Cool running water and pooping rodents got a Miami restaurant shut down by inspection

David J. Neal
·2 min read

Rodents marking their spot near a freezer and cool runnings of not-hot-enough water caused a Miami Gardens restaurant to get shut down after an inspection last week.

The Dec. 19 state inspection visit to Caribbean Kitchen 305, 760 NW 183rd St., featured 20 total violations and the vermin hat trick of flies, roaches and rodents.

In the back food storage room, near the reach-in freezer, the inspector counted “approximately 15 rodent droppings.”

That same storage area housed the bodies of four dead roaches and the moving body of the one live roach. Another roach went legs up under the three-compartment sink.

The inspector looked up and saw “live, small flying insects in kitchen, food preparation area, food storage area and/or bar area,” as in about “30 flies on the ceiling by the back storage area and on top of the mop sink.”

READ MORE: Knee-deep water, rodents, roaches at restaurants from the Keys to the Palm Beaches

Over at the three-compartment sink, where cookware is hand-washed, rinsed and sanitized (thus the three compartments), the water reached only 72 degrees. That’s room temperature in South Florida if the room is heavily air-conditioned. The employee handwash sink had the same problem.

No hot water and no paper towels at the handwash sink..

Caribbean Kitchen 305, 760-762 NW 183rd St., Miami Gardens.
Caribbean Kitchen 305, 760-762 NW 183rd St., Miami Gardens.

The water couldn’t get up to where it should be and it leaked from a three-compartment sink pipe.

The reach-in cooler’s shelves were heavily soiled. The reach-in cooler itself didn’t work. Goat, cooked chicken, macaroni and cheese and rice and bean mix all got smacked with Stop Sales for being far above the cutoff, 41 degrees, after being in the cooler overnight.

Approved renovation plans didn’t “match the current layout of the establishment.” The three-compartment sink was changed to a two-compartment sink. The mop sink got removed. But, perhaps worst of all, only one bathroom remained for customer use.

Caribbean Kitchen 305 came correct for the following day’s callback inspection and was allowed to reopen.