restaurant inspections – West Boca News

Roaches, Rodents and Mold on an Epiphany? Restaurant Inspections for East Boca

Update: Villagio in Mizner Park was temporarily closed on May 20th due to roaches, and there was also a stop sale due to raw beef being left out all night. They had a total of 23 violations.

High Priority – Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found. Observed approximately 10 inside a broken oven that is not in use on the cook’s line.
Stop Sale issued on potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food due to temperature abuse. Piece of raw beef left at room temperature all night.

Stir Crazy at Town Center has had a string of rough inspections over the last several months. The worst of it, recently, was on April 27th when they were closed by inspectors for the day due to both roaches and rodents.

Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found. Observed approximately 10 live roaches by the walkin cooler, 3 live roaches by dry storage shelving, 10 live roaches by the dish machine, 16 live roaches by the cookline area, 1 live roach at the employee restroom and 2 live roaches by the mop sink.
Rodent activity present as evidenced by rodent droppings found. Observed approximately 15 dry rodent droppings in upstairs storage room.

The restaurant appears to struggling with inspections. We count six inspections since February with four requiring follow-ups. Four of those inspections happened in the last three weeks. Their first inspection in February found dead roaches and as we reported in August, they had problems with rodents on an inspection in July.
Usually when we see a place have a bad inspection they respond with near-perfect inspections for at least a little while. Stir Crazy seems to be having trouble getting things right. The April 27th inspection found 17 violations and only couple weeks later they had 16 violations.
While that was probably the worst inspection in this report, it is not the worst number. Yakitori Sake House in Royal Palm Plaza “wins” that prize with a total of 40 violations including 8 marked “high priority,” some of which are a bit unnerving:

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, corrected to 100 ppm chlorine. **Corrected On-Site**
Employee handled soiled dishes or utensils and then handled clean dishes or utensils without washing hands. **Corrected On-Site**
Employee handled soiled equipment or utensils and then engaged in food preparation, handled clean equipment or utensils, or touched unwrapped single-service items without washing hands. Dishwasher from handling dirty equipment to handling clean plates without washing hands first.
Employee washed hands with no soap. **Corrected On-Site**
Food stored in ice used for drinks. Water bottle and apple at bar.
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) hot held at less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit or above. Sushi rice at 109° F in sushi bar area under no temperature control. Rice time marked. Assisted operator in completing application for time as a public health control. **Corrective Action Taken**
Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food. Raw shrimp over prepped veggies at walkin cooler. Raw fish over cream cheese and krab at sushi bar cooler. **Corrected On-Site**
Raw animal foods not properly separated from one another based upon minimum required cooking temperature in reach-in freezer – all products not commercially packaged. Raw chicken next to and touching raw beef at Whirlpol cooler. Raw chicken over raw shrimp at Whirlpol cooler.**Corrected On-Site**

Yakitori Sake House did follow up with a near-perfect inspection a week later.
Second worst in total number was Chick N Chop on Federal Highway with 31 violations including the most interesting one we’ve ever seen:

Food with mold-like growth. See stop sale. Observed a gray mold growing on an epiphany in a case of eggplant in the rear prep area. **Warning**

We’re not sure how an epiphany would get into a case of eggplant, what it would look like, or how mold would grow on it. But we don’t think we’d want to eat that.

Another bad one goes to Nino’s of Boca II on NE 5th Ave (east of Federal Highway north of Glades). They had 13 violations and some kind of emergency order recommended. They’ve had some bad inspections as we mentioned in March, and October. This may have been the final straw because it looks like the restaurant has closed. Their website is gone and their phone number is disconnected. Because they’re closed we can’t find the latest inspection report, though it was covered by BizJournals.com:

ordered to close temporarily for a fourth time this year on March 16 for rodent problems, when inspectors found rodent droppings near cooking equipment in the kitchen

Now for the real winners:
Several places had perfect inspections, including the Cinemark theater, Strikes bowling, PF Chang’s, Estia Greek Taverna, Amitie Cafe, Lion & Eagle Pub, Funky Buddha Lounge, Skyview Cafe, Little Caesars, and several places within the Boca Raton Resort.
Other notables with good numbers include Shake Shack on Glades and Sushi Ray in Town Center Circle with just two violations each. Morton’s of Chicago in Town Center Circle had only three minor violations.
Others with 10 or more violations were:
Federal Highway:
Renzo’s Cafe Pizzeria, Sushi of Boca Raton, Taverna Kyma (including a stop sale due to temperature problems), Sinful Sandwich, Piezano’s Pizza & Pasta, Sonny’s Gelato CAfe, adn Sakura Thai & Japanese.
Mizner Park & Royal Palm Plaza:
Dubliner, Sapphire Indian, Casimir Bistro, Lemongrass
Other:
Dean Anthony’s Express Pizza (Yamato), Cheescake Factory, DaVinci’s of Boca (Town Center), Boca’s Best Pizza Bar, and Bogart’s Bar & Grille
As usual, our full spreadsheet is below.
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/eastboca-5-2015.pdf”]

Restaurant Inspections: Mostly Good News. Mostly.

Our latest restaurant inspection report for West Boca is mostly good news as several restaurants had perfect inspections. But we’ll start off as usual with the worst of the pack.

Kagura Japanese in the Polo Club Shoppes (Military Trail north of Clint Moore) was hit with 19 violations in early March. The worst of it was this, and it’s really not that bad:

Employee began working with food, handling clean equipment or utensils, or touching unwrapped single-service items without first washing hands.
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.
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food identified in the written procedure as a food held using time as a public health control has no time marking and the time removed from temperature control cannot be determined. Sushi rice

Kagura’s previous inspection in October had only 8 violations, and they had a perfect one a few months earlier in July of 2014.
Another Japanese place, Tempura House in The Reserve (Clint Moore and 441), had the next worst inspection with 14 violations including:

Cooked rice/pasta cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Rice 70°, moved to walk-in cooler, corrective action taken
Fresh garlic-in-oil/margarine/butter or product containing fresh garlic-in-oil/margarine/butter mixture held at less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Oil and garlic at 80°on the cook line kitchen area, moved to reach in cooler corrective action taken
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Pork 52°, beef 53°, chicken 51°, raw pork 49°, shrimp 45°, scallop 52°, iced items and moved some to another reach in cooler, corrective action taken
Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food in reach-in cooler. Raw eggs sitting on top of ready to eat foods

Tempura House also had a bad run last year with two rough inspections in April and June.

On the plus side, many restaurants had excellent inspections. To be clear, what we look for are routine and complaint inspections so we are not including call-backs and licensing inspections in this list.
Perfect inspections – Zero violations
Brooklyn Boys Pizza (Shadowood)
IHOP (near SW corner of Glades and 441)
McDonalds (Clint Moore & Jog)
Domino’s Pizza (Boca Grove and also Mission Bay)
Lucille’s Bad to the Bone BBQ (Woodfield)
Sybarite Pig (Shadowood)
TW’s Lounge (west side of 441 near SW 18th)
House of Dog (Boca Grove)
Voodoo BBQ & Grill (Polo Club Shoppes)
Chez Marie Bistro (Polo Club Shoppes)
Giovanni’s Pizza (Powerline)
Mozart Cafe would have made the list but they had another inspection later in the month with several violations. The new Jet’s Pizza also had a perfect inspection but it was a licensing inspection and those are usually clean.
Others were near-perfect. Fit Foodz Cafe had only one minor violation. Twenty places were reported with just two violations including Nikuya in Logger’s Run.
For our full spreadsheet, see below.
First in pdf:
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/westboca-march.pdf”]
And next in Excel for those who like to play with the numbers:
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/westboca-march.xls”]

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”]