Knee-deep water. Rodents and roaches. Keys to Miami to Palm Beach restaurant filth
The 14 restaurants on this week’s Sick and Shut Down List represent all four counties in the Miami metropolitan area and, apparently, represent some of the favorite places to live for local roaches and rodents.
So, let’s get to the worst that Miami-Dade, Monroe, Broward and Palm Beach have to offer as seen by state restaurant inspectors. A reminder: We don’t do the inspections nor decide who gets inspected. If you have a complaint about a restaurant, contact the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
In alphabetical order...
Andy’s Cabana, 308 Petronia St., Key West: Routine inspection, six total violations, one High Priority violation.
It doesn’t feel like an inspection without this common violation: “Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.” In this case, the violation concerned the ice bin and deflector plate.
A bigger problem was the lower part of the nearby screen door lacked a complete screen. And that led to the biggest problem, which showed up as “approximately 30 rodent droppings in the back wall area of establishment...”
One third of that total, 10, sat behind a fryer. Another 10 were split between the rare of a reach-in freezer and the area under a two-compartment sink.
When the inspector returned, three droppings were under a freezer in a kitchen corner. By the time the inspector returned for a same day re-re-inspection, any droppings were gone or at least concealed, and Andy’s passed.
READ MORE: 365 Whole Foods Market brand beer battered fish fillets recalled
Hook Fish & Chicken, 715 E. Main St., Pahokee: Routine inspection, six total violations, three High Priority violations.
What’s worse than seven pieces of rodent poop on a shelf next to the dishwasher area? Well, plenty of things, including 17 pieces “under and next to a double glass door reach-in cooler near the front counter.”
Another six pellets were on the wall and pipes in a storage closet with single service utensils.
Only one live roach, under a fryer near a handwash sink, in a restaurant with 13 dead roaches.
The wiping cloth’s sanitizing solution was no solution because it had no sanitizer.
At the re-inspection, five rodent droppings were in that storage closet and one under a chicken roasting machine.
One more inspection got the restaurant serving Pahokee again.
Luz America Hernandez, 504 N. State Rd. 7, Hollywood: Complaint inspection, six total violations, five High Priority violations.
Those weren’t marbles under a dining area chest freezer, but 13 pieces of rodent dung. Bold mice in this joint, doing their most of their business in the dining room while dumping only two pieces under a kitchen prep table.
The inspector dropped a Stop Sale on cooked rice stored in a Thank You bag. That’s a fine bag for holding your plastic or styrofoam takeout container. But not being a food-grade bag, not suitable for directly touching food.
The wiping cloth solution was too strong, chlorine sanitizer at 250 parts per million, and “stored in a location that could result in the cross contamination of food, equipment, utensils, linens, single-service, or single-use articles.”
Luz was happier after passing inspection the next day.
Ma Prao Thai Cuisine, 4838 N. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale: Routine inspection, 23 total violations, seven High Priority violations.
A men’s room urinal was out of order.
A roach motel on top of a reach-in freezer had 10 dead guests and six live ones stuck to it. It did its job. Staff forgot to do their job and dump out the bodies.
Dead roaches were legs up on a front counter shelf and in the hallway going to the restrooms.
No chlorine sanitizer in the dishwasher means manual wash, rinse and sanitize in the three-compartment sink until the dishwasher can properly do what it does.
Vegetable rolls and dumplings weren’t covered in a reach-in freezer.
A Stop Sale cracked raw shell eggs still 15 degrees too warm after spending the night in a malfunctioning walk-in cooler with a “large block of ice covering the condensing area.”
“Food-contact surface soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime.” Which one? The magnetic knife rack at the cookline was “visibly soiled.”
When the inspector returned two days later, the urinal was still out of order, the dishwasher still didn’t have chlorine sanitizer, and three dead roaches and six live roaches were spotted.
On inspection No. 3, the urinal still wasn’t working, and the dishwasher remained sanitizer free. One dead roach and three live roaches clinched a hat trick of blown inspections.
Ma Prao was closed for four days before passing inspection on the fourth shot.
McDonald’s, 345 NE Second Ave, Miami: Routine inspection, four total violations, zero High Priority violations.
How do you get shut down without a High Priority violation? With the most basic of Basic violations.
“A minimum of one bathroom facility is not available for public use. The observed restaurant is being remodeled and is open to the public and is serving food through a makeshift window. The establishment does not have functioning restrooms for customers and employees.”
That got this MickeyD’s shut down from Thursday, Dec. 14, to Monday.
Monina Restaurant & Lounge, 1325 SW 70th Ave., West Miami-Dade: Routine inspection, 33 total violations, three High Priority violations.
As we noted earlier this week, the ubiquitous quality of the rodent regularity around Monina guaranteed inspection failure. But as indicated by 33 total violations, other problems existed.
READ MORE: More than 200 rodent droppings decorated this Latin fusion kitchen in West Miami-Dade
Monina somehow passed the first re-inspection.
Pete’s Place, 6774 Forest Hill Blvd., Greenacres: Routine inspection, 15 total violations, three High Priority violations.
“Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.”
“Several dead roaches, over 20, in white powder next to the compressor of the two-door cooler on the cookline.”
Sometimes, inspectors provide a little play-by-play. “One roach crawling on the white reach-in freezer door behind the cookline. The manager killed two roaches crawling on the floor by the glass door cooler near the back door. The manager killed both roaches crawling on the floor under the coolers on the cookline. One roach was crawling inside the oven on the cookline. The manager killed it.”
The slicer blade qualified as a “food-contact surface soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime.”
Pete’s didn’t repeat its inspection failure on the callback inspection.
Peter’s Kitchen, 14775 SW 184th St., South Miami-Dade: Routine inspection, 24 total violations, three High Priority violations.
More than 12 live roaches were “crawling on the kitchen floor, under the reach-in freezer, in the hallway and under the kitchen grill.”
“Stored food not covered ... all of the food inside the reach-in cooler, walk-in cooler and walk-in freezer were not covered.”
The restroom door didn’t completely close.
“Observed the floor soiled with food exposed under equipment and shelves throughout the kitchen and at the walk-in freezer.”
“In-use knife/knives stored in cracks between pieces of equipment ... two knives stored between preparation tables.”
“In-use utensil not stored with the handle above the top of time/temperature control for safety food and rim of the container.” A long way of saying you have to put your hand in the food to use the utensil. In this case, that would be a cup being used as a spoon in beef.
The place didn’t have a probe thermometer, so they’re hoping to have cooked your food long enough to kill foodborne illness-causing bacteria.
None of the food in the reach-in cooler and walk-in cooler was date marked and was over a day old. “As per operator it was cooked the previous day.”
Peter’s reopened after the next day’s re-inspection.
Setti’s Restaurant & Pizzeria, 7352 Lake Worth Rd., Unincorporated Palm Beach County: Routine inspection, 13 total violations, three High Priority violations.
How does someone working in Setti’s not notice 30 dead roaches under a prep table and a kitchen pizza oven? Or six dead roaches behind the Pepsi reach-in cooler? Or three dead roaches under a kitchen dishwashing sink?
Maybe their focus was taken away by the 10 roaches running under floor mats by the three-compartment sink and the pizza dough machine or the five other live roaches.
“Water draining onto floor surface ... from the handwashing sink at the dishwashing area due to the drain pipe missing.” And there wasn’t any soap there.
“The handwash sink was removed from the food preparation/dishwashing area. It must be reinstalled in the same location where it was removed at the pizza station.”
Setti’s passed re-inspection the next day.
Solo BBQ & Seafood, 1561 S. Congress Ave., Delray Beach: Routine inspection, 11 total violations, six High Priority violations.
Six dead roaches sat on the seal of a chest freezer. A dead roach sat in the hand sink. “Operator flushed roach,” but that the roach had time to die there without being washed down says that sink is lower traffic than the Gratigny at 3 a.m.
The roaches living their best lives were on the seal of a vegetable prep cooler (three), the roach under a bag of onions stored on the kitchen floor (a violation on its own), two live roaches in the seal of a chest freezer and the live roach that fell from a refrigerator gasket when the door was opened.
The flies in the kitchen, food storage and bar areas landed on paper towels, a prep table cutting board and on cooked chicken. That got a Stop Sale on the chicken, which was 20 degrees too warm anyway.
If you have a handwash sink and there’s no soap there, as was the case at the hand sink next to the grill, you have pointless water bill builder.
Solo needed two inspections before passing.
Tacos La Placita, food truck, 6418 Lake Worth Rd., Palm Beach County: Routine inspection, two total violations, two High Priority violations.
This food truck was “operating with no potable running water at the handwashing sink and the three-compartment sink.”
That’ll do it.
The truck passed inspection the next day.
Tee Jay Thai Sushi Restaurant, 5975 N. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale: Routine inspection, 13 total violations, five High Priority violations.
Depending on how tall the workers are, this water in this “sewage/wastewater backing up through floor drains” violation was not just knee deep.
In the storage room with the ice machine and a walk-in cooler, the floor drain had “accumulated water approximately 18 inches (deep) around the floor drain and slowly increasing. Employees have walked through the water and spread it to the kitchen area and the cookline.”
“Visibly soiled cardboard” lined shelves in dry storage.
A label on commercially processed, reduced oxygen packaged salmon. stated it needed to be frozen until time for cooking. Instead, it was thawed, out of the package and too warm. Stop Sales hit 10 packs of salmon.
More Stop Sales trashed calimari, tofu, cooked potatoes that measured 50 to 59 degrees but needed to be at or under 41 degrees after a full night in a cooler. The inspector spotted ice on the condensing coils. The owner was allowed to cook raw beef (50 to 55 degrees) and raw chicken (54 to 55 degrees) for some reason.
Inspection was passed the next day.
Tin Roof, 8 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach: Routine inspection, six total violations, two High Priority violations.
Another ice machine with an “accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior.”
The cookline handwash sink didn’t have any way to dry your hands.
That mattered not to the rodents who pooped over 20 times on a shelf with napkins and single serve wrapped utensils at a kitchen wait station. Two poop pieces were “on top of a flour container.” Another four rodent droppings were on a shelf between the chip warmer and a slicer. Hope none of them slipped. There were eight droppings on the floor under a shelf with a slicer. Another 10 were on the floor around and inside a mop sink.
Tin Roof passed inspection the next day.
Yen’s Kitchen, 7364 Lake Worth Rd., Unincorporated Palm Beach County: Routine inspection, 20 total violations, five High Priority violations.
The furry, four-legged vermin decided their toilet would be under dry storage shelves and between dry storage and the kitchen, where they left 15 droppings. The legs on the 10 dead roaches allowed the inspector to discern in those places what was dead roach and what was rodent dropping.
Two live roaches hung out under kitchen shelving. Guess dry storage is a rough neighborhood.
The handwash sink leaked in the kitchen. Under a prep sink, the “floor area was covered with standing water.”
“Heavy grease, solid buildup underneath cooking equipment, the reach-in cooler, kitchen shelves and the dry storage room.”
Yen’s came correct on the next day’s re-inspection.
