48 Violations at Romano's: East Boca Inspections

Romano's Macaroni Grill in Boca Raton; image by Google
Romano’s Macaroni Grill in Boca Raton; image by Google

Romano’s Macaroni Grill was hit with 48 violations in an early July inspection and the restaurant was temporarily closed. Seven of the violations were “high priority” and included insects and rodents:

  • Employee failed to wash hands before changing gloves and/or putting on gloves to work with food. **Corrected On-Site**
  • Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cooked/heated yesterday/on a previous day not cooled from 135 degrees Fahrenheit to 41 degrees Fahrenheit within a total of 6 hours. Food has been cooling overnight. Cooked potatoes cooling overnight between 47° F and 50° F at walkin cooler. See stop sale. Food discarded. **Corrected On-Site**
  • Presence of insects, rodents, or other pests. Ants in rear prep area by slicer and flour bin and in frontline area by dessert storage cooler.
  • Raw animal food stored in top portion of make table over ready-to-eat food in bottom portion of make table _ no complete physical barrier between top and bottom. Raw scallops over sauces at make table top where drippings from scallops may contaminate sauces. **Corrected On-Site**
  • Rodent activity present as evidenced by rodent droppings found. Observed approximately 15 fresh and 5 dry rodent droppings in rear prep/ dishwashing area and 3 fresh and 2 dry rodent droppings on table tops in dining room area.
  • Small flying insects in dishwashing area.
  • Stop Sale issued on potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food due to temperature abuse. Cooked potatoes cooling overnight between 47° F and 50° F at walkin cooler. Food discarded. **Corrected On-Site**

On the bright side they had a near-perfect inspection the next day and reopened. They also had an additional inspection two weeks later which was also good with only five minor violations.
The next worst in this report is Chinese restaurant Sieng House, which is south of Camino Real just west of Dixie Highway. They had 19 total violations (4 high priority) and there were three more inspections within ten days. It looks like there was a persistent problem with food temperatures but their final inspection was perfect.
High numbers were also reported for four restaurants in and near Royal Palm Plaza. Ichiyami Buffet, Gluttonous Goat, Yakitori Sake House and Biergarten each had 16 violations from late May through early June.
The best inspections in this report go to Seasons 52 (near Town Center) and The Wick Theatre which were both perfect. The Wick’s dining service is now headed by our favorite local chef, William Walden, formerly of Bistro Gastronomie.

Chef William Walden from The Wick
Chef William Walden from The Wick

Villagio in Mizner Park shows up in our spreadsheet (below) but we already covered that inspection as an update to our May inspection report for East Boca.
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Author: Warren Redlich

Warren Redlich is a real estate agent and an attorney. He focuses on selling homes in West Boca Raton. Call or text Warren at 561-536-3645. Warren is also a tech YouTuber covering Tesla, SpaceX and more. His YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/c/WarrenRedlich/ and he sells Elon Musk related t-shirts and other merchadise at https://ElonBits.com. Warren also publishes videos about politics at https://warrenredlich.locals.com/