Subway rodents, Sergio’s roaches, Keys resort filth among metro Miami restaurant issues
Rodents dumping all around a Subway and a mini Sergio’s with many problems are two of the eight eateries on this week’s Sick and Shut Down List.
These restaurants in Miami-Dade, Broward and the Florida Keys were closed after failing inspection last week. We don’t do the inspections nor do we choose the places inspected. If you want to file a complaint about a restaurant, reach out to the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation.
Unless noted, each of these places re-opened after passing a callback inspection.
In alphabetical order:
Caribe Restaurant, 285 NW 27th Ave., Miami: Routine inspection, 13 total violations, three High Priority violations.
Six flies were landing on avocados and wine bottle tops. About six flies kept landing on a container with clean utensils at the small cafeteria counter. In dry storage, four flies buzzed a can of tomato paste.
The reach-in cooler contained 12-day old flan, which got hit with a Stop Sale for being five days past its toss-it-out date.
Pans in the warewash area above the prep table were “wet-nesting,” which means they weren’t air-drying.
Throughout Caribe, the wet wiping cloths weren’t kept in sanitizing solution between uses.
China Hollywood, 3605 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood: Routine inspection, 10 total violations, three High Priority violations.
An inspector saw 10 roach corpses under the cookline pork cooker and three other roach bodies on the cookline.
Six live roaches were spotted under the prep table, five roaches inside a notebook on a shelf, five roaches on another wood shelf above the three-compartment sink, three live roaches on the metal shelf over that same sink, and 14 other roaches.
“Ware washing racks were heavily soiled.”
The dishwasher’s sanitizer measured zero parts per million, which is not what you want when you’ve got a roach problem.
The cookline handwash sink not only had stuff stored in the sink, but was “blocked by a door.”
The restaurant also failed the next day’s re-inspection because of 10 dead roaches and 5 live ones.
China Hollywood passed a same day re-re-inspection.
READ MORE: Pork that needed to be trashed among 34 violations at El Palacio de los Jugos
Fast Food Services by Sergio’s Restaurant, inside the Walmart at 9300 NW 77th Ave., Hialeah Gardens: Routine inspection, 12 total violations, two High Priority violations.
This pit stop version of the successful South Florida restaurant chain has a limited menu and even more limited cleanliness.
“Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.”
Among the four dead roaches was one in the prep area handwash sink, indicating nothing good about how often that’s used.
Live roaches included one on a prep table, one under the ice machine, one under the three-compartment sink and one moving by the storage area at the back kitchen.
The back kitchen’s handwash sink didn’t have cold or hot water.
The front counter handwash sink didn’t have soap.
The prep area handwash sink had a bucket (purpose: unknown) but no paper towels or blower (purpose: drying hands).
Jahnet’s Jamaican Cuisine, 3810 S. State Road 7, Miramar: Routine inspection, 10 total violations, five High Priority violations.
“Bag of carrots stored on floor in kitchen.”
That violation often promenades down the failed Inspection path with rodent droppings. Sure enough, the inspector totaled 25 in a storage bag box on a kitchen dry storage rack; 20 on a rack next to the kitchen prep table; and three under the three-compartment sink.
No hot water at the kitchen’s only handwashing sink.
Cooked rice in the refrigerator overnight still measured 50 to 52 degrees. Stop Sale for not being 41 or below.
The “ceiling vents were soiled with accumulated grease, dust, or mold-like substance in kitchen.”
Kwong Ming China Kitchen, 3001 Johnson St., Hollywood: Routine inspection, six total violations, four High Priority violations.
Roaches love the wheels on carts and coolers. One Kwong roach breathed his last on the left side wheel of a cookline flip-top cooler. Inside a front right wheel sat two live roaches.
More live roaches were found in a gap between that cooler and the steam table (five) and a gasket of the flip-top cooler (one).
“Non food grade paper/paper towel was used as the liner for a food container” as in a printed menu lining a pan of cooked chicken in the walk-in cooler. The chicken is on the menu, but we hope none of the menu winds up on the chicken.
Non food grade bags, as in those thank you bags your carryout order gets put into, were in “direct contact” with raw shrimp in a freezer.
Mahina, at Isa Bella Beach Resort, 1 Knights Key Blvd., Marathon: Routine inspection, 13 total violations, four High Priority violations.
Rooms can cost over $700 a night at this resort. Did the 15 live roaches in a cabinet under a cookline handwash sink got a discount?
Warewashing sanitizer strength? Zero. Wiping cloth sanitizer strength? Zero point zero.
The handwash sink at the bar had water, but no soap or way to dry your hands.
Six pieces of raw tuna in reduced oxygen packaging, which should be frozen until used, were being thawed in drawers. That got a Stop Sale, as did too-warm beef and fish.
The inspector gave Mahina a solid comeback on a same day re-inspection that minimized the time the restaurant was closed.
Pizza Lovers, 1860 N. Nob Hill Rd., Plantation: Routine inspection, nine total violations, six High Priority violations.
Hope they’re better at nailing pizza orders — especially on the pineapple question — than they are inspections. Since passing inspection April 5 with “Met Inspection Standards,” this pizza joint has had four “Follow-Up Inspection Required” results and this stinker.
“Approximately 60 flying insects were landing on the wall leading from the reach-in freezer to the pizza oven in the kitchen.”
Another two were “landing on clean pans” on a kitchen shelf. Four landed on one clean utensil shelf and another three landed on the clean utensil shelf.
The restaurant also got smacked with Stop Sales on reduced oxygen-packed seafood not being handled properly and food (meat sauce) that was too warm after cooler time.
Subway, 1375 NW 40th Ave., Lauderhill: Complaint inspection, nine total violations, three High Priority violations.
There might be a market for shoes designed to be worn in workplaces where rodents might be running across your feet. Employees at this Subway could be the test market.
The inspector saw 30 pieces of rodent poo on the floor under the cash registered and another 20 in an open cabinet space lower left of the cash register. There were 25 pieces of rodent regularity in the back hall along the wall under dry goods shelves and the three-compartment sink. Another 18 dung dots decorated the cabinets, floors and shelves.
None of the eight flies landed in food prep areas or on utensils. The rodents might’ve claimed that turf.
The floor along the entire back wall “has food and dirt debris buildup.”
