mexican – West Boca News

Good News and Bad News: Restaurant Inspections

We’ll start with the good news in our inspection report. We see two new licensing inspections in West Boca. Lime Fresh Mexican Grill had their licensing inspection on Friday, August 7th. We reported in November that they were coming, and reviewed the one at Promenade in Coconut Creek in 2012.
Also coming is Hotdog-Opolis, which will be on the north side of Glades Road just west of Boca Rio and the Turnpike. There’s one already on Federal Highway and another in West Palm Beach. This appears to be the third in the chain.
Both of them had perfect licensing inspections with zero violations. It’s common for licensing inspections to have very few violations.
Now to the bad news …

The worst of our weekly inspection report goes to It’s All Greek in The Reserve at Clint Moore just east of 441. They had 29 violations including 4 marked “high priority.”

Employee handled soiled dishes or utensils and then handled clean dishes or utensils without washing hands. … Dishmachine operator working dirty then clen ends of Dishmachine without handwashing.
Employee touching ready-to-eat food with their bare hands – food was not being heated as a sole ingredient to 145 degrees F or immediately added to other ingredients to be cooked/heated to the minimum required temperature to allow bare hand contact. Establishment has no approved Alternative Operating Procedure. … Food Preparer having Bare Hand Contact with Feta Cheese as cutting it into blocks.
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. … WALK IN COOLER (at 4:30pm) … Soup 44° Raw Shrimp 52° Raw Squid 45° Mousaka 46° Spinach Pie 46° Lamb Shank 46°. AMBIENT TEMPERATURE 48° …WALK IN COOLER (at 5:00pm) … Soup 44° Raw Shrimp 53° Raw Squid 45° Mousaka 46° Spinach Pie 46° Lamb Shank 46° AMBIENT TEMPERATURE 46° – thermostat Adjusted.
Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food in walk-in cooler. … Uncovered Raw shrimp, Uncovered Raw Squid, and Uncovered Raw Salmon directly above cooked, White Rice and Cooked Sauces. **Repeat Violation**

Palm Beach Bagel in the same plaza had 25 violations including 3 high priority.

Employee failed to wash hands beforechanging gloves and/or putting on gloves to work with food.
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. … FRONT COUNTER (Display Cooler Front) salmons 55° white fish 54° cheeses 45° turkey 46° AMBIENT TEMPERATURE 55° – refrigeration Service called – presently in-route. If not immediately corrected food to be relocated to other coolers. **Corrective Action Taken**
Vacuum breaker missing at mop sink faucet or on fitting/splitter added to mop sink faucet.

Also, a food truck known as “Tastee Express 8” was temporarily shut down on August 3rd with 18 violations, and reopened the next day with 16 violations.
There weren’t many inspections in East Boca in the past week and most were call backs on previous inspections. Max’s Grill had a complaint inspection with 8 violations including 4 high priority. For “Near Boca” Beijing Palace on Jog Road in Delray and Steak & Shake in Coral Springs each had 13 violations. Little Caesar’s Pizza in Delray had a perfect inspection. In West Boca Puccini’s on Yamato near 441 was arguably the best with only three minor violations.
As usual our inspection spreadsheets are below.
West Boca
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/westboca-8-9-15.pdf”]
East Boca
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/east-boca-8-9-15.pdf”]
Near Boca
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/nearboca-8-9-15.pdf”]

Casa Tequila: Review

Tonight we visited the new Casa Tequila for dinner and we enjoyed it. They’ve been open for about a week, and there are still a few details to firm up (like a sign on the front), but they’re up and running.
The interior has a lot of space. To the right as you enter is a bar area with tables and a couple of TVs showing sports.

To the left is the main dining area:

Booths are comfortable for four people, but no more than that in the area we were sitting.

The staff were friendly and helpful. Our waitress suggested we get the dip sampler to go with the chips, and it was a good suggestion. The cheese dip was good. It had a hint of some kind of pepper, possibly jalapeño, but only a hint.

We liked the dips, but two of the three items in it come with some of the entrees, so it may be unnecessary for most people.
Before that came we were served a basket of chips with two salsas. The red bowl was spicy and the black bowl was mild. Both were very good. Even though we got two sets of chips, they were all gone before the entrees came.

Kids meals are a great deal at only $4.50. The cheese quesadillas were very good with lots of cheese.

The kid’s enchilada dinner was a lot of food for that price.

One of the adults had a combo platter with beef tacos and a chicken enchilada. The ground beef was well seasoned but not spicy, which was appreciated by the person who ordered it.

The other adult in our party had the fajita trio, with steak, chicken and shrimp. The four large shrimp were the best of that combo – next time we go we’ll just get the shrimp fajitas. It comes with the usual set of accompaniments.

The fajitas were the most expensive dish we ordered at $15.99, a dollar more than the usual fajitas because it came with three meats. Altogether with drinks and including the unnecessary appetizer dips, the total was under $60 for four of us.
Keep in mind that there is another fairly new Mexican restaurant just south of West Boca on 441. Blue Agave is also an option. I liked their steak better at Blue Agave, but the shrimp at Casa Tequila is excellent. Both are good choices and choosing between them is a matter of personal tastes and location.
Casa Tequila is in Lakeside Center on the southwest corner of Glades and Boca Rio. The restaurant is on the far west end of the plaza, facing Glades Road and the International Jewelers Exchange.

Casa Tequila Coming to Glades Road

Update: See our review of Casa Tequila.

West Boca is experiencing a Mexican Renaissance. The latest development is the soon-to-open Casa Tequila in the space that formerly housed Italian restaurant Campagnolo. It’s on the south side of Glades west of Boca Rio. There’s no sign on the front yet.
The company was formed in July. We stopped by and talked briefly with owner Salvador, who hopes to open this coming Tuesday. He let us take the interior photo at top, but they’re still working.
We previously covered the new Blue Agave on 441 in Parkland, which is a similar sit-down restaurant with comparable pricing.
In the last year or so West Boca has added Tijuana Flats in Mission Bay (where we had lunch today), and a Lime Fresh will open in Shadowood in 2015. And of course there’s Chipotle in the Westwinds plaza.

The owner sent us images of the menu:

Lime Fresh Mexican Coming to Shadowood

West Boca residents will be getting another quick service Mexican restaurant soon. Broward Palm Beach New Times reports that Lime Fresh Mexican Grill will come to Shadowood Square in the Spring of 2015.
From the Shadowood site plan, we’re guessing it will be located in the “outbuilding” facing 441. The report says it will be 2000 square feet and the space next to Sybarite Pig is listed as about that size.

The map shows an outdoor patio though it’s unclear at this point if they’ll use it. We left a message for the property manager.
Shadowood Square is on the northeast corner of Glades and 441.

Lime Fresh will compete with Chipotle in Westwinds of Boca, and Tijuana Flats in Mission Bay Plaza. We previously reviewed the Lime Fresh Mexican Grill at Promenade in Coconut Creek.
For those wanting Mexican with more traditional table service, we also recently reviewed Blue Agave on 441 in Parkland.
Update: Based on a reader question, below is an image showing a street-level view of where we think the Lime Fresh will be.

Blue Agave on 441 in Parkland

We previously reported that a new Mexican restaurant would be opening on 441 in Parkland. Blue Agave finally opened a couple months ago and we stopped by for lunch.
The first thing we noticed is that the lunch prices are excellent. I had a steak fajita lunch for $8.95. It wasn’t a huge portion of meat, but it was more than I could eat.

It did come with a lot of accompaniments, including sour cream and guacamole.

I have to say this was the best guacamole I’ve had in South Florida. A lot of places serve it bland. This had excellent texture and flavor. Overall the fajitas were very good. Keep in mind that I’ve lived in both Texas and California, so my tastes may differ from yours.
My companion had the two-enchilada lunch which was $6.95. The guacamole was a dollar extra. She particularly liked that the food was not spicy. We asked the manager and he said they can make dishes spicy but only do so if the customer asks. It’s his impression that 90% of their customers don’t like it spicy, particularly the customers from Latin countries. Because we have a couple friends with shellfish allergies we asked him about that and he assured us they can take care of them, but to make sure to tell your server when you order.

They have a broad menu. Even the lunch menu has over 30 choices from $5.95 to $8.95, including a few egg dishes. The dinner menu has most of the same items at higher prices and presumably with larger portions. Dinner fajitas start at $13.95 which is quite reasonable.
The interior is large and colorful. The fire code sign indicates it can hold up to 200 people.

Blue Agave is in the Waterway Shoppes, just south of the county line on the west side of 441. It’s near The Whale Raw Bar & Fish House and Giovanni’s Pizza. The location used to be the Edo Sushi Buffet.