A dirty Denny’s, to-go containers in a restroom and other Miami metro restaurant fails
Disgusting equipment, standing water, rodents, but no roaches on this week’s Sick and Shut Down List of Miami metropolitan area restaurants failing inspection.
That might be a first in our weekly listing of Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe county restaurants closed by inspection that didn’t include roaches. And, this isn’t a short list — seven restaurant follow, including two terribly popular chains, especially with the munchie crowd.
READ MORE: Kids at Boys & Girls Club of Broward County ate cannabis gummies.
Reach out to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation if you want to complain about a restaurant’s cleanliness.
In alphabetical order...
China City, 1669 Hiatus Rd., Pembroke Pines: Routine inspection, 23 total violations, seven High Priority violations.
A door to the outside had a gap at the threshold. Uh-oh.
That “uh-oh” wasn’t for the employee who strolled in from the outside and handled food without washing his hands.
Not a habit of handwashing before handling food, and possibly not a habit of handwashing after handling business in the restroom, seeing as how the handwash sink was blocked with takeout containers. We won’t get into what germs and special seasoning takeout containers blocking a restroom handwash sink add to your order of fried rice.
Those were the containers referenced when the inspector saw an “accumulation of old food residue buildup on rice containers.”
To coordinate an “accumulation of brown-like substance built up” on the can opener holster, the can opener blade had its own “accumulation of black mold-like substance.”
Stop Sales crushed “five badly dented cans” of hoisin sauce in dry storage. The inspector also fired Stop Sales at noodles, cooked rice, cooked shrimp and dumplings that were too warm for safe keeping and eating.
And, here’s the reason for the “uh-oh” — rodents, as in the ones that left 64 droppings throughout China City. That includes 15 underneath cooking equipment, 10 in dry storage areas, 20 next to the mop sink and six in the restroom.
Wonder if those droppings were in the same restroom or anywhere near the takeout containers.
Maybe China City learned to sweep up the rodent poop instead of just let it lay there because the restaurant passed inspection the next day.
Chipotle, 1760 N. University Dr., Plantation: Routine inspection, six total violations, three High Priority violations.
We told you about this Chipotle earlier this week. They got rid of their flies and filth enough to pass re-inspection the next day.
READ MORE: Flies, sanitation problems and other reasons an inspector closed a Broward Chipotle
Denny’s, 12100 W. Sunrise Blvd., Sunrise: Routine inspection, eight total violations, four High Priority violations.
The first question, upon seeing a Denny’s fail a Friday inspection in Broward, was “Did they get one of those Broward Friday same-day re-inspections that got them open for the weekend?”
Nope. Denny’s didn’t pass inspection until Saturday.
That means no Friday night dinner rush, late Friday night-wee hours Saturday morning post-club munchie business and no early Saturday morning parents and kids coming in after hockey, swimming or soccer.
Has the person who had to tell upper management about that lost revenue been seen since?
A microwave oven, the backbone of Denny’s sausage, had “an accumulation of old food debris.”
Orange juice, a staple of any breakfast meal at Denny’s (and, really, why are you eating anything else there?), comes out of a “minute maid juice dispenser with accumulation of mold like build up on dispensing nozzle.”
“Food-contact surface soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime.” Where? “Front counter.” Ew.
A kitchen worker “cracked raw shell eggs and then handled ready to eat French toast without washing hands.” We love French toast at the Sick and Shut Down List. We don’t love salmonella.
About 14 flies hung out on the wall of the mop sink.
Wash your hands at the front counter handwash sink, walk away with wet hands because there’s no blower and no towels were present.
Hazel’s Brunch Bar, 2992 1/2 NW 55th Ave, Lauderhill: Routine inspection, 10 total violations, three High Priority violations.
Door handles and gaskets gunked up with food debris. A buildup of grease on the floor throughout the kitchen. That can be forgiven.
The rodent dung in the kitchen front counter cabinet, behind the reach-in freezer chest, behind the steam well, behind the mop sink and under the three-compartment sink? That, the inspector would not forgive.
Hazel’s was back after re-inspection the next day.
Moby’s Fish & Chicken, 3356 S. University Dr., Miramar: Routine inspection, 22 total violations, five High Priority violations.
Cases of precooked crabs sat in a walk-in freezer uncovered, getting seasoned by that freezer air and any germs coughed into it.
The walk-in cooler, meant to keep food below 41 degrees, measured 47 degrees. It’s “door bottom was rotted out” making it the ripped Trojan of coolers.
So, chicken gizzards, chicken wings and shrimp all got hit with Stop Sales for temperature abuse and being too warm.
“Old food residue buildup” marred a reach-in cooler.
“Old food stuck to clean dishware in dishwashing areas.” Some people throw around “clean” more indiscriminately than others.
Take the “clean” food containers in the dishwashing area that 10 flies used for landing strips. Another 15 flies were landing on takeout containers in dry storage.
How often was the kitchen handwash sink used? So rarely that food containers were stored in it.
Moby’s passed re-inspection the next day.
Oishii Japanese Restaurant, 141 NW 20th St., Boca Raton: Routine inspection, 14 total violations, two High Priority violations.
We don’t feel in a groove at the Sick and Shut Down List until we see “accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.” In the front counter ice machine, the inspector “observed a mold-like substance on the top and sides of the ice machine’s interior.
Oh, and the pet peeve of pet peeves, “In-use knife/knives stored in cracks between pieces of equipment.” Or, in-use spatula, “being stored in between deep fryers.”
Six flies were landing on a container of oil at a dry storage food shelf.
Or, not-so-dry storage. Standing water covered the entire floor of the dry storage room and the floor at the ice machine.
Kitchen employees who wanted to wash their hands had to go elsewhere or just get them wet. There was no soap at the main kitchen handwash sink.
Oishii passed re-inspection the next day.
Okeechobee Prime Barbecue, 2888 Shawnee Ave., Unincorporated Palm Beach County: Routine inspection, three total violations, two High Priority violations.
This food truck had “no handwash sink for employees. Not operating during inspection.”
And, that’s because...”Establishment operating with no potable running water. No water at both 3 compartment sink and hand sink.”
There’s no record of an inspection that included potable running water.
