24 Violations at Tempura House; Roaches at Lemon Tree

ByWarren Redlich

tempura-house
A couple Japanese places lead our inspection report this week in number of violations, though overall their reports aren’t really the worst of the bunch.
Tempura House on Clint Moore had the most violations with 24, including 6 marked high priority. Saito in Coconut Creek’s Promenade was next with 18 violations, 3 high priority.
The big violations for Tempura House were:

  • Employee failed to wash hands before changing gloves and/or putting on gloves to work with food. – food handlers changing cloves without washing hands. **Repeat Violation** **Warning**
  • 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 dirty to clean without handwashing. **Warning**
  • In-use utensil stored in unclean water at or above 135 degrees Fahrenheit. – Spoons for rice – **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**
  • Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. – REACH IN COOLER – (Cook Line Cold Table/Undercounter Unit) scallops 54° shrimp 54° raw beef 53° cooked shrimp 53° tripe 54° raw ground pork 53° AMBIENT COOLER TEMPERATURE 42° – COOK LINE – (Held Open at Room Temperature) mushrooms 74° noodles 73° sprouts 74° water chestnuts 72° corns 72° **Repeat Violation** **Repeat Violation** **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. – tested on Three Cycles. **Warning**
  • Vacuum breaker missing at hose bibb or on fitting/splitter added to hose bibb. – at rear mop sink. **Warning**

As we noted in our review a few years ago, Tempura House seems very popular. But we’ve never really liked it and we’re not alone – Jeff Eats hated it several years ago. Their inspection record has been spotty, with some good ones and some terrible, like in 2014.
We started going to Saito (Lyons and Glades) and haven’t looked back. The 18-violation inspection we just saw for the Coconut Creek location is a minor turn-off, but it’s a different spot and the details make the inspector seem picky.
lemon-tree
Although it’s a lower number, the worst inspection this week goes to Lemon Tree Cafe, on Lyons Road just south of the Sawgrass. They were closed for a day after a 14-violation inspection including the dreaded roaches:
Observed: Roach activity present as evidenced by 5 live roaches found in dishwashing area, 4 live roaches in dry storage behind GE chest freezer, 5 live roaches in cookline under food prep table, 2 live roaches in service station next to Bianchi coffee machine. **Warning**
That was one of the high priority violations. Two of the “basic” ones are also troubling.

Observed: Accumulation of dead or trapped birds, insects, rodents, or other pests, in control devices. Dead flies **Warning**
Observed: Dead roaches on premises, approximately 30 dead roaches in dish washing area under dishwashing machine, approximately 10 dead roaches in storage under GE chest freezer, approximately 10 dead roaches under food prep table on cook line. **Warning**

Usually we wouldn’t consider 9 violations to be that bad but PF Chang on Glades in East Boca had four marked high priority:

  • All potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) foods in reach-in cooler cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. 2 door glass reach in cooler- cookline cheese cake 52° vegetable spring rolls 49° egg rolls 53° salmon 46°. Moved all TCS foods to working cooler, all items in cooler >2 hours. **Corrective Action Taken** **Warning**
  • Employee failed to wash hands beforechanging gloves and/or putting on gloves to work with food. On cookline. Hands washed properly. Single-use gloves not changed as needed after changing tasks or when damaged or soiled. On cookline. Hands washed properly. **Corrected On-Site** **Repeat Violation** **Warning**
  • Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food in WALK in cooler. Raw pork over sauce and pasteurized eggs in WIC. All items stored properly. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**
  • Raw animal foods not properly separated from one another based upon minimum required cooking temperature in walk-in cooler. Raw chicken over raw beef. All items stored properly. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**

The Good News
Five places had perfect inspections, including a food truck (Tastee Express 10), two places inside Boca Pointe, one inside Boca Grove, and Cherry Smash Ice Cream in Coral Springs (we went there a few weeks ago and liked it).
Maggiano’s on St. Andrews by Town Center had another near perfect inspection, with only one violation.
Tricky Dick’s Pub, Boston Market (Beracasa Way), and Lime Fresh in Promenade each had only 2 minor violations.
Yokohama Sushi in Polo Club and Giovanni’s Pizza (Powerline) each had 3 minor violations.
A few other notable restaurants had inspections that were neither terrible nor great.
Burt & Max in Delray Marketplace had 7 violations but all were minor.
Chipotle in Westwinds had 9 violations, with one high priority (vacuum breaker). The one on Glades in East Boca had 7 violations.
Our full inspection spreadsheet is below:
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/allinsp-10-2-2015.pdf”]