inspections – Page 21 – West Boca News

It's Magic! 39 Violations for a Chinese Restaurant in East Boca

The restaurant formerly known as Pine Garden

A rose by any other name? Our list of East Boca restaurant inspections is topped by a restaurant now named “Magical Rice,” on Federal Highway. Their early March inspection revealed a total of 39 violations including 7 marked high priority.

Bare hand contact with ready-to-eat food while the establishment is under a foodborne illness investigation. Employee cutting vegetables with his bare hands . Gloves worn. **Corrected On-Site**
Employee failed to wash hands before putting on gloves to work with food. **Corrected On-Site**
Nonfood-grade containers used for food storage – direct contact with food. Cooked chicken stored in non food grade bags in walkin freezer.
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food prepared from/mixed with ingredient(s) at ambient temperature not cooled to 41 degrees Fahrenheit within 4 hours. Initial temperature of Shrimp 45 to 46° F , 2nd temp within 1 hr between 43 to 52° F. Cooling for 2 hrs at flip top cooler in cookline. At current rate of cooling the product will not cool to 41° F within 4 hrs. Added ice to rapid cool. Maintain lid closed on flip top cooler. Corrective action taken.
Raw animal food stored over/with ready-to-eat food in walk-in freezer – not all products commercially packaged. Raw chicken over cooked pork. **Corrected On-Site**
Raw animal foods not properly separated from one another based upon minimum required cooking temperature in walk-in freezer – all products not commercially packaged. Raw chicken next to and touching raw pork . **Corrected On-Site**
Toxic substance/chemical stored by or with clean or in-use utensils. Degreaser next to clean pots at cookline. **Corrected On-Site**

Per their website they used to be Pine Garden restaurant, which had poor inspection reports in August and May of 2014. It appears the name change did not magically improve things.

In second place, but possibly worse, Nino’s of Boca II on NE 5th had a bad run with 6 inspections over the past month including three temporary closures. At its worst, the February 12th inspection showed 28 violations including this:

Rodent activity present as evidenced by rodent droppings found, approx. 100 fresh and 50 dry under pizza oven. Approx. 50 both fresh and dry under prep table next to pizza oven. Approx. 30 fresh on prep table shelf next to pizza oven. 2 fresh on dough shelf above prep table. Approx. 15 fresh under reach in cooler at pizza station. Approx. 15 fresh under reach in cooler on cook line. Approx. 20 fresh by fryer. Approx. 20 fresh under prep table in kitchen with slicer. 4 fresh under table by walk in cooler. Approx. 15 fresh under dish machine. Approx. 25 fresh on top of dish machine. Approx. 15 fresh behind rack next to Hobert mixer.

That’s a lot of rodent droppings, and more were found on February 27th:

Rodent activity present as evidenced by rodent droppings found, 10 fresh on top of dish machine, 1 fresh by soda boxes and back door, 3 fresh under shelving by back door, 1 fresh on prep table next to pizza oven, 4 fresh behind reach in cooler, 1 fresh by walk in cooler, 5 fresh under microwave on top of steam table in kitchen. **Repeat Violation**

And again on the 28th:

Rodent activity present as evidenced by rodent droppings found, 10 fresh on top of dish machine, 1 fresh by soda boxes and back door, 3 fresh under shelving by back door, 1 fresh on prep table next to pizza oven, 4 fresh behind reach in cooler, 1 fresh by walk in cooler, 5 fresh under microwave on top of steam table in kitchen. **Repeat Violation** **Warning** At time of callback 5 fresh under soda boxes, 1 fresh by wait station, 1 fresh on left side of walk in cooler, 1 fresh on right side of walk in cooler.

They reopened on March 2nd with a nearly perfect inspection. Nino’s II previously had bad inspections in October and February of 2014.
Ninja Spinning Sushi was hit again, this time with 22 violations in early February. Back in September we reported they were hit with 36 violations.
Bluefin Express on Yamato and Rebel House on East Palmetto Park both had 19 violations. We looked through the reports and didn’t see anything that bad.
Four restaurants were hit with 16 violations including Spadini’s (NE 2nd), Madison’s New York Grill (northeast of Town Center), Punjab (Federal Highway) and Nick’s New Haven Pizzeria (east of Town Center). Stir Crazy (Town Center) and Gluttonous Goat (between Mizner Park and Royal Palm Plaza) each had 15 violations. Despite those numbers we didn’t see anything particularly disturbing.
On the good side of our report, Six Tables (just south of Mizner Park) and Tomasso’s Pizzeria (Palmetto just east of I-95) both had perfect inspections. Four restaurants in Town Center were near perfect including Maoz Vegetarian, Shrimp House, Blue Martini and Chick-Fil-A.
Our full spreadsheet for this report is below:
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/eastboca-early-2015.xls”]

58 Violations? Restaurant Inspections for Near Boca

Our Near Boca restaurant inspection reports cover parts of Delray Beach Coconut Creek, Parkland and Deerfield Beach, and a few other spots.

Odyssey Diner on Jog Road in Delray Beach was hit by inspectors in February with a whopping 58 violations. Seven of the violations were “high priority” and included a stop-sale on bean soup that was not kept at the proper temperature for over 24 hours.

Dishmachine chlorine sanitizer not at proper minimum strength. Discontinue use of dishmachine for sanitizing and set up manual sanitization until dishmachine is repaired and sanitizing properly. 0 PPM CHLORINE
Employee failed to wash hands before putting on new set of gloves to work with food. Cook. **Corrected On-Site** **Repeat Violation**
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Pancake batter 72°, corned beef hash 68°, egg wash 56°, egg white 69°, butter 72°. Single service bitter 68°. And single service sour cream 69°. Items had been on the cook line for one hour per the cook. Corrective action taken, told operator to ice down items and make an application for using time as a public health control for breakfast items on the cook line.
Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food. Raw unwrapped beef on top of box of ready to eat lasagna in Walk in freezer.
Shell eggs held at room temperature with an ambient air temperature greater than 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Shell eggs on cooks line held for one hour – temperature at 72°. Corrective action taken – placed back on reach in cooler.
Spray bottle with chemical/toxic substance stored near/on/above food preparation surface or food. WD40 on shelf in cook line area.
High Priority – Stop Sale issued on potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food due to temperature abuse. Bean soup walk in cooler 46° for more than 24 hours. Corrective action taken – operator immediately threw out.

The diner is across the street from Kings Point, which likely serves as a major source of customers. Their previous inspection in December had 32 violations.

Our regular readers in West Boca and West Delray may be more concerned about the 48 violations found at Japango in Delray Marketplace in early January (yes, we fell a little behind). Eleven of those were high priority, including an unclear stop sale and live small flying insects:

All potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) foods in reach-in cooler cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Cream cheese, tuna, surimi and eel at 47-54°f in to sushi bar display case. Corrective action taken, moved inside a cooler.
Employee began working with food, handling clean equipment or utensils, or touching unwrapped single-service items without first washing hands. **Corrected On-Site**
Live, small flying insects in food preparation area.
Nonexempt fish offered raw or undercooked has not undergone proper parasite destruction. Fish must be fully cooked or discarded. No proof of parasite destruction provided for escolar and smoked salmon served at the sushi rice.
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Shredded cabbage 79°f, tempura batter 78°f at the prep area, discarded Eel, white fish and roe at 61°f in a flip top reach in cooler, discarded. **Repeat Violation**
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) hot held at less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit or above. Brown rice at the sushi bar at 87°f, discarded. Sushi rice at 84°f, no time control, operator unable to test the ph with their ph meter. Discarded.
Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food. Raw shrimp over tofu in a reach in cooler. Raw beef and fish over soy sauce in the walk in cooler **Repeat Violation**
Raw animal foods not properly separated from one another based upon minimum required cooking temperature in walk-in freezer – all products not commercially packaged. Poultry over seafood.
Shell eggs held at room temperature with an ambient air temperature greater than 45 degrees Fahrenheit. At the cookline. Corrective action taken moved inside a cooler.
Stop Sale issued on potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food due to temperature abuse.
Vacuum breaker missing at hose bibb. Sushi bar hose attached to prep sink faucet

On the bright side they also had an inspection on Monday, March 9th and that had only one minor violation.
Other restaurants in Delray Marketplace had less than stellar inspections including Terra Fiamma, Bella Amici Pizzeria and Cinebowl with 19 violations each. Cinebowl had stop sales on chili and queso, but had a perfect follow-up inspection yesterday. Cabo Flats had 18 violatons while Tap Global Beer had 13. Shula Burger did better with only 10. On the bright side Apeiro had a perfect licensing inspection.
The best routine inspection in this report goes to the Tijuana Flats on Hillsboro in Coconut Creek (across from Walmart and near Bru’s Room) with only two violations. Jimmy John’s on 441 in Coconut Creek also did well with three minor violations.
The full list of inspections, from most violations to least, is below in Excel form:
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/nearboca-early-2015.xls”]

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: West Boca Restaurant Inspections

There’s plenty of good news in the latest inspection report, but our readers seem most interested in the bad ones, so we’ll start with the ugly. China Ming in Boca Greens had the worst result in this report. The inspection shows 27 total violations including 7 marked high priority:

License expired more than 30 days, but not more than 60 days, after expiration date. **Warning**
Employee began working with food, handling clean equipment or utensils, or touching unwrapped single-service items without first washing hands. **Warning**
Fresh garlic-in-oil/margarine/butter or product containing fresh garlic-in-oil/margarine/butter mixture held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Oil and garlic 79° **Warning**
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit.Chicken 47°, shrimp 47°, cooked chicken 47°, cabbage 47°, manager iced down items **Warning**
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food found greater than 70 degrees Fahrenheit and less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit more than four hours. See stop sale. Oil and garlic 79° **Warning**
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) hot held at less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit or above.Won ton 119°, egg drop 111° chef was told yo reheat to 165° **Warning**
Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food in walk-in cooler. **Warning**

While this isn’t that bad compared to others we’ve seen, China Ming also did poorly in our report from July of 2014. For this one the inspector is requiring a follow-up inspection, probably due to the paperwork issues.
Four others had 10 or more violations:
Nino’s on Beracasa Way had 19 total violations, though only two were marked high priority. One of those was a “stop sale”:

Stop Sale issued on potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food due to temperature abuse. Scallops 50°, shrimp 50°, crab 51°, oil and garlic 51°, chicken 55°

Bamboo Wok on Glades had 14 violations with three high priority, including “Live, small flying insects in food preparation area.” We’re a little sad about that because it’s our favorite Chinese restaurant and one of the highest rated in our Chinese food survey. We looked at their inspection history and it’s consistently mediocre. But we’ll still probably order from them.
Cannoli Kitchen on Powerline had 11 violations with only one as high priority.
Orient House Express on SW 18th had 10 violations with five of them considered serious:

Employee began working with food, handling clean equipment or utensils, or touching unwrapped single-service items without first washing hands.
Fresh garlic-in-oil/margarine/butter or product containing fresh garlic-in-oil/margarine/butter mixture held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Oil and garlic 61°, manager discarded.
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41°, salmon 47°, tuns 48°, yellowtail,47°, escolar 42°, escolar46°, tuna 47°, manager put all items on ice to get fish back to 41° or below.
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 shrimp over cooked shrimp and cooked pork **Corrected On-Site**
Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food in walk-in cooler. Raw Beef over ready to set vega tables **Corrected On-Site

On the good side, several restaurants had perfect routine inspections. We often see perfect inspections on callbacks (when they know they’re due for a repeat inspection in the near future). But we don’t usually see that many on routine inspections, so this is particularly good.
The perfect group includes:
Holloway’s Irish Pub on SW 18th
Jon’s Place on Powerline
Jersey Mike’s Subs on Palmetto Park
Outback Steakhouse on SW 18th
Wendy’s on St. Andrews and on Glades
Burger King on 441 (in the Target plaza)
Boston Market on Beracasa
The Outback perfect result is impressive because it’s hard for a big restaurant to get everything right.

Honorable mentions with near-perfect inspections include:
First Watch in Mission Bay with one minor violation
Vinnie’s All Day Cafe on Yamato with two minor violations
Wendy’s in Loggers Run with two minor violations
Other notables:
Shin Ju Buffet had only three violations in a December inspection. They’ve had some bad inspections in the past and buffets often do poorly, so this is particularly good news. For unknown reasons they had another inspection a few days ago and had only 5 violations, also quite good.

The new Fabien’s Bistro on SW 18th had a pretty good inspection with 3 violations.

The new Four Seasons restaurant on Glades had only three minor violations.
Our full spreadsheet for this report with over 60 inspections is below:
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/westboca-jan.xls”]

Rats! Saquella Caffe Closed Again! East Boca Inspections.

2014 was a huge year for many East Boca restaurants and food businesses. As a new year begins, so do many restaurants and businesses. We figured it would be the perfect time to finish reviewing some of the inspections of East Boca restaurants from the end of the year.

One of the most noticeable restaurants of this past year would be the Saquella Caffe, just east of South Federal Highway in 33432. In sum, Saquella Caffe received a total of 20 violations in their inspection on November 18^th, 2014. While many were minor violations, five of them were deemed to be high priority such as small flying insects in drink station area and rodent activity noticeable due to the presence of rodent droppings. Previously, on June 19^th, 2013, Saquella Caffe received similar high priority violations with rodent droppings and even live roaches present. After another brief closing, on the 19^th of June, 2013, Saquella Caffe was ready to open the following day after an inspection that met standards with only three basic violations.
There were other poor results. For example, Matteo’s had a total of 31 violations. Eight of the violations were high priority such as trouble storing raw animal foods, toxic substances kept near or by food, and also employees touching ready-to-eat food with their bare hands. There was also a stop sale issued due to ‘potentially hazardous’ food held at inappropriate temperatures.
Other restaurants in the area also received less than ideal inspections. For example, Gluttonous Goat had a total of 26 violations, seven of which being high priority mostly related to food storage and hazardous cooking temperatures. Corner Stone Café had a total of 25 violations with five rated high priority pertaining to the storage of foods and supplies as well as a neglect for washing hands before putting on a new set of gloves. Sanctuary Café had 10 out of their 23 violations be high priority with violations such as employees touching foods with bare hands, raw animal food storage, toxic substance storage, and a stop sale due to temperature abuse. Also, Josephine’s Italian received 7 high priority violations out of a total of 16 with issues like food stored in ice for drinks, food storage, and a stop sale due to cooking temperature abuse.

Last year wasn’t all bad news for restaurants. Many restaurants received outstanding and sometimes even perfect inspections. Keep in mind, a restaurant can still be good even if it has a significant amount of violations. Some violations revolved around minor issues that don’t reflect on the quality of a restaurant. Ten or so violations, especially if most are basic and none of the higher priority ones involve rodent or food-mishandling problems, can be a great feat for restaurants to pull off…
A couple of restaurants that had minimal negative violations without callbacks include New York Prime (receiving 6 violations with no high priority ones), Bistro N (penalized primarily for Thermotape failing and employees not washing hands before putting on new gloves), Denny’s #1640 (the most notable offense being the presence of small flying insects in front of the waitress station), Sushigo (receiving 5 violations with no high penalty ones), La Villetta (receiving one intermediate violation for a spray bottle containing toxic substances not being labeled as well as three basic violations), Jimmy John’s Restaurant (receiving only one basic violation due to their lack of Heimlich maneuver sign being posted), and Jackson’s Seafood & More Inc. (receiving one intermediate violation due to lack of food manager certification).
Some restaurants that received perfect scores on their callbacks include Cream (reason for callback: primarily paperwork and a lack of state approved employee training), Fro-Yo Frenzy (reason for callback: lack of state approved employee training), Ichiyami Buffet & Sushi (reason for callback: undercooked fish), Italio (reason for callback: stop sale on food due to temperature control and food storage), and Kyoto Rock (reason for callback: lack of state approved employee training and the use of the hand washing sink as a ‘dump sink’).
Honorable mentions this time go to Six Tables, Vino Wine Bar & Italian Tapas, Set the Tables Café, and PCS Private Chef Services LLC for having perfect routine checkups without the need of future or previous callbacks.

Another restaurant to note would be Red Zone Pizza. This restaurant made a huge comeback, receiving a perfect inspection twice in a row after being temporarily closed in September due to twenty violations, four of which being high priority. Some of the most eye-opening violations:

Dead roaches on premises. 1 dead. **Warning**
Displayed food not properly protected from contamination.
Rodent activity present as evidenced by rodent droppings found.
Encrusted, soiled material on slicer. **Warning**

If readers want to look up more about any restaurant either listed here or not, click here.
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/eastboca-inspections.xls”]

Dirty Inspection at Muddy Waters? Near Boca Inspection Report

November was not a good month for the Muddy Waters Restaurant as far as inspections go. The inspector found a total of 30 violations including 6 marked “high priority”:

Dishwasher handled soiled dishes or utensils and then handled clean dishes or utensils without washing hands.
Employee failed to wash hands before putting on new set of gloves to work with food. Cook working with raw chicken and moving to other food glove change no hand wash.
Live flies in kitchen.
Nonexempt fish offered raw or undercooked has not undergone proper parasite destruction. Fish must be fully cooked or discarded.
Single-use gloves not changed as needed after changing tasks or when damaged or soiled.
Cook touch garbage by dish machine the continues to prep food no glove change.
Wiping cloth sanitizing solution bucket stored near/on/above food preparation surface or food.

Muddy Waters is on Hillsboro, just west of Military Trail, in Deerfield Beach. Second worst in this month’s “Near Boca” report goes to Gordo’s Grill on Sample Road in Margate.
No restaurant had what we consider a perfect inspection (callback inspections don’t count).

The best in this report goes to the new Char Hut burger place on Sample in Coral Springs with just one minor violation in their licensing inspection. Others with good numbers include the popular Colombian restaurant Medellin near the northwest corner of 441 and Wiles Road (2 minor violations); the Panera on 441 near the southeast corner of the same intersection (3 minor violations); and a new place, The Grille at the Bridges, which appears to be for residents of that development and their guests (3 violations including 1 “high priority”). As if you didn’t already want to live there:

The Grille at The Bridges will offer amazing cuisine for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks at The Club, poolside and coming soon — home delivery.

Other notables near Boca in November include:

Jake’s Wayback Burgers – Coconut Creek (18 violations including 2 high priority and a warning)
Bru’s Room – Coconut Creek (15 violations / 3 high priority)
Santo’s Buffet – Coconut Creek (14 / 2)
Big Bite Bagel & Deli (new) – Coconut Creek (14 / 1)
La Bamba Mexican – Delray Beach (13 / 2)
NYY Steak in Seminole Casino – Coconut Creek (12/2)
Blue Agave – Parkland (9/2 with a paperwork warning)

As usual, our full spreadsheet for this report is below.
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/nearboca-11-30-14.xls”]