After a week off, the Sick and Shut Down List of restaurant inspection failures returns, light on the rodents but heavy on the standing water.
So let’s see who didn’t pass muster in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
We don’t choose who gets inspected and we don’t do the inspecting. That’s done by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Direct all complaints about restaurants in that direction.
We do this without passion or prejudice, but with a little humor and a dash of judgment.
In alphabetical order:
Benihana, 3261 SW 160th Ave., Miramar: Complaint inspection, two total violations, one High Priority violation.
“Floor areas covered with standing water.” Where? “The dining room area, below customers’ tables and seats; the bar area; the front counter facing the sushi station; the kitchen area.”
And calling it “standing water” doesn’t completely describe the composition.
“Sewage/wastewater was backing up through floor drains” in the bar area, sushi station, outside the back entrance, the four drains in the kitchen area and two drains in the dishwasher area -bar area.
“Observed employee stepping on sewage. One employee was peeling raw shrimps” while standing in sewage.
Benihana chopped the problem down to size and passed inspection the next day.
El Mariachi, 1937 N. Military Trail, Unincorporated Palm Beach County: Routine inspection, 13 total violations, 10 High Priority violations.
About 10 live roaches were crawling on the inside of an unused walk-in cooler/freezer. Another two roaches played on a kitchen power outlet. Two other roaches in the kitchen were on the three-compartment sink and the back of a chest freezer.
An employee “went from handling soiled dishes, washed hands at the three-compartment sink with no soap and then handled clean plates to serve food.”
For proper handwashing, you don’t need Lava, but you do need some actual soap — which the kitchen handwash sink lacked along with paper towels.
“Employee washed food storage container with soap, rinsed with water and reused for food storage without sanitizing.” That works at home, but not in a restaurant.
The inspector dropped a Stop Sale on cooked beans, 55 degrees despite spending overnight in a walk-in cooler, which was obviously about as cool as your great uncle’s beige Chrysler Polara.
Inspection was passed the next day.
Fritanga Monimbo Kendall, 7173 SW 117th Ave., Kendall: Routine inspection, 21 total violations, five High Priority violations.
Problems flowed from above and below.
Seven flies “flying around preparation areas in kitchen.”
Four ceiling tiles in the dining room with water damage.
“Food stored under dripping water line … at a reach-in cooler located in the kitchen, by the main entrance.”
Down below, the inspector saw “standing water throughout the kitchen slowly draining into floor drain” and “standing water under the three-compartment sink in the kitchen area”.
Roaches crawled on a mixer on a kitchen prep table, up a wall near the stove and up a bathroom wall.
On the callback inspection the next day, the inspector saw two roaches moseying up a wall near the three-compartment sink. But the inspector also saw evidence of the previous day’s pest control visit — five dead roaches on the mop sink and another two roach bodies under the three-compartment sink.
That’s still a re-inspection-killing violation. Fritanga didn’t get back open until passing the re-re-inspection.
READ MORE: Miami company recalls Los Andes Foods’ Cachapa de Maiz sweet corn pancakes
Lemon Peppers, 2701 NW 54th St., Miami: Routine inspection, 18 total violations, three High Priority violations.
“Objectionable odors in the walk-in cooler.”
Over in dry storage, five roaches were “crawling on a bag of corn meal” and two others were doing the same on a bag of flour.
The “ceiling vent and tiles at the warewashing area were heavily soiled with dust.” The ceiling vent above the cookline reach-in freezer was “soiled with a black substance.”
The cutting board on the cookline prep cooler was stained.
You couldn’t dry your hands at the handwash sink.
Lemon was back pushing fish and shrimp the next day after getting “Follow Up Inspection Required.”
Mi Fondita Cafeteria Restaurant, 6059 Johnson St., Hollywood:Complaint inspection, 10 total violations, two High Priority violations.
Two roaches were spotted on the back of the kitchen handwash sink, but the “manager was unable to kill as the roaches went into the wall behind the seal of the sink.”
Two dead roaches, one on the floor “at the far end of the bar in the dining room.”
The kitchen floor “has areas of standing water not properly dried after mopping.”
Kitchen ceiling times in the front of the cookline had “heavy dust buildup.”
The next day’s re-inspection went much better.
Osman Restaurant, 514 NE 167th St., North Miami Beach:Routine inspection, 14 total violations, one High Priority violation.
This week’s Amityville Award Winner for its flies is another entry in North Miami Beach’s Wretched Restaurant Row, 167th Street/163rd Street from the Golden Glades spaghetti bowl to Biscayne Boulevard.
The zapper in the dry storage room dropped over 15 dead flies, which remained in the zapper’s holder. Avoiding the fate of the zapper were over 35 flies filling the dry storage air, 10 on the wall by the kitchen handwash sink; over eight landing on dirty dishes; three in the dining room; and one cutting into the reach-in cooler.
There was “a strange odor from the dry storage area.”
There wasn’t in any soap at the kitchen handwash sink.
“The interior of the oven/microwave has an accumulation of black substance/grease/food debris.”
Osman passed re-inspection the next day.
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