Mizner Meltdown: Inspection Report

A major restaurant in Mizner Park was shut down temporarily by inspectors on Thursday last week. Our report this week also includes double-digit violations for multiple well known West Boca restaurants including one of our favorite pizza places.

Villagio in Mizner Park was shut down after inspectors reported 17 violations including 6 high priority. The deal breaker appears to be live flying insects but there was more including food temperature issues:

  • Live, small flying insects in kitchen, food preparation area, or food storage area. Observed Approximately : 50 live flying insects in bar area, observed one landing on napkins , stirrers and on fruit container. 5 live flying insects in pizza prep area landing on walls.
  • Dishmachine chlorine sanitizer not at proper minimum strength. Discontinue use of dishmachine for sanitizing and set up manual sanitization until dishmachine is repaired and sanitizing properly. 0 ppm chlorine . Corrected to 100 ppm chlorine. **Corrected On-Site**
  • Employee ( Dishwasher) handled soiled dishes or utensils and then handled clean dishes or utensils without washing hands. Employee washed hands. **Corrected On-Site**
  • Employee switched from working with raw food to ready-to-eat food without washing hands. Employee touched raw veil then with the same hand handled cheese without washing hands first. Employee washed hands **Corrected On-Site**
  • Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Cooked brocolli 53F at pizza prep cooler. Food stacked above rim level of container at make table. Over stack removed and placed inside cooler. Butter 60F on ice bath at cookline. Ice not to food level. Added ice to food level. Cheese 59F cheese, butter 50F, chicken 52F at flip top cooler at end of cookline. Food iced down. **Corrective Action Taken**
  • Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food reheated for hot holding not reaching 165 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds within 2 hours. Chicken stock from 100F at 1:35 to 105F at 2:23 Reheating since 1 :00 on. At current rate of reheating food will not reach 165F within 2 hours. Increased heat to rapid boil. **Corrective Action Taken**

A few West Boca restaurants appeared at the top of this week’s list for most violations. Stella’s Pizzeria in Boca Greens, long one of our favorites, had the biggest number with 19 violations. Only one was marked high priority. JJ’s Cafe & Deli on Palmetto near Powerline had 18 violations with four high priority.

Two places in the Sandalfoot area were near the top as well. China Spring near the Cumberland Farms had 15 violations, 2 high priority. Sandalfoot Bagel in the plaza had 14 violations, 3 high priority.

We didn’t see a whole lot of good news this week for West Boca restaurants but one of our other favorite pizza places did well. Brooklyn Boys Pizza in Shadowood had just one minor violation.

Selling your house? Call Warren at 561-536-3645.


Going back to Mizner Park and its surroundings, a few more restaurants had less than stellar inspections:

  • Max’s Grill (10 violations, 3 high priority)
  • Kapow Noodle Bar (10, 4)
  • Tanzy (9, 4)
  • Flashback Diner (9, 6)
  • Basilic Vietnamese Grill (9, 3)
  • Sushigo (8, 3)
  • The Funky Biscuit (7, 2)

Near the Cumberland Farms in Sandalfoot, House of Bread and Coffee had 8 violations, all minor.

As usual, our spreadsheet is below:

inspections8-25-2019

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/