13 Restaurants with 10+ Violations

In our latest inspection report we have thirteen West Boca restaurants with 10 or more violations. On the bright side several places had perfect or near-perfect inspections. And there was plenty in between.

The biggest numbers were for Bagel Factory on Powerline at Boca Grove and “Greco” on 441 near Sandalfoot. Each had 17 violations with 6 marked high priority.

For Bagel Factory the high priority violations were:

  • 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…touched cook eggs with bare hands when putting onto plate . Discussed with operator. **Corrected On-Site**
  • Live, small flying insects in kitchen, food preparation area, or food storage area….small flying insects dishwashing area, approximately total 4 flying insects.
  • Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit…pizza sauce 54°, mushroom 55, cheese 54° at room temperature at kitchen and pizza station . Per operator food being held less than four hours. Employee time marked on food at time of inspection. **Corrective Action Taken**
  • Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) foods in reach-in cooler cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit….cheese 55°, cut tomatoes 56°, mushrooms 56° in flip top reach in cooler at cook line being held less than four hours. Employee covered the food at time of inspection. **Corrective Action Taken**
  • Quaternary ammonium sanitizer not at proper minimum strength for manual warewashing. Do not use equipment/utensils not properly sanitized….00 ppm. Employee corrected it at 200 ppm at time of inspection. **Corrected On-Site**
  • Raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food….smoked salmon above cooked potatoes at walk in cooler. Operator properly stored food at time of inspection. **Corrected On-Site**

We’re not sure that smoked salmon should be considered “raw” but that’s over our head.

Greco, which we think may now be known as Jerusalem Grill, had the following high priority violations:

  • Live, small flying insects in kitchen, food preparation area, or food storage area….one fly flying around dishwashing area. Employee trying to kick him out. **Corrective Action Taken**
  • No sanitizer of any kind available for warewashing. Only use single-service items to serve food to customers until sanitizer is available for warewashing…provided bleach at time of inspection. **Corrected On-Site**
  • Operating with an expired Division of Hotels and Restaurants license.
  • Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit….eggplant 55°, cut cabbage 54° at front line being held less than four hours ( other food 41°-43° at same table) . Operator stated that container not deep enough and opened food for lunch rush that’s made temperature high. Employee moved food in dipper container and covered the food. **Corrective Action Taken**
  • Raw animal food stored over or with ready-to-eat food in reach-in freezer – not all products commercially packaged….raw sausages, raw beef above vegetables, pita bread . Discussed with operator. **Corrected On-Site**
  • Toxic substance/chemical stored by or with food….glass cleaner spray bottle in prep table with cut tomatoes, cut cucumber, beef . Employee moved glass cleaner spray bottle at time of inspection. **Corrected On-Site**

We wish there was video of the employee trying to kick a fly out.

Nick’s New Haven Pizza had 16 violations with 2 high priority including no chlorine in the dishwasher and a food storage issue.

Several restaurants near Palmetto and Powerline had big numbers.

  • Mozart Cafe (15 violations, 4 high priority)
  • JJ’s Cafe (14, 4)
  • Sal’s Italian (14, 6)
  • Ditmas in Boca Grove (12, 2)
  • Charcoal Pit (12, 5)
  • Jon’s Place (12, 5)
  • Anthony’s Pizza in Boca Grove (11, 6)
  • Sushi Yama (11, 2)
  • Payathai of Boca (10, 4)

There’s good news as well. We saw three perfect inspections in West Boca including two in Town Center Mall – Petrossian and Maoz Vegetarian. Also at Military Trail and Clint Moore, Offerdahl’s was perfect – zero violations.

There were several near-perfect violations as well. Places with just one violation include:

  • Moon’s Tavern in Boca Greens
  • Chick-Fil-A at Town Center
  • Chipotle near Palmetto & Powerline
  • PF Chang’s on Glades near FAU
  • BurgerFi on Atlantic in West Delray

Also with 2 violations each:

  • Dunkin Donuts in Loggers’ Run
  • Bonefish Grill in Boca Grove
  • Bolay and Chez Marie in Polo Club Shoppes
  • Kee Grill at Military Trail and Clint Moore

Other notables in this report include

  • Blaze Pizza in Shadowood (3 violations, 1 high priority)
  • Wendy’s and Subway in Loggers’ Run (3, 1 for each)
  • Olive Garden and Hong Kong Palace at Palmetto and Powerline (3 violations each)
  • China Cafe in Loggers’ Run (4, 3)
  • Padano in Loggers’ Run (5, 2)
  • Hooters near Town Center (5, 1)
  • Zinburger at Town Center (5, 1)
  • Sen Thai and Game of Zones in Loggers’ Run (7 each)
  • Sinbad on Lyons at Kimberly (7, 1)
  • Century Grill at Kimberly and Lyons (8, 0)
  • Packy’s in Loggers’ Run (9, 4)
  • Pummarola in Town Center (9, 1)
  • Pizza District on SW 18th at Powerline (9, 3)

Our spreadsheet for this report is below.

inspections-2-1-2020

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/