Restaurant Inspections: The China Syndrome

It was another rough week for Chinese restaurants and one of our favorite Japanese restaurants was caught up in it. The biggest number goes to China Spring on 441 near Sandalfoot with 26 total violations including 4 marked high priority.

• Food contaminated by employees/consumers and operator continued to serve food. See stop sale. – cabbage sliced in contaminated table, cutting board and with contaminated knife.
• Food-contact surfaces not sanitized after cleaning, before use. Do not use equipment/utensils not properly sanitized. – prep tables, cutting boards utensils are not being sanitized. Explained to operator. no corrective action taken.
• Live, small flying insects in kitchen, food preparation area, or food storage area. – flies entering kitchen through gaps above and beneath rear screened door. Infestation directly outside rear door from multiple empty fresh chicken boxes on ground that had not been taken to dumpster area.
• Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. – wok line cold table, – broccoli florets 58° – undercounter, won-tons 56° – product relocated. **Corrective Action Taken** **Repeat Violation**

Their follow-up inspection three days later showed zero violations.

Also on 441 (in the West Boca Square plaza near Target), Lucky Palace was hit with 21 violations including 6 marked high priority.

• Employee switched from working with raw food to ready-to-eat food without washing hands. – cook handling, eggs, fish, chicken and then ready to eat foods on wok line.
• 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. – bare hand contact routinely taking place on by cooks cook line. It is taking place after hand-washing violations are occurring.
• Food-contact surfaces not sanitized after cleaning, before use. Do not use equipment/utensils not properly sanitized. – manual Warewashing ng taking place without sanitizer.
• Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. In walk in cooler, large bowl white sauce 42°, large bucket brown sauce 42° peanut paste 41°, two tubs cooked noodles 56° (cooling) large tub broccoli florets 41°, bags of diced cooked BBQ pork 41°
• Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food. – on cook line cold table a 1/6 pan of raw pooled eggs inset within a pan of cut zucchini. Stop sale issued.
• Stop Sale issued due to food not being in a wholesome, sound condition. – on cook line cold table a 1/6 pan of raw pooled eggs inset within a pan of cut zucchini

The big surprise this week was Bluefin Sushi & Thai on Yamato at Congress. This is my second-favorite sushi place in the area. Inspectors recorded 20 violations including 5 marked high priority. These mostly don’t look as bad as the numbers would indicate and it won’t stop us from going.

• Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food, whole shell eggs over sauce, in reach in cooler by sushi window. **Corrected On-Site**
• Raw animal foods not properly separated from one another based upon minimum required cooking temperature in reach-in freezer – all products not commercially packaged, raw chicken over raw fish in walk on freezer. **Corrected On-Site**
• Spray bottle with chemical/toxic substance stored near/on/above food preparation surface or food. **Corrected On-Site**
• Toxic substance/chemical stored by or with food. Chemical stored near sesame seeds in sushi area.
• Vacuum breaker missing at hose bibb or on fitting/splitter added to hose bibb, sushi bar and mop sink.

Another place we like, Mario’s Osteria, showed 15 violations including 7 high priority:

• Employee failed to wash hands before changing gloves and/or putting on gloves to work with food, employee put on gloves with out washing hands. Employee removed gloves, washed hands and replaced gloves.
• 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, employee touching chicken as he plating. Employee washed hands, put on gloves. Employee cutting and plating avocado, touching avocado with her bare hands. While garnishing plates at Expo station. **Corrected On-Site**
• Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit, only two TCS items in cooler, Eggs 61°, goat cheese 57°, salad station. Products in cooler less than 2 hours, employee iced down. Reach in cooler across from alto sham, Lasagna 53°-56°, butter 51°, sausage 61°, cheese 47°-56°, butter 52°, cooked potatoes 50°, half and half 50°. Operator stated all TCS food placed in cooler at approx. 11:30, moved to walk on freezer. Garlic and oil 57°, pizza station. Employee time marked and will discard at 4:00pm. **Corrective Action Taken**
• Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) hot held at less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit or above, sausage 84°, being held on cook line, under grill, sausage cooked at approx. 12:00 pm. Employee reheated. Chicken 83°, held on top of cook line, employee reheated. **Corrective Action Taken**
• Raw animal foods not properly separated from each other in holding unit, raw chicken over raw beef in walk in cooler. **Corrected On-Site**
• Ready-to-eat, potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food marked with a date that exceeds 7 days after opening/preparation, meat sauce and soup dated 10/13/16. (See Stop Sale)
• Vacuum breaker missing at mop sink faucet or on fitting/splitter added to mop sink faucet.

Other rough inspections include Tilted Kilt (15 violations, 3 high priority); Japango in Parkland (14, 2); and M.E.A.T. Eatery & Taproom (10, 6).

On the good news side, the yet again new Boca Gold had a perfect licensing inspection. We’re not sure what the business model for the club at Powerline and Palmetto (formerly Club Boca and Club Sakred) will be this time but we’re looking forward to the flurry of comments.
The Subway on Powerline won the week with a perfect complaint inspection. Fresh Bites Cafe in Mission Bay and Brooklyn Boys Pizza in Shadowood each had just two violations. Tijuana Flats in Mission Bay and McDonald’s in Shadowood had 3 each.
Our favorite Chinese place in West Boca did okay. Bamboo Wok had 7 violations with only 1 high priority.
Three places in Westwinds (the Home Depot plaza) had 7 violations each: Dominic’s (7, 2); Lindburgers (7, 1); and Tulip Mediterranean (7, 0).
As usual, our spreadsheet for this report is below:
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/allinsp10-30-2016.pdf”]