Restaurants – Page 35 – West Boca News

Benihana Coming to Westwinds of Boca

We’ve heard rumors for years now and it’s finally true. Benihana is coming to Westwinds of Boca (aka the Home Depot plaza) on the southeast corner of 441 and Glades. Originally we heard this what was going into the new building that now has Pei Wei and a few other stores.

The old Denny’s; photo by Warren Redlich

While we heard all those rumors, people also kept asking us “what’s going on with the Denny’s building.” Now we have the answer. There is a proposal pending before the county, titled “Benihana at Festival Shoppes of Boca Raton” (the old name of Westwinds). The essence of the plan:

The Applicant is requesting to reconfigure the Site Plan and add square footage. The Preliminary Site Plan indicates the existing Type II Restaurant (3,154 sq. ft.) to be demolished and a new (8,060 sq. ft.) restaurant to be constructed.

The zoning commission has scheduled a hearing for December 4th, and then it will go in front of the County Commissioners on January 7th. Sometimes these dates get pushed back, but it appears to be coming soon. One reader even tells us she saw workers at the building.
There are already a couple of Japanese steak houses in West Boca, with Tempura House at Clint Moore & 441, and Saito’s at Lyons and Glades. Benihana is may be a step up in quality, but we’ll see if and when they open.

Benihana to replace Denny’s in Westwinds of Boca, southeast corner of Glades and 441; image and map data by Google.

Overall the parking in that plaza can be a nightmare, though the worst of it is closer to Home Depot and Publix. Doubling the size of this building will bring in a lot more cars, but we think there’s room for it. Plus we’re excited to try it.
It’s always a good sign for the local economy when businesses want to open and expand.
The full zoning application is below:
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/1990-00024DOA-2015-01723_Benihana-at-Festival-Shoppes-of-Boca-Raton.pdf”]

Inspectors Knock Bamboo Wok

Bamboo Wok was (and still is) our favorite Chinese restaurant in West Boca. But they’ve had a couple of bad inspections. Last week they got popped for 19 violations including three marked high priority and a stop sale.

Employee handled soiled dishes or utensils and then handled clean dishes or utensils without washing hands. Moving product, small wares and utensils while at the same time filling and wrapping egg rolls.
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. – filling and wrapping g egg rolls with bare hands.
Stop Sale issued due to adulteration of food product. – Egg Rolls, Wontons and Green Beans all placed in the covers/lids of corrugated box tops from cases of raw chicken.

They also had 20+ violations in July.
Despite these bad reports, we still like Bamboo Wok. Hopefully this experience will make them be more careful. Keep in mind that they were the most popular Chinese restaurant west of the Turnpike in our 2014 survey.
The worst number in our report goes to Wanfu Chinese in Pompano Beach with 21, and the next-day follow up still had 11 violations.
China Spring on 441 in West Boca, had 12 violations but only one was marked high priority. The sign at that address reads China Spring II.
Another notable inspection goes to Uncle Julio’s in Mizner Park with 9 violations including 5 high priority.

Cooked potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food not cooled from 135 degrees Fahrenheit to 70 degrees Fahrenheit within 2 hours. Chicken stock 140° cooled to 120° after 1.5 hours. Operator placed chicken stock in freezer. **Corrective Action Taken** **Warning**
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. Beans stored in walk in cooler overnight 55°-57°. Operator discarded. **Warning**
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) hot held at less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit or above. House made salsa 91°. Operator provided paperwork from 1994 stating that salsa has a pH level of 4.22. Operator must use time/temperature control for salsa. **Warning**
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety), food in the process of reheating for hot holding for more than 2 hours has not maintained 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Cubed chicken at steam table on cookline at 125°. Operator reheated chicken to 165°. **Corrective Action Taken** **Warning**
Raw animal food stored over cooked food. Raw shell eggs stored over ready to eat chicken stock and beans in walk in cooler. Operator repositioned eggs to lowest shelf. **Corrected On-Site** **Warning**

The next-day follow-up for Uncle Julio’s was a perfect inspection.
We also see a new restaurant, Oishii Bento, on St. Andrews near Town Center. They were reported with five violations including one marked high priority. That’s not great for a licensing inspection, but still not terrible. We’re a little skeptical about this place. It has a “pan-Asian” menu. For some reason the Korean Bul Go Gi is cooked in a wok rather than on a grill. That’s just wrong. But we’re still going to try the place out.
Good inspections were reported for:
Renzo’s of Boca, on Federal Highway – Two minor violations on a licensing inspection. We’re told they have a new chef and the ownership may have changed.
Nearby Hotdog-Opolis also had two minor violations on a routine inspection.
Our weekly spreadsheet is below.
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/allinsp11-8-2015.pdf”]

Review: Mozzarita Bar on Clint Moore

Mozzarita Bar is a small new restaurant and shop in The Reserve plaza at Clint Moore and 441. It’s in the building along Clint Moore between Starbucks and It’s All Greek on one side and Fit Foodz Cafe on the other.
We met Donato on our visit. We didn’t meet Vito but we found this picture of the two of them on their Facebook page:

Vito has been making cheese for decades. About 20 years ago he started making it in Pompano Beach and now they’re trying out a restaurant model for his creations. It’s small inside with maybe six tables inside and a few more outside.

The focus is cheese, especially variations of mozzarella. Americans usually think of mozzarella on pizza but here it’s fresh and mostly served on sandwiches and in salads. There are three main varieties served at Mozzarita Bar. The main one seems to be “Fiordilatte Mozzarella” aka Fior di Latte, which is made from cow’s milk and is the closest to what you get on pizza. We had this on a Panino Caprese (sandwich):

The next most common is Bufala, made from the milk of Water Buffalo. We did not try that but we did try the Straciatella Salad which uses Straciatella di bufala, also made from buffalo milk.

Straciatella salad with beets and greens

Everything we ate was delicious. While not outrageously expensive it’s certainly not cheap. You’re paying for high quality fresh gourmet cheeses and appropriate accompaniments. We would love to see them add some olives to the menu.
The menu is below. The Speciali Di Vito section appears to be a menu mistake – only one of the specials was available the day we visited – the Mozzarella Burger (no beef – the burger is made from cheese). They do not intend to have all three of those items available daily and the menu was not clear about that.

Review: Gyromania Grill on Palmetto

From left, Hummus appetizer, Gyro platter, and Moussaka platter

Last year we reviewed Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill. They apparently didn’t make it but the same location now has Gyromania Grill. Garbanzo tended to be a bit more Middle Eastern with dishes like Shawarma, while Gyromania leans more toward Greek.
It’s located in the shopping center on the south side of Palmetto Park Road west of Powerline near Publix, Brooklyn Water Bagel and Olive Garden.

Gyromania Grill’s original location is in Coral Springs. The Boca location was recently reviewed by SouthFlorida.com, and the review wasn’t great but it seemed okay. We had to try it for ourselves.
For starters we think that review called it wrong on the gyro meat and the hummus. Both were just as good as the other Greek places we go to. The gyro platter is pictured below.

The Moussaka platter was a little less impressive. It was decent but I’ve definitely had better moussaka at Taso’s (near Home Depot) and Jimmy the Greek.
The other thing that stood out was the pricing. It seems expensive for the restaurant format. We eat as good or better for less money at Taso’s and we get table service along with it – though of course you’re less likely to tip at Gyromania so maybe you save money there.
The menu is below:

For us there are already good Greek choices closer to us. But if you’re near Palmetto and Powerline this is a good option along with Aladdin’s Eatery closer to Town Center.

More Problems for Golden Corral; Sushi Masa

Golden Corral in Margate; image by Google

Two weeks ago we reported on a bad inspection at the Golden Corral in Margate on October 15th. A day later they had improved somewhat to 10 violations.
In our latest report they’re still having problems. On October 30th inspectors found 12 violations, and on the 31st they still found 8. Golden Corral in Margate has had 7 unimpressive inspections in just a two-month period.
This is odd in our experience. Most restaurants seem to recover quickly after a bad inspection and the follow-up inspections are often perfect or near-perfect.

Sushi Masa in Boca Raton; image by Google

Sushi Masa was the worst of Boca in this inspection report but really not that bad. They got hit with 12 violations, but by our count 4 of those 12 were for the same problem, a cooler that was just a few degrees warmer than the required temperature:

Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit, bamboo shoots 45°, cooked chicken 46°, baby corn 45°, bean sprouts 46°, cut tomatoes 45°, cut cabbage 46°, reach in cooler on cookline. Operator iced down, TCS food in cooler less than 4 hrs. **Corrective Action Taken** **Repeat Violation** **Admin Complaint**
Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) hot held at less than 135 degrees Fahrenheit or above, batter 75° on cookline. Owner time marked and will discard at 7 pm. **Corrective Action Taken** **Warning**

The comparison with Golden Corral shows what we said above. Sushi Masa has had six inspections since July and three of those were perfect or near-perfect. In this particular incident on October 29th they were inspected again later the same day and everything was corrected – zero violations.
After seeing these reports we would not hesitate to eat at Sushi Masa, but we wouldn’t eat at Golden Corral if it was free.
Other relatively bad inspections with more than 10 violations were reported for:

Wok N roll on Military Trail in Deerfield Beach
Duffy’s on Hillsboro and Lily Garden Chinese on 441 in Coconut Creek
Bagel Brothers on 441 in West Boca, a licensing inspection for what was previously known as Long Island Bagel near Target.
And Boca Kosher Bagel in Boca Grove.

Subway in Lakeside Centre at 8220 Glades Road; image by Google

The best inspection in West Boca for this report goes to Subway at 8220 Glades, which had only one minor violation. Others with good inspections include:

Fresh Harvest on NW 40th in Coconut Creek
Papa Johns on Atlantic in Delray
Chuck E Cheese’s on 441 in West Boca
Black Rose Irish Pub on Federal Highway
Original Pancake House in Somerset Shoppes (and we just ate there)