Inspectors Knock Bamboo Wok

ByWarren Redlich

bamboo-wok-west-boca
Bamboo Wok was (and still is) our favorite Chinese restaurant in West Boca. But they’ve had a couple of bad inspections. Last week they got popped for 19 violations including three marked high priority and a stop sale.

  • Employee handled soiled dishes or utensils and then handled clean dishes or utensils without washing hands. Moving product, small wares and utensils while at the same time filling and wrapping egg rolls.
  • 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. – filling and wrapping g egg rolls with bare hands.
  • Stop Sale issued due to adulteration of food product. – Egg Rolls, Wontons and Green Beans all placed in the covers/lids of corrugated box tops from cases of raw chicken.

They also had 20+ violations in July.
Despite these bad reports, we still like Bamboo Wok. Hopefully this experience will make them be more careful. Keep in mind that they were the most popular Chinese restaurant west of the Turnpike in our 2014 survey.
The worst number in our report goes to Wanfu Chinese in Pompano Beach with 21, and the next-day follow up still had 11 violations.
China Spring on 441 in West Boca, had 12 violations but only one was marked high priority. The sign at that address reads China Spring II.
Another notable inspection goes to Uncle Julio’s in Mizner Park with 9 violations including 5 high priority.

  • Cooked potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food not cooled from 135 degrees Fahrenheit to 70 degrees Fahrenheit within 2 hours. Chicken stock 140° cooled to 120° after 1.5 hours. Operator placed chicken stock in freezer. **Corrective Action Taken** **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. Beans stored in walk in cooler overnight 55°-57°. Operator discarded. **Warning**
  • Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) hot held at less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit or above. House made salsa 91°. Operator provided paperwork from 1994 stating that salsa has a pH level of 4.22. Operator must use time/temperature control for salsa. **Warning**
  • Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety), food in the process of reheating for hot holding for more than 2 hours has not maintained 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Cubed chicken at steam table on cookline at 125°. Operator reheated chicken to 165°. **Corrective Action Taken** **Warning**
  • Raw animal food stored over cooked food. Raw shell eggs stored over ready to eat chicken stock and beans in walk in cooler. Operator repositioned eggs to lowest shelf. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**

The next-day follow-up for Uncle Julio’s was a perfect inspection.
We also see a new restaurant, Oishii Bento, on St. Andrews near Town Center. They were reported with five violations including one marked high priority. That’s not great for a licensing inspection, but still not terrible. We’re a little skeptical about this place. It has a “pan-Asian” menu. For some reason the Korean Bul Go Gi is cooked in a wok rather than on a grill. That’s just wrong. But we’re still going to try the place out.
Good inspections were reported for:
Renzo’s of Boca, on Federal Highway – Two minor violations on a licensing inspection. We’re told they have a new chef and the ownership may have changed.
Nearby Hotdog-Opolis also had two minor violations on a routine inspection.
Our weekly spreadsheet is below.
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/allinsp11-8-2015.pdf”]