.”
Mold also makes an unusual amount of appearances on this inspection.
“Floor area under three compartment sink covered with standing moldy like water.”
“Accumulation of mold-like build up inside water well in the dishwasher machine.”
“Gaskets with slimy and mold-like build-up at all reach-in coolers, refrigerators and reach-in freezer.”
“Accumulation of mold-like residue on nozzle soap dispenser at hand wash sink.” Along with “accumulation of food debris/soil residue on handwash sink water handles,” you get the idea that sink sees less traffic than Century Village at 2 a.m.
Two 6.6-pound cans of tomatoes got hit with Stop Sales from being dented.
Barbie’s flunked the re-inspection on Feb. 24 and passed the re-re-inspection on Feb. 25.
Carlos Manuel Flores, 3255 E. Fifth Ave., Hialeah: The person running this hot dog food truck “cleaned a prep table with a towel and handled money and then began to engage in food preparation without washing hands.”
Then again, “Establishment operating with no potable running water. Water tank is broken at the hand wash sink.”
The re-inspection was passed on Friday.
Lucky Fast Food, 5301 Sheridan St., Hollywood: Officially, this place failed five inspections. Unofficially, they were the most honest, realistic re-inspections.
On Feb. 24, the inspector saw three live roaches under a rice cooker and three live roaches under a cookline wok station. A worker killed the latter three roaches, cleaned and sanitized the area.
And this is what happened the next four re-inspections. The inspector saw roaches, the roaches got killed, the area got cleaned and the whole Sisyphus-as-exterminator process started all over again at the next re-inspection. Because roaches that appear in bunches don’t just go away in a day. Or two.
Lucky passed inspection on Saturday.
The Peruvian Kitchen, 18117 NE 19th Ave., North Miami Beach: The inspector needed an abacus to count the roaches in this joint or at least the 150-plus live roaches and 10-plus dead ones behind the reach-in cooler and in a wall behind open, cracked tiles.”
There were other problems.
“Three-plus live roaches” and “three-plus dead roaches” on a food cart holding roasted chicken, which caused the Stop Sale lightning to crash down on the chicken.
“Two-plus live roaches crawling on the preparation table while ceviche is being prepared.” WHILE!
“Two-plus live roaches crawling in the oven.”
“Twelve-plus live roaches in a box with uncovered cooking oil.”
One person washed his hands with no soap. The report wasn’t clear whether or not that’s the same employee who “dried hands on clothes/apron/soiled towel after washing.”
The Peruvian flunked the Saturday re-inspection, too. There’s no online notation that they have passed a re-re-inspection.
RW Grill, 2911 N. Military Tr., West Palm Beach: There were 31 dead roaches in the house, 13 live roaches some places and “approximately 36 live roaches crawling on the floor and walls behind the prep table at the server station located in the kitchen next to the ice machine.”
“No soap provided at handwash sink next to the triple compartment sink.”
“Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine.”
RW was all right after the Feb. 23 re-inspection.
Voila Gourmet Catering, 8211 W. Atlantic Blvd., Coral Springs: We don’t know whether the “1 pint of Penny Sauce” referred to is Aunt Penny’s Sauce or Penny Hardaway’s BBQ Sauce or sauce that looks like a bunch of melted pennies. But it was open on Feb. 10 and the inspection was on Feb. 24 so it got hit with a Stop Sale.
Six live roaches running around, one of which was in a container with clean utensils and one under a white rice bag.
As for the dead roach count, there were “four around the hand washing sink, three near the pizza oven, two dead in the back area near the bathrooms and 10 in pest control devices (come on folks, clean it up).
Two days later, on Friday, Voila! A passed re-inspection.
Woodmont Country Club, 7801 NW 80th Ave., Tamarac: Just the flies.
About 10 of them buzzed around the ice machine door, another five moved over the steam table and cutting board. There were 15 in the rest of the house.
Also, the cutting board was no longer cleanable.
Woodmont passed re-inspection Thursday.
This story was originally published March 3, 2021 at 2:54 PM.
