Roaches at Quarterdeck. Rodents making a home at IHOP. Miami metro restaurant filth
Another rodent heavy week at the Sick and Shut Down List, but one featuring a local and two national chains.
So, let’s get our list of South Florida restaurant inspection failures. First, some quick reminders:
This covers Miami-Dade, Monroe, Broward and Palm Beach counties, but not every county has restaurants failing inspection every week.
We don’t decide who gets inspected nor do we do the inspecting. Both are done by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation from customer complaints and a schedule of routine inspections.
We do this without passion or prejudice, but with a little humor and judgment.
In alphabetical order:
Champet Restaurant and Bar, 7920 Pines Blvd., Pembroke Pines: Complaint inspection, 10 total violations, five High Priority violations.
“One dead roach on the wall above the employee rights poster.”
Two live roaches made their way across a backroom ceiling.
Stop Sales crashed down on 54-degree cooked sausage and 50-degree shredded lettuce that needed to be cooled to 41 degrees after a night in the cooler and cooked chicken at 80 degrees an hour after it needed to be cooled to 70 degrees.
In a cooler, “marinade in a large bucket container was left uncovered.”
And, who was supposed to be watching the “small child walking through the kitchen area when food is being prepared?” Management was told to keep the kid away from the prep area.
Inspection was passed the next day.
Diner By-the-Sea, 215 Commercial Blvd., Lauderdale by the Sea: Routine inspection, 14 total violations, three High Priority violations.
Guess the mice (or whatever) here like getting down, seeing as how about “24 rodent droppings were on a kitchen shelf containing audio equipment.”
Maybe they were in charge of the tunes for the rodent party that left 12 rodent droppings under a microwave on a kitchen shelf, four under and behind a steam table and two on top of the dishwasher. For those of you who don’t want to do the math, that’s 42 rodent droppings in the kitchen. Another two were in a rear storage area.
Next to that, three dead roaches — one of which was next to the stove, another on a front counter shelf — doesn’t seem so bad, does it?
You’d think a place with “By-the-Sea” as part of the name would know how to store fish. Alas, the two reduced-oxygen packaged mahi mahi “bearing a label indicating that it’s to remain frozen until time of use” were taken out of the freezer the previous day and thawed overnight. Stop Sale on the fish.
“Accumulation of debris on the exterior of warewashing machine.”
There was standing water behind an ice machine.
The Diner got scuttled on Saturday’s re-inspection by “four rodent droppings under a pipe along the front counter.”
Finally, after taking a few days, there was a passed inspection Wednesday, barely — “Follow up Inspection Required.”
IHOP, 1503 Belvedere Blvd., West Palm Beach: Routine inspection, five total violations, five High Priority violations.
The former International House of Pancakes was the International House of Rodents during this inspection, with rodent “nesting materials (chewed/gathered insulation/debris) in the kitchen behind the water heater.”
That’s Mickey and Minnie’s living room. As for where they marked their toilets, it was the kitchen floor next to the walk-in cooler (two droppings), under the dishwasher (three), in dry storage (three), and near the food expeditor’s line (three).
An “employee cracked raw shell eggs, then (touched) a clean plate to serve a cooked omelette without washing hands.”
IHOP was back pushing pancake pigs in a blanket after re-inspection the next day.
Islands Roti Delight, 1480 S. Military Tr., Unincorporated Palm Beach County: Complaint inspection, three total violations, one High Priority violation.
Time for another Which is Worse?
About 26 live roaches in the kitchen, including two crawling out of a kitchen paper towel dispenser and 20 crawling around the water heater in the kitchen?
Or, a whole mess of dead roaches, as in “100-plus ... throughout the establishment?
Islands took two days and passed the callback inspection.
Quarterdeck Seafood Bar & Grill, 12310 W. Sunrise Blvd., Plantation: Complaint inspection, six total violations, four High Priority violations.
A favorite place for fans of the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers (feels good to say that) to kill pregame and/or postgame drinks and chow since the team moved from the Miami Arena to Sunrise got put in the penalty box.
“Six live roaches crawling on a storage rack and syrup boxes.”
In the main grill’s cooling drawer, chicken breast cooked the day previous (or before that) measured 47 degrees when it needed to be at 41 or under to keep from being a bacteria breeding ground. Stop Sale on the chicken.
Quarterdeck got released from the inspection sin bin after Tuesday’s re-inspection.
Quates Mexican Restaurant II, 9858 Clint Moore Rd., Unincorporated Palm Beach County: Complaint inspection, six total violations, one High Priority violation.
“One dead roach on a dining room table.”
We’ll take a brief break from the roaches to tell you about the “stained/soiled” cutting boards that had cut marks and were “no longer cleanable.”
Back to the bugs. Five dead roaches were on the kitchen floor, near a linen washing area. Another quintet were inside of a device at the bar. A dining room beverage station shelf and a liquor storage room shelf each had a legs up roach.
As for the roaches legs down and running, they were ubiquitous.
Five on the underside of a beverage station table. One on the floor at the beverage station. One on an electrical cord behind the beverage station. One on a kitchen cookline dry storage shelf. Five in a cookline cooler’s gasket. Five inside the door jamb to a liquor storage room. Two on on a table top at the food expediter’s line in front of the cookline.
The inspector counted 34 living roaches.
Quatas passed inspection the next day, but with “Follow-up Inspection Required” not “Met Inspection Standards.”
Stoner’s Pizza Joint, 1509 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale: Routine inspection, 11 total violations, two High Priority violations.
Earlier this week, we detailed the smells and the poop pellets that helped the pizza chain’s Fort Lauderdale location face plant on a trio of inspections.
READ MORE: A stink, standing water and rodents at Stoner’s Pizza Joint
A fourth inspection just hours after 10 rodent droppings caused Stoner’s third inspection failure got the restaurant open for Friday family pizza night and the rest of the weekend business.
Tacos Al Carbon Bar and Grill, 2161 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd., West Palm Beach: Routine inspection, nine total violations, eight High Priority violations.
The individual area with the most rodent poo pieces was the kitchen floor in liquor storage (seven), followed by kitchen shelves over the prep table and sink (six). The prep area floor had four as did the tops of food storage containers near the microwave. There were another three in a kitchen prep sink and three in dry storage “on top of single service article boxes.”
An “employee handled soiled dishes while carrying them to the dishwashing area, then returned to the cookline and began preparing food without washing hands.”
Putting the cooked beans in the walk-in cooler overnight shouldn’t leave them at 46 degrees or five degrees too warm for survival. Stop Sale on the beans.
Also, tossed via Stop Sales were raw beef (50 degrees), raw chicken (49) and cut tomatoes (46). The inspector noticed though they’d been in the cooler overnight, they also were “overfilled in pans,” which doesn’t allow for proper cooling.
Tacos were being served again after Friday’s re-inspection.
