Flies on inspector, mold on pizza. See the filthiest South Florida restaurants
Along with rodents, roaches and bad food safety, 10 flies landing on a state inspector during the inspection helped South Florida restaurants get shut down by inspection.
The Sick and Shut Down List doesn’t do the inspections — that’s the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation. And we don’t choose who gets inspected — that’s the state agency — and you if you file a complaint about a restaurant.
The below restaurants reopened after passing re-inspection. The re-inspection or callback inspection usually occurs the following day.
In alphabetical order:
El Club De La Milanesa, 3250 NE First Ave., Miami
Routine inspection, eight total violations, three high priority violations
No laurel, but a hearty welcome back to Milanesa, which made this list in February via an inspection starring roaches crawling up a wall.
Milanesa is upgraded. Or, downgraded, depending on your view.
Here’s how the approximately 52 rodent droppings were divided: about 20 under a kitchen dry goods shelf; about 10 on the floor next to kitchen storage shelves; about 12 on a shelf under the dishwasher; and about 10 on a shelf under a kitchen prep table.
Seems there was more rodent poop than sanitizer at or around the dishwasher as the dishwasher’s sanitizing chlorine measured zero parts per million.
The inside of the microwave oven was “burned.”
READ MORE: Moldy fruit and why a Miami Beach grocer may be banned from getting new food
La Vaca Loca Farm, food truck, 13941 SW 143rd Ct., South Miami-Dade
Complaint inspection, 27 total violations, nine high priority violations
The five dead flies on a container of dry rice, the live fly landing on a clean pizza cutter, and the 10 flies swarming over containers of lard with cooked pork all had less of an effect than one dead fly.
That’s the dead fly inside a container of oil. Stop Sale Order on the oil.
There was “mold-like substance on pizza bread at the walk-in cooler.” Stop Sale on the pizza bread.
Six cans of evaporated milk were rusted enough to draw Stop Sales.
Food needs to be stored at least six inches off the floor, but buckets of rice sat on the floor near the three-compartment sink.
“Observed white scissors stored inside raw marinated beef in the walk-in cooler.”
And, the inspector could observe that because that beef, cooked pork, cooked chicken and cooked bacon all were among “stored food that was not covered.”
There was no sanitizer of any kind available for warewashing.
The wiping cloth solution in a spray bottle not only measured over 200 parts per million, well above the maximum concentration allowed, but was “stored in a location that could result in the cross contamination of food, equipment, utensils, linens, single-service, or single-use articles.”
READ MORE: Roaches cause a Hialeah restaurant-grocery to lose most food privileges
Ran’s Restaurant, 545 W. Lucy St., Florida City
Complaint inspection, 11 total violations, three High Priority violations
Tuesday’s inspection could have ended with the over 60 pieces of rodent regularity under a cookline steam table and the more than 10 poop pellets on a shelf “used for storing clean kitchen utensils.”
Five roaches died in glue traps that were still underneath dry storage shelves. One roach was seen making his way behind boxes under the steam table.
There was also a “heavy accumulation of grease on the floor beneath kitchen equipment.”
The inside of the microwave oven “has an accumulation of grease and food debris.”
Rumroasters/Tasty Jerk, 2021 SW 70th Ave., Davie
Complaint inspection, six total violations, one high priority violation
According to Tuesday’s inspection, four roaches died in the bathroom shower. Five roach corpses were in a storage area next to the kitchen.
About 10 flies played in the air around the place, “landing on clean surfaces and single service items.” Another five came down “in boxes of wipes, on cans of food and clean pots and pans in the kitchen.”
Handwash sinks are the specialists of restaurant sinks — they have one job, they’re the only sinks that are allowed to handle that one job (yes, it’s a violation if the inspector sees someone washing hands elsewhere), and nothing other than soapy water should touch the bottom of the sink.
So, Rumroasters got dinged when the back handwash sink had “several plastic containers stored in it.”
Tacocraft Taqueria and Tequila Bar, 301 N. University Dr., Plantation
Routine inspection, 10 total violations, four high priority violations
About 18 roaches rambled about the place. Eight were under the kitchen handwash sink, “crawling on the floors and walls.” Another five were under grills. Four sought the coolness of kitchen flip-top coolers. One liked the floor by a reach-in freezer.
You can’t have an “insect control device installed over a food preparation area.”
Not that Tacocraft didn’t need an insect control device somewhere, what with about 43 flies everywhere, including 10 “landing on the inspector while writing up the report.” Another 15 were landing on raw onions. Four in the produce prep area were “landing on clean surfaces.”
The three-compartment sink — wash, rinse, sanitize — could only go two for three. Its sanitizer measured zero.
A table with a rice cooker blocked employees from the handwash sink.
