near boca – West Boca News

The Dirty Near Dozen: Restaurant Inspections

–Update–
Since we originally posted this article we received a response from Terra Fiamma:

At this writing we cannot confirm their claim of a perfect inspection on August 4th. It does not show up on the inspection page:

It appears any inspection on August 4th would be a follow-up inspection. The bad inspection we reported on was from June 1st, and there was a follow-up on June 6th that still required a further follow-up. We do not consider follow-up inspections to be as significant as routine inspections or complaint inspections because the restaurant has more warning and has had a wake-up call. A good restaurant should notice these problems before the inspector does.
With all that said, we like Terra Fiamma. We have eaten there in the past and will do so again.

Nearly a dozen restaurants received 20 or more violations in our latest restaurant inspection report. The worst of the pack in total number were Terra Fiamma in Delray Marketplace and Sergio’s Americas Bakery in Northwest Sandalfoot Plaza. Each had 29 violations.

On the bright side for Sergio’s, there was only one violation marked as high priority. By contrast Terra Fiamma had 8 high priority violations on their June 1st inspection including dozens of live flies:

Chlorine sanitizer not at proper minimum strength for manual warewashing. Do not use equipment/utensils not properly sanitized. 0 ppm chlorine at 3 compartment sink. Corrected to 100 ppm chlorine. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**
Employee ate then engaged in food preparation, handled clean equipment without washing hands. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**
Employee dried hands on soiled towel after washing. Re washed hands. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**
Live, small flying insects in kitchen, food preparation area, or food storage area. Approximately 50 live flies inside restaurant in cookline area/prep area/ server stations/ bar / dining room/ dry storage area. Approximately 100 live flies just outside back door . **Repeat Violation** **Warning**
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Fresh garlic and oil at 70° F in servers station area near pizza prep area. Time marked. Repeat Violation. Over stacked veil at cookline cooler at 62° F. Over stack removed and placed inside cooler. Milk and creamer at 67° F in servers station. Added ice to food level. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**
Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food. Raw chicken over veggies at cookline cooler. Raw veil over dough at walkin cooler. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**
Toxic substance/chemical stored by or with food. Butane in food storage shelving. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**
Wiping cloth sanitizer solution exceeds the maximum concentration allowed. Over 200 ppm chlorine. Corrected to 100 ppm chlorine. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**

We’re changing the way we do inspection reports. We separate our reports into areas – West Boca, East Boca and “Near Boca.” Now we’re combining them into one report hopefully each week.
Others in the dirty near dozen, with 20 or more violations, include:
West Boca
Long Island Bagel (441 near Target)
Bamboo Wok (Glades Road west of Lyons)
Lucky Palace (441 near Target)
El Balcon De Las Americas (441 at Sandalfoot)
Mozart Cafe (west side of Powerline at Camino Real)
East Boca
Canton Garden (Spanish River Blvd)
Near Boca
La Bamba (Delray)
The Palm Grill (Delray)
Mama’s Pizza (Deerfield)
There were also some perfect and almost perfect inspections:
West Boca
Domino’s Pizza (441 Mission Bay)
Yogurt Zone (Somerset Shoppes)
Jet’s Pizza (Somerset Shoppes)
Burger King (441 near Target)
East Boca
Hooters (Glades east of Town Center)
Chef Tai’s (NW 2nd)
McDonald’s (Federal Highway)
La Rosa Nautica (NE 20th)
Five Guys (NW 19th)
Bagel Wit Schmear (Federal Highway)
One other notable lowlight was Sushi Masa on Glades Road in East Boca, which had four inspections in a 9-day period in late July because of continuing problems with food temperatures. Another follow-up inspection is expected.
Our spreadsheets for this report are below:
West Boca
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East Boca
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Near Boca
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Cabo Fail – Restaurant Inspections Near Boca

Four restaurants near West Boca had over 20 restaurant inspection violations in the last four weeks. Cabo Flats in Delray Marketplace had the worst in number with 25 violations including a stop sale on salsa for temperature abuse, dozens of small flying insects in the kitchen, and a total of 10 violations marked high priority:

Employee failed to wash hands before changing gloves to handle clean utensils. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**
Employee washed hands with no soap. **Warning**
Live, small flying insects in kitchen, food preparation area, or food storage area. Approximately between 50-75 flies observed in food prep area/dishwashing area / servers station and bar**Warning** **Repeat Violation** **Warning**
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Guacamole 48° F at servers station cooler. Discarded. Corrected on site. Butter 54° F overstocked at cookline cooler. Removed over stock. Corrective action taken. Salsa at 52° F in bar area. **Warning**
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. See stop sale. Salsa cooling over night at walkin cooler at 48° F. Discarded. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**
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 fish over veggies on top of make table at cookline cooler. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**
Small flying insects in bar area. **Repeat Violation** **Warning**
Spray bottle with chemical/toxic substance stored near/on/above food preparation surface or food. Soap over soda boxes and cleaners by drinks in bar area. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**
Stop Sale issued on potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food due to temperature abuse. Salsa cooling overnight at walkin cooler at 48° F. **Warning**
Thermotape failed to turn black to indicate the sanitization temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit was achieved on the dish surface. Discontinue use of dishmachine for sanitizing and set up manual sanitization until dishmachine is repaired. **Warning**
Toxic substance/chemical stored by or with food. Propane over food in dry storage shelving by cookline. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**

Cabo Flats also had 18 violations in our March report on restaurant inspections in “Near Boca” (West Delray, Coconut Creek and Parkland).
Others with bad numbers include:

Shanghai Chinese on Atlantic (24 violations, 7 high priority)
Odyssey Diner (stop sale for temperature abuse on cooked potatoes, 24 violations, 6 high priority, plus a dead roach found in a storage area)
Ho Ho Chinese (closed twice, two days in a row, for roaches, 21 violations, 5 high priority)
Ruvens (closed for roaches on May 6th, stop sale on milk, butter and cream cheese for temperature abuse, 21 violations, 6 high priority)

A routine inspection of Ruvens only two weeks later on May 21st found 13 violations including three high priority. They also had 34 violations at Ruvens in late April. Odyssey Diner had 58 violations in our March report.
Japango in Delray Marketplace had 13 violations including three high priority.
South of the border in Coconut Creek and Margate, Lemon Tree Cafe on Lyons Road had 16 violations including 2 marked high priority, while Golden Corral on Sample Road had 15 violations, all minor.
The best result in this report goes to the new Papalani Gelato which had a perfect licensing inspection. We’ll be doing a story on them shortly. A Burger King on Atlantic in Delray and NYC Sandwich Company on Powerline in Coconut Creek were next best with two minor violations each.
As usual our full spreadsheet for this report is below. Readers can check any restaurant at the Florida Licensing Portal.
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Apeiro Hit With 18 Violations: The Near Boca Inspection Report

The new Apeiro restaurant in Delray Marketplace had one of the worst inspections we see in our latest “Near Boca” report. They had a total of 18 violations including 6 marked as “high priority.” Perhaps the biggest concern was that several foods and sauces were not kept at proper temperatures including a stop-sale. Here’s the worst of it:

Cooked potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food not cooled from 135 degrees Fahrenheit to 41 degrees Fahrenheit within 6 hours. Roasted garlic cream sauce 49°, eggplant meat 49°, Brie fondue 49°, acqua pazza sauce 49°, herb balsamic sauce 47°, bolognese sauce 47°, falafel mix 47°, cooked mushrooms 47° all in containers that were too deep, and coved and held overnight or more.
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 cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Foods in walk in cooler were temping in at 45° because the walk in cooler had an ambient temperature of 44-45°. Corrective action taken – operator adjusted the temperature setting for walk in cooler to a lower temperature. Walk in cooler is now reading an ambient temperature of 37°. **Corrected On-Site**
Stop Sale issued on potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food due to temperature abuse. Roasted garlic cream sauce 49°, Brie fondue 49°, acqua pazza sauce 49°, eggplant meat 49°, herb balsamic sauce 47°, bolognese sauce 47°, falafel mix 47°, cooked mushrooms 47° all cooled in deep containers, covered and held overnight. Garlic and oil mixture – held at room temperature (78°) for more than 4 hours.
Thermotape failed to turn black to indicate the sanitization temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit was achieved on the dish surface. Discontinue use of dishmachine for sanitizing and set up manual sanitization until dishmachine is repaired. **Corrected On-Site**

Apeiro’s inspection was in mid-April and indicated that a follow-up inspection is required. We don’t see that follow-up in the data yet.
Burt & Max in the same plaza (and we think with the same owner) had a pretty good inspection with 7 violations.
Ruvens on Jog Road in Delray had the worst number in this report with a whopping 34 violations, 8 of them marked high priority. The worst of that was: Stop Sale issued due to adulteration of food product. Unwashed orange inside a bucket of coleslaw in walk on cooler. However, a follow-up inspection was not required.
The Burger King on Atlantic near Military Trail was closed briefly in late April due to roaches: “one live roaches in kitchen, 8 live roaches in icee machine cabinet by the ice machine.” It was reopened the same day after a quick repeat inspection.
Others in Delray with poor numbers include Zorba’s Taverna on Linton (19 violations), The Grill at the Bridges (18), Beijing Palace on Jog (18), Mr. Chen’s Hunan Palace (17) and Bagel Twins (16), both on Linton, Gramercy Bagels & Deli (15), Greek Emporium (15) and Panda Gourmet (14).
The best inspection we saw in Delray was the Subway and the Philly Grill both on Military Trail near Atlantic with 2 violations each.
Broward County
The worst in Broward was China Buffet & Grill on Hillsboro west of Powerline, with 25 violations including 8 high priority and a warning issued.
Also on Hillsboro, La Brasa (at Lyons) and Muddy Waters (west of Military Trail) had 17 violations each. Duffy’s on Hillsboro had 12 violations but only one was marked high priority. Muddy Waters also had only one marked high priority.
Bru’s Room on Hillsboro near 441 had 11 violations with two marked high priority. Those two looked picky to us. Food supposed to be kept below 41º was at 44º, for example. They had a call-back a week later and had only one minor violation.
The good news in Broward includes Deer Creek Country Club (whose restaurant is open to the public) and Sublicious on 441 near Holmberg, with just one minor violation each.