Roaches: Three Strikes for Italian Restaurant in Delray

Cucina Fra Diavolo; image by Google
Cucina Fra Diavolo; image by Google

Live roaches on food prep table in kitchen
Cucina Fra Diavolo, an Italian restaurant in Delray Beach, was shut down for the third time in less than a year for roaches. Their inspection on Friday showed eight high priority violations including a stop sale for temperature abuse and roaches in various places including kitchen prep tables.

  • All potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) foods in reach-in cooler cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Cooked veal 47°-48°, cooked chicken 49° stored in 7-Up reach-in cooler since 2/17/16. Stop sale issued.
  • Dented/rusted cans present. See stop sale. Opened, rusted can of cocktail sauce on food prep table.
  • Hotel and Restaurant license is expired. **Repeat Violation**
  • Live, small flying insects in kitchen, food preparation area, or food storage area. Observed approximately 10 fruit flies in kitchen, approximately 10 fruit flies at urinal in men’s restroom.
  • Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut lettuce 57°-62°, cut tomatoes 58°-61° on buffet line.
  • Raw animal foods not properly separated from one another based upon minimum required cooking temperature in walk-in cooler. Raw chicken stored over raw salmon in walk-in cooler.
  • Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found. Observed 2 live roaches on food prep table in kitchen by cookline, approximately 15 live roaches in crevice between the ceiling tiles and the wall in kitchen by the cookline, 4 live roaches on spice rack near pizza oven, 1 live roach inside of True reach-in cooler and 1 live on the outside of the door of the same cooler, 2 live roaches underneath True reach-in cooler by the compressor, 6 live roaches underneath ice cream chest freezer, 1 live behind dishmachine, 1 live roach on prep table in kitchen by expo station, 1 live roach behind unused ice machine in storage room between kitchen and bathrooms, 1 live roach on rafter above ice machine.. **Repeat Violation**
  • Stop Sale issued on potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food due to temperature abuse. All potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) foods in reach-in cooler cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Cooked veal 47°-48°, cooked chicken 49° stored in 7-Up reach-in cooler since 2/17/16. Stop sale issued.

They were previously shut down in early February of this year and in May of last year, both times for roaches. We try not to be judgmental in these reports, but we wouldn’t eat at this place if you paid us.

China Gardens in Delray; image by Google
China Gardens in Delray; image by Google

The biggest number in our report this week was for China Gardens, on Military Trail in Delray Beach just north of Atlantic. They had 21 violations including 6 marked high priority:

  • Employee began working with food, handling clean equipment or utensils, or touching unwrapped single-service items without first washing hands. Coming in from outside and start food prep. **Corrected On-Site**
  • Employee failed to wash hands beforechanging gloves and/or putting on gloves to work with food. **Corrected On-Site**
  • Employee handled soiled dishes or utensils and then handled clean dishes or utensils without washing hands. **Corrected On-Site**
  • 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. Observed employee cutting lemons with bare hands.
  • Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Raw shell eggs ambient 74° at cookline. Cut cabbage 60°, bean sprouts 61° on counter on cookline. Person in Charge placed items in walk-in cooler. Cooked pork 61°, cooked noodles 60° at expo line. Person in Charge placed items over ice. **Corrected On-Site**
  • Raw animal foods not properly separated from one another based upon minimum required cooking temperature in walk-in cooler. Raw chicken stored over raw pork in walk-in cooler. Person in Charge repositioned chicken to lowest shelf. **Corrected On-Site**

In East Boca, Arturo’s on Federal Highway had 14 violations including 6 marked high priority and a stop sale on marinara sauce:

Stop Sale issued on potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food due to temperature abuse. 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. Marinara sauce in walk-in cooler 41°-48° cooling overnight. Person in Charge discarded sauce.

Others with somewhat high numbers include:

  • Far East Wok on Sample in Pompano, with 20 violations, but only 1 marked high priority.
  • Creative Catering on Congress in Delray (17, 3)
  • China & Japan Express, Deerfield (13, 1)
  • Taqueria Huetamo in Delray improved on their rodent dropping inspection in late January, this time with 13 violations, only 1 high priority.
  • Lucky Express on Clint Moore in Boca (11, 0)
  • Great Wall on Lyons in Coconut Creek (11, 1)
  • Village Cafe, Oriole Blvd in Delray (10, 3)

Steve's Wood Fired Pizza; image by Google
Steve’s Wood Fired Pizza; image by Google

On the good news side of things, our friends at Steve’s Wood Fired Pizza (Boca Lyons Plaza at Lyons and Glades) had a perfect inspection. It’s marked as a call-back in the spreadsheet but as a routine inspection on the licensing portal. Steve’s has consistently excellent inspections.
Paneterie on Jog in Delray (just north of Clint Moore) also had a perfect inspection.
Boston Market on Beracasa Way had only 1 violation.
Burger King in West Boca Square (the Target plaza on 441) had 2 minor violations.
Golden Corral on Congress in Delray had only 2 minor violations. That’s a very good showing for a buffet restaurant.
Cannoli Kitchen on Powerline in West Boca (near Olive Garden) had 2 minor violations. Tijuana Flats in the same plaza had 4 violations. Hong Kong Palace had 8 violations.
HotDog-Opolis on Glades near the Turnpike had 5 minor violations.
Chow Thai in Sandalfoot had 8 violations (1 high priority). Pei Wei on Beracasa also had 8 violations (3).
Puccini’s Pizzeria at Yamato and 441 had a licensing inspection with 8 violations including 2 high priority.
Our full spreadsheet for this report is below:
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2-21-2016.pdf”]

Author: Warren Redlich

Warren Redlich is a real estate agent and an attorney. He focuses on selling homes in West Boca Raton. Call or text Warren at 561-536-3645. Warren is also a tech YouTuber covering Tesla, SpaceX and more. His YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/c/WarrenRedlich/ and he sells Elon Musk related t-shirts and other merchadise at https://ElonBits.com. Warren also publishes videos about politics at https://warrenredlich.locals.com/