They're Back: Roaches and Dumpster Diving at China Buffet

China Buffet & Grill in Deerfield Beach; image by Google
China Buffet & Grill in Deerfield Beach; image by Google

China Buffet & Grill returns to our weekly restaurant inspection after making a splash last week, where they were closed for two days due to roaches. They’re back and it’s bad.
First off, they were closed again this past week for another day due to roaches again. But that’s not the worst of it. As we mentioned in a Facebook post, Channel 10 reported the restaurant owner was caught on video:

Digging through a dumpster outside the restaurant for several minutes, removing item after item while his wife played look out, witnesses said.

Witnesses claim he was removing food from the garbage bin … adding that the owner took the food back to his restaurant … once state health inspectors had left.

That was after they had 40 violations including a stop sale forcing them to throw out items including dented/rusted cans. The latest inspection had 12 violations including 5 high priority. If it wasn’t off our list of places to eat already, it is now.
Renzo’s Cafe Pizzeria on Federal Highway had a high number this week. They were inspected three times last week. The first inspection showed 23 violations including 6 high priority.

  • Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit……mozzarella cheese, shredded cheese , tomato sauce , beans, eggplant , backed vegetables, fish , pasta all at 47° , butter, cooked , grill onion, 49° , Ossobocco 48° in walk in cooler , food being held from over night . Stop sale issue. **Repeat Violation** **Admin Complaint**
  • 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. ….tomato sauce 63° /50° , artichoke 48° in walk in cooler, food cooling from over night. See stop sale.
  • 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 …pizza in front line pizza station , garlic and oil, pasta by the soup steam table. Time marked. **Corrective Action Taken**
  • Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food in reach-in cooler…raw breaded veal above ready to eat pasta, eggplant. **Corrected On-Site**
  • Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food in walk-in cooler…raw fish above ready to eat tomato sauce, artichoke. **Corrected On-Site**
  • Stop Sale issued on potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food due to temperature abuse….see stop sale issue. **Repeat Violation** **Admin Complaint**

The next day still showed 11 violations including 4 high priority, and the same number the third day (though we suspect that is a mistake and the actual number was better).
Also on Federal Highway, Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza had 16 violations including 3 high priority, and La Villetta had 14 violations with 6 high priority.
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Turning to the good news, there were a few perfect inspections in East Boca:
La Tre Vietnamese on E Palmetto Park and Tossed in Town Center were both perfect on routine inspections – zero violations. That’s A Wrap on Federal Highway had a perfect licensing inspection as well.
In West Boca, City Boys Pizza on Sandalfoot Blvd had a near perfect licensing inspection with one minor violation.
The following restaurants did well with only two violations each:

  • Utopia Bagels in Boca Lyons Plaza (Glades at Lyons)
  • Miller’s Boca Ale House, also in Boca Lyons Plaza
  • IHOP in Mission Bay (Glades just west of 441)
  • Melting Pot on Federal Highway
  • Monet Cafe near the Publix at Palmetto & Powerline

Other items we noticed in the inspections or otherwise:
1. We think there might be a new gelato place, GLYK Gelato, opening in Waterways Shoppes on the west side of 441 just south of the county line in Parkland. They had a licensing inspection with 5 violations.
2. Kapow Noodle Bar in Mizner Park had a good inspection with 4 minor violations.
3. Yakitori Sake House in Royal Palm (Mizner Blvd. south of Palmetto) had 6 minor violations, much better than we’ve seen in the past from them.
4. The West Boca Hotdog-Opolis (north side of Glades west of the Turnpike) is still closed due to a car that hit the front of the store. Their insurance wanted them to stay closed so the damage could be fully inspected. We talked to them and they said the West Boca location should reopen within a week, maybe less.
Their East Boca location was inspected this week, with a not-terrible 7 violations including 3 high priority but no warnings or follow-up required.
5. Taverna Kyma on Federal Highway had 7 violations, 6 of them high priority.
Our full spreadsheet is below:
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/allinsp-6-5-2016.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/