Rodents at a deli, rice with mold and roaches: bad South Florida restaurant inspections

This week’s Sick and Shut Down List is highlighted by Rodents vs. Roaches battling for turf in restaurants from Miami to Palm Beach County and one place in Broward in between.

(No Keys restaurants this week — Monroe got off clean or at least unseen).

Read this, please: What follows comes from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation restaurant inspections in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties. A restaurant that fails inspection remains closed until passing re-inspection. If you see a problem and want a place inspected, contact the DBPR, not us.

We don’t control who gets inspected nor how strictly the inspector inspects. We don’t include all violations, just the most moving, whether internally or literally moving (because it’s alive or once was alive). We report without passion or prejudice but with enough humor to take some home.

And we go in alphabetical order:

Onigri Casa Poke USA, 3301 NE First Ave., Miami: The inspector counted 12 pieces of rodent dookie “on the wall behind the dishwasher.”

On the wall?

In the kitchen, five flies landed on sanitized equipment and in the dry storage, 20 flies landed on a sanitized cutting board and food cans. Five dead flies lie dead by the mop sink. No sign if it was food or Fabuloso that killed them.

When employees went to wipe stuff down, “Wet wiping cloths used for occasional spills on equipment food and nonfood-contact surfaces not clean.”

Not that evidence said they did much wiping down. “Wall soiled with accumulated grease, food debris, and/or dust Throughout property.”

“Interior of reach-in cooler soiled with accumulation of food residue.”

At Wednesday’s re-inspection, the inspector saw more flies in the storage area. Also, not corrected from the previous day was “food debris/dust/grease/soil residue on exterior of reach-in cooler/refrigerator. Also...the gaskets are soiled.”

Onigiri got it together for Thursday’s re-re-inspection.

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Strathmore Bagel & Deli, Marketplace at Wycliffe 4095 State Rd. 7, Lake Worth: The inspector counted more than 70 pieces of rodent regularity under the dishwasher on the floor under a breaker box in dry storage and under a shelf at a kitchen entrance.

The waitress put bagels on a plate with her bare hands. A cook did the same with cooked Canadian bacon and a muffin. Those are no-nos.

Real men don’t eat quiche with a temperature of 48 to 50 degrees that was cooked the previous day. The inspector dropped a Stop Sale on that hunk of potential food poisoning and suggested next time put the quiche on a lower level of the display case to get it under 41 degrees.

Strathmore passed re-inspection on Friday.

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Taone, 4095 State Rd. 7, Lake Worth: Of the more than 46 pieces of rodent poo that dotted Taone, one was on the microwave and five were on top of the dishwasher.

OK, that means either staff there just didn’t pay attention to the dung atop regularly used equipment. Or, worse, they didn’t notice a rodent heading across the equipment and deciding a full service pit stop was necessary right then and there.

The inspector hit two containers of sushi rice with Stop Sales because there was nothing on them stating when they were made. The person in charge said the previous night.

We don’t usually get too excited about the violation of raw animal food stored over other raw animal food or ready-to-eat food, but “a container with raw chicken and cooked chicken mixed together” endangers customers insides.

And with all this, the dishmachine chlorine sanitizer measured zero parts per million.

As for the handwashing sink near the sushi area...”Handwash sink not accessible for employee use due to metal containers stored in the sink.”

Taone passed re-inspection on Friday.

Thai Thai & Sushi Bar, 1861 N. Pine Island Rd., Plantation: “Observed one live roach in a rice bin behind the walk-in cooler. Observed mold-like substance on rice in rice bin behind the walk-in cooler.”

Stop Sales hit that. The inspector saw 26 rodent droppings, 10 of which were “under counters in the sushi bar” and another 10 “underneath the dish draining rack next to the cookline.”

Overall, 49 roaches ran about, 20 of them on a “storage rack, where clean, sanitized food containers are stored next to the rice cooker” and another 10 under the cookline. That 49 includes the live one in the rice bin.

“Approximately 10 dead roaches in an empty bucket by the exit door. Approximately 20 dead roaches inside the GE chest freezer next to the walk-in cooler. Approximately 10 dead roaches on a shelf where boxed syrups are stored in the wait station.” (A lesson for the kids — don’t overdo on the sugar).

Of course, with all this live action about the place, where was an “uncovered container with cooked chicken.”

“Encrusted material on a can opener blade.” The inspector also saw a “heavy mold-like substance built-up in the ice machine.”

“Observed utensils stored in standing water at 77°F. That’s gross lukewarm, not even warm enough for proper hand-washing.

At re-inspection No. 1 on Friday, the person in charge tried to rectify the roach situation in real time. This did not work for extermination or satisfying the inspector.

“Observed one live roach over the M3 Turbo Air Refrigerator. Operator attempted to kill. Observed one live roach on a shelving unit on the cookline. Observed one live roach on the ceiling above the ice machine. Operator killed and discarded. Observed one live roach under the wooden stool where a fan is stored. Operator killed and discarded. Observed one live roach under the prep table, crawling on the wall. Operator killed and discarded. Observed one live roach under the triple sink. Operator killed.”

But the inspector also observed 108 dead roaches, 40 of which were under a rack where clean pots and pans were stored and another 20 under sushi bar counters.

At Friday’s second re-insepction (since the pandemic started, inspectors in Broward really have tried to give those restaurants a chance to get back open), there was more chasing and killing roaches, including “live roach crawling on a stack of clean plates.” And more dead roaches.

Thai Thai did the Wayne Gretzky of failed inspections, a hat trick plus one on Saturday when the operator chased and killed five live roaches and the inspector saw four dead ones.

There’s no online record yet of what’s happened Monday.