Restaurant Inspections: Ouch!

We go through restaurant inspections about twice a month. The biggest surprise in early June is Tempura House in the plaza at Clint Moore and 441.
28 violations? 8 high priority violations?
A complaint led to the June 12 inspection and it’s one of the biggest numbers we’ve seen. Problems included live flies in the kitchen, food storage containers, food storage temperature, and repeat problems with handwashing. Then there was this one: “Required employee training expired for all employees. … All training expired on 1/30/2014.” A follow-up inspection is being required.
On the bright side, this one was better than April when they had 51 violations with 12 high priority ones. They had two inspections in 2013 that were much better.

We reviewed Tempura House back in 2012 and didn’t love it, but it is very popular. We left it out of our Chinese food survey and it was mentioned favorably by several respondents in the “other” question.
For those turned off by these inspections, Saito’s Japanese Steakhouse at Glades and Lyons had a much better inspection in February, and we like the food better.
That was the highest number in this report for all of Boca Raton. Nearby in Coconut Creek, Tesser’s Deli on Lyons had 33 violations with 5 of them rated high priority in a June 2 inspection. That’s up from 23 violations back in January. No follow-up was required either time.

There were three other inspections in West Boca:
Grill Time on Glades Road near Boca Rio had a fairly low 4 violations with one high priority. Pita N Go near Sandalfoot had 7 violations but none were serious. Hong Kong Palace (near Olive Garden) had 11 violations with 2 rated high priority. We’re puzzled about this one. It’s a licensing inspection and the first one in the official records. But we see reviews for the place on other websites dating back to 2010, and it received 33 responses in our survey. Where are the previous inspections? Readers rated a little worse than average in the survey.
In East Boca, a couple places in Royal Palm Plaza popped up. There appears to be a new Indian restaurant, Sapphire Indian Cuisine. Their licensing inspection had 7 minor violations. Holloway’s Pub had 3 violations, 2 of them serious, on June 5th. A follow-up on the 13th had a perfect zero violations.
On Federal Highway, Sushi of Boca Raton and Renzo’s Cafe & Pizzeria both had perfect inspections, as did Giveness Caribbean on Dixie Highway. Josephine’s Italian on Federal had 4 violations with 2 rated “high priority.” The new La Nouvelle Maison on Palmetto Park had only 3 violations with none serious in a licensing inspection. It’s the same owner as the nearby Trattoria Romana.
Up in Delray Beach, Carrabba’s on Linton had 14 violations with 5 serious, including “small flying insects in dishwashing area” and a stop sale order on some food items:

Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit……….grill chicken, rice, pre cooked pasta, 46° to 47° in reach in drawer station one across from 2 stove in cook line. Food being held more than 4 hours . Stop sale issue and operator discarded food. Corrective action taken.

There were also several inspections in Coconut Creek that might interest some of our readers. We mentioned Tesser’s Deli above.
In the Village Shoppes on the northeast corner of 441 and Wiles, Jake’s Wayback Burgers, Flutter’s Ice Cream and Santos Buffet were all inspected. Jake’s and Flutter’s did well with only two violations and one, respectively. Santos had 12 violations with 4 serious ones, though the details don’t look that bad to us.

Lime Fresh Mexican in Promenade had 4 violations with 2 high priority. The McDonald’s on 441 near Regency Lakes had 10 violations but only one was serious (live small flying insects). Bru’s Room on Hillsboro had 12 violations with 5 of them serious (including live flies and live small flying insects). Jimmy John’s near that had a perfect zero.
Further east on Hillsboro, Bamboo Wok had six mostly minor violations and Amici’s Pizza had 3 minor violations.