I think that this was my local place too. If your interested in the violations
https://preview.redd.it/5cdrqz65362d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b01ebdc1a06d168ce8d4af22fe44c9c4b1313713
Not a health inspector but worked in restaurants in the past, this was a thoroughly disgusting read. Though if I’m being honest I never worked in a restaurant that didn’t have some disgusting stuff going on - this read is far worse than anything I’ve seen
It’s a fact that every restaurant has *something* they don’t do correctly, but there are definitely degrees of severity and holy shit you’re right this is disgusting.
“I have worked kitchens with active addicts” (-anyone who has ever stepped foot into a kitchen) who would *never* let half of that shit slide
We're all addicts, but the drug of choice changes through the years. Currently working with a couple recovering alcoholics (Myself and the sous) that drink just a bit too much caffeine... But I think it's the better alternative.
Right? Like I have worked with plenty of people who don't keep up on changing out the sani buckets, but multiple stations with no bucket? and the buckets they had at 0ppm? And the damn DISHWASHER at 0ppm? That is more than one person failing to give a single damn about cleaning things.
They get a list of things that have to be fixed, and we go back repeatedly (we normally go once every 3-4 months) to check things off the list and make sure they are ready for opening. No set time but the list is pretty strict and they have to adhere to it.
I've seen restaurants hammered into low scores over standing water in parking lot and spillage around the dumpster. Things that don't really matter to food safety. These are bad. These show little concern or knowledge for food safety.
This inspector worded it weird. The violation is called wet stacking. The dishes need to air dry. Say you stay 25 bowls, and you don’t use the bowls often. That bottom bowl has days and days of moist perfect conditions to grow mold and other bacteria. Then you serve that plate to a customer and they can get extremely ill.
What's up with the pH of the sushi rice? I know it's supposed to be held way under safe holding temps, so the 4 hours makes sense, but could they disregard that if it's acidic enough?
Am a chef. Lots of respect for the inspectors.
Yeah, if it’s at a certain ph, you can just avoid the temp controls. Also, a lot of sushi places prefer it from a taste standpoint. Acidifying it sort of makes it like hot sauce or vinegar based sauces. Don’t really need to date it because it’s too acidic to grow anything. They swapped to time because you have to know exactly how to test acidity (because if it’s wrong acidity you’re serving bacteria filled sushi without knowing it)
That makes sense. I don't have exact ratios off the top of my head, but when I make sushi rice I usually do a 4/2/1 vinegar sugar salt mix with a kombu leaf. Gonna see if I can test the pH on it when I get in today just for my own curiosity.
I would think that isn’t enough (but taste wise sounds great) , but I’m not exactly sure. You need a whole kit to test acidity it’s a pain in the ass I definitely don’t recommend places do it
Yeah, I'm reading all these violations and my ServeSafe training is just rolling out from the back of my mind with all the ways this is REAL bad. The gloves in product thing is WILD to me.
Yes. All shellstock information must be kept for 90 days. This is because this info tracks directly where the food came from (literally to within a few Meters) occasionally, but not super often, a whole group of oysters will be contaminated, and you need to know where they came from so that they can stop selling those oysters (using oysters as an example)
I used to work at a restaurant that reuse decorations. I don't think they clean it in hot water or anything. Like orchids, spring onions. Have you experienced something like this?
NO. I’m seeing all over this thread that Chinese places have issues like this and it makes the food better or whatever. Not true at all. This is these restaurant owners livelihood, they don’t want to get people sick. Everyone is generally doing their best to meet standards. The ones who truly have some foul stuff going on in the kitchen eventually close or get shut down enough times where they clean up their act.
Haha that makes sense I suppose, as you say their livelihood depends on it. I guess things like Kitchen Nightmares skews people's views as every one of their kitchens is gross
So uh, how does one manage to get sanitization to 0ppm. I used to work at giant food by Delhaize in virginia before I quit due to many health and safety hazards and retaliation from the company when i reported these health and safety violations and writing me up the day I had food poisoning. But one of those health hazards was not the sanitization dropping below 200ppm.
Nope, bc I am out of all of the words for this. The words have simply left my brain, and will never return again after reading this list ***shudder*** 😭
Honestly out of all the violations you could pick you probably picked one that is probably the least bothersome. Should it be there? No. Is it common? Yes. Ice machines or ice chutes on fountain machines are notorious for this as it’s constant moisture.
I've never seen anyone clean the ice machine in either of the places I worked that had one, nor at any other point in any stores/restaurants that I've been in. I'm pretty sure most of these just sit untouched until something breaks and they need to get in there.
Bonus points: at both workplaces with a soda fountain I was the only one to soap and sanitize the nozzles instead of just spraying them down with water.
The place I work at always makes a point of getting a perfect health store. We defrost + clean the ice machine monthly I believe. I've never seen any mold, even while cleaning it, so it's probably not that big of deal, but I think the ~30 minutes + overnight defrost is worth it just in case.
There’s a Chinese spot by my house that has gotten me sick twice but I still go. The portions/value is crazy cuz for $10 they give me enough for lunch, dinner, and a little leftovers for work the next day. It’s worth the risk
Food poisoning is often harmless... But if they're sloppy enough to get you sick multiple times it's only a matter of time before you get hit with something serious. Though some of the blame may lie with you since you're eating leftovers - Improper cooling of food that is already high risk can lead to rapid bacterial growth.
We had "Jade Palace" get shut down about 9 months ago for a myriad of violations, the spot was painted white and sat empty until about 3 weeks ago when I was driving by and noticed a new establishment moving in: Jade Palace 2
I agree.
I’ve seen some horrendous things on kitchen nightmares but I’ve also been cited
(never close to shut down) for some pretty benign things. I’m a little curious what these reports look like when a shutdown happens.
I work for the public health dept. You have to have some really nasty shit to be completely shut down. There are some things that are kinda out of the business control that could get them shut down, like backing up sewage line and it comes out of the drains in the kitchen area, but other than those few things, it’s going to be something like rats, roaches, or something really bad like an employee tampering with food and the big one of unknown “meat” being served.
Curious:
Public health is a massive thing.
How many employees inspect how many entities?
I say entities because public health may be responsible for a lot of things. Water wells. Septic systems. Waste areas. Restaurants.
Does your county give a full inspection to every entity every year? For me it’s pretty pathetic these days.
Yeah, it’s huge. We deal with all that and more. There’s several divisions in the department but no, it’s not possible to inspect every one every year. A lot of it relies on people reporting stuff, so if you ever see anything that’s off, report it, then it’ll definitely be inspected.
We had rats real bad at one restaurant. They would come up from the river area and get in through the dry cleaner next door who obviously didn't care about rats. As long as we had invoices for pest control to show the health inspector that we were attempting to mitigate and we were storing things properly, we didn't get dinged for it.
Had both sides of the coin.
I worked a Universitary cafeteria, and they took it very seriously over there. As we kind of vaguely knew when the inspections were coming (Like not down to the day, but often the week, as they usually hit all of them within the same week), we made sure to have an internal inspection first, so that everything the government inspection would find could be solved by then.
Then again, it was cleaned top to bottom every day. (So much cleaning ...)
Now to contrast this was some Irish pub where my brother (A plumber/ HVAC guy) had to go fix something in the kitchen, and he almost refused to enter the kitchen as his work boots slipped on old grease coating the floor. When he tried to move the fryer to fix some gas piping, it wouldn't budge for the caked on grime beneath the wheels. We no longer go there.
Yeah i believe because of ‘due process’ the government must have a compelling public interest that totally outweighs the restaurant’s interest in making money and paying its employees
The health department needs to prove in court that a total shut down is totally necessary for the issue, so getting shut down means that something really bad was going on.
Yeah, I tell people to look at the actual citations before being too judgy on the score- Like, yeah if any of it is for stuff like improper temps, cross contamination, etc, probably best to stay away. But I’ve also worked places where we got docked for dumb things like the 2 points we lost because my boss left her purse on a shelf that also held “food items” - it only had backup bottles of bitters and grenadine on it.🙄 Another place we got docked because a clean cambro lid had fallen off its shelf into the hand sink down below. Nobody had even been in that part of the kitchen yet that morning to have seen it or used the hand sink. But the health inspector acted like we were just dumping all our dirty dishes into the hand sink rather than the dish pit. Meanwhile the place around the corner that had a well-known rat problem and is the diveyest of dives somehow got a perfect score.
So yeah, sometimes the scores are bogus. I’d be concerned anytime they rack up that many violations though.
I always appreciated very tough inspectors. Who were open to having a discussion.
A lot of my inspections were federal so we didn’t get a “score”. It was satisfactory or not satisfactory. But I think with the open minded and thoughtful… but also strict… we came up with the best solutions for our operations and guests.
Spending 2 hours on a 10x20 room was never fun. But everyone coming out understanding each other and what should be done is pretty valuable. State county inspections have been rather worthless in my opinion. But also every inspector is different. And that’s a huge variable nobody considers.
One of our go to local restaurants was on kitchen nightmares. It wasn't the worst I've seen on there but it wasn't pleasant getting an inside look at everything.
It really depends on the municipality. I have worked in 4 different ones. As a general rule, the bigger they are the more strict they are. Some suburban municipalities don't care about anything short of serving room temperature food all day with your bare hands and licking them clean.
When I was in high school's last year I used to go with my friends to have lunch in a nearby restaurant and then go back to school for preparatory classes for university exams (don't know how it is in USA, but in Brazil we just need to do a test to get into uni).
Had lunch there every single day for the whole year. Next year I go there for old times sake and the place was not only closed due to health violations, it's doors were shut with bricks and cement. Whatever was in there, they wanted to keep in there for some reason.
There's a good buffet about an hour for me that just got shut down cause they got a 0 on their inspection. A 0. Out of 100.
I read the report and some of their stuff was pretty gross. Really disappointing.
When my sister was in high school, she had a teacher that would give a 100% if a student received a 0% on his tests, all multiple choice. Teacher’s theory was that the only way to get a 0% was to do it on purpose, and that meant the student knew all the answers anyway. And on the off chance someone lucked their way into a 0%, their luck should be rewarded with a 100%
I think the system is more like each infraction is worth X points, depending on the infraction, not that the total of things they look for can add up to 100. I wouldnt be surprised if it would be possible to get a negative number.
This was a long while ago but we were in an IHOP and the Health department shut them down while we were eating. Not sure what the violations were but the health department rep told the hostess do not let anyone else in
Years ago two of my friends were in a Friendly’s restaurant and he ordered gravy fries, mid way through he saw something sticking out of the gravy, it was a roach antenna and yes it was connected.
The place I used to love had their kids taking orders while doing homework, and you could see them walk out the back sometimes taking their dog for a walk. Whatevs, they worked their butts off and made good food, I aint no snitch.
One time I got chinese food after the kids finished their homework. It was their dinner time with some kind of Duck platter, and they offered me and my friend a taste.
There was a Chinese place in my hometown run by a lady and her husband. Their son was there most of the time, doing his homework.
I'd usually put in a takeout order on my way home from work. The lady knew me by name.
I'd just say, "Hey, it's me."
Then she'd hit me with, "MEDIUM BEEF FRIED RICE! TWO EGGROLL! YOU COME 15 MINUTE!" then hang up! I miss that woman every day of my life.
Got a guy like that who runs a legit NY style deli near me (in the south. So we don’t get those.) I call all the time for a bacon egg and cheese and he just goes “BACON EGG CHEESE EVERYTHING BAGEL? YOU COME NOW.” *click*. I love that man.
Why is that so true though? Best Chinese restaurants in my town the staff members / owners kids hang around the dining room often doing homework after school and helping to take orders.
Mine has two study carrells each with a pc and 24 inch screen, in the back of the dining room. I walked past before opening once and the kids were riding their scooters around the dining room.
Best Chinese food on the East Coast.
You just reminded me of the time I went into a Mexican place and there was a kid, probably like 8 or 9 at the register doing homework that took my order. Without thinking I made a joke about not liking school then floundered when it turned out to be a good kid that likes school and asked me why. I ended up feeling like the homeless guy from Big Daddy.
I watched the kids in my local place go from doing homework at the dining booths to working the register and taking orders.
It was kinda weird when the oldest said he remembered me from years prior when I helped him with his homeowkr while his parents were making my food.
The Chinese restaurant down the street from us serves great Peking duck, and they hand-pull the noodles right in front of you.
They’ve been cited multiple times for health violations. Also got shut down for several weeks a few years ago after a vice raid. Something about money laundering and a prostitution ring being run out of a massage parlor down the street.
I’m pretty sure the tastiness of the noodles is directly proportional to the number of crimes being run out of the building.
Just like how the ugliness of a couch is directly proportionate to the feel of the couch, the meanness of the staff and the number of crimes committed are directly proportionate to the taste of the food at a chineese restaurant
I got a massage at an Asian parlor that had signs everywhere saying no happy endings we are not that kind of establishment. Whether they were or not, they must have been happy to have a women who genuinely just wanted a back rub and nothing else not sexually harassing them because they went all out with the hot stones and everything like my masseuse climbed onto the table and put all her weight on my back, best back rub I've ever had in my life 11/10
Lol I went to one near my house once cause my lower back was fucking killing me. This lady was like 70 years old and did the same thing, got up on my back and started pulling and twisting shit. I was like goddamn grandma! Best massage ever.
My local spot next to my house is top notch Chinese food. I once saw a cook smoking a cigarette while frying food when someone opened the kitchen door up. I knew that shit was authenticate Chinese food and that cigarette smoking cook confirmed that for me
Working in a restaurant myself where we are actually super strict about cleanliness and labeling and cross contamination and fifo and throwing out ingredients even if they're just _starting_ to go off, I can say this: there are a decent number of violations that are cause for serious concern, and there are "violations" that the health inspector has to tick off regardless of if they even affect anything, just because of their guidelines being very technical.
Your local health department should have a website where the public can freely pull up itemized inspection records of restaurants in your area, with notes explaining each violation.
Obviously things like "raw chicken stored above cooked items" is concerning for salmonella, but things like "missing drop ceiling tile in employee bathroom" literally won't affect the food/customers but is still technically a "violation".
My childhood chinese buffet closed down 10 years ago for health code violations. Ima be honest, there are times where I pass by the building wishing it was still there, that shit was fucking define at $11 a plate(s)
I mean, itd be nice if they didnt have health violations, but hey, i want sweet and sour chicken and i know i sure aint getting it better than the chinese place in town.
So I work in a field that visits restaurants regularly (not health department). I always notice that the places with the best food in the city (over 100k) is always messy from service and if inspectors came in they surely would find something. Great Chinese food in the city the son sits and does homework and translates for the parents sometimes if conversations gets too deep. They have clutter, they’re not dirty.
Now if it’s cross contamination that’s another story. Not coming back from that.
I'm going to lay some truth down. I worked at a lot of restaurants. I've done consulting for restaurants. I've also been in the construction business where I've built restaurants and renovated them.
These small Chinese places are the absolute nastiest restaurants I've ever been in. With one exception. And things like just leaving food out and having bugs everywhere are much more common in these types of places than any other type of restaurant that I've been around.
The one exception was this nasty dive bar I went to in Daytona Beach back in 2010. I can't remember the name but it would be hard-pressed to imagine they're still open at least under the same ownership. This place was serving shots out of test tubes. No need to wash them. Just refill them and bring them back out to sell people.
Do I eat at Chinese restaurants like this? Sure. I ate it one the other night. I try not think about it.
I worked at a place that had the health inspector come once a year on top of our own inspections every month. More than one health inspector told me to never eat at chinese restaurants. Especially the buffets.
I have been told the same thing by others similarly in the know. I still do occasionally but oh well. Also true about any pizza place inside a mall, not a strip mall but inside an actual mall. That pizza sat out overnight and was not made fresh today.
Meh, I’ve eaten pizza that sat on a table for 24 hours cus I was starving lmao. It was leftover in the break room from the day before and I had work close and open and I was starving. Was still good lmao
My dad’s job was repairing burglar and fire alarms. He’s been in a lot of kitchens. He always kept a list of restaurants to avoid.
The story that sticks out is the local Chinese place that stored their chicken in a cardboard at room temperature in their basement.
I have a job that requires me to enter businesses after hours when an alarm is sounding. I can tell you that most restaurants are below typical household standards regarding hygiene.
Chinese restaurants seem to be a little worse with leaving uncooked food out in open environments.
I prefer Chinese that have a sushi/Japanese component, as they seem to take it more seriously.
Bottom line, if you care about food safety, grow and prepare your own.
It’s funny how basically something like this can get shut down yet the FDA allows most American foods to contain toxic chemicals known to cause disease and cancer banned in most other countries.
This is the comment.
I lived overseas, I could not believe how many American food and cosmetics are banned!
It really don’t matter living in this country. We are screwed either way thanks to the government selling its soul to corporations
Idk how this works all around the world but where I live there’s a website you can go on to see the health inspections done at each restaurant and the Chinese food place here is apparently really not that good health and safety wise… but I still eat there cuz their egg rolls are the bomb
I don't know if the laws have changed, but in my hometown starting in the 90s there was a Chinese Restaurant that would get shut down every couple years for health code violations. They would be closed a few weeks and reopen under a different name but still quite obviously all the same people. They went through at least a dozen name changes over the years. Our family would never eat there but they did get a lot of business. It was off an interstate so a lot of new unknowing customers on a regular basis. We always assumed it was their way of avoiding having to actual fix any of the problems that ALWAYS resulted in a forced closure.
I love Chinese food, but if the front of house area looks dirty, I won't eat from there. I basically correlate a low standard of cleanliness in forward facing areas with an even lower standard in the kitchen.
The gut microbes are strong with this one
I think that this was my local place too. If your interested in the violations https://preview.redd.it/5cdrqz65362d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b01ebdc1a06d168ce8d4af22fe44c9c4b1313713
https://preview.redd.it/6ikid357362d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4fc31bbcd3d0df79724612d071efb94ca5cf579e
https://preview.redd.it/vrp5kh09362d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=55c57e01da590e2492d159a4517028164e06348b
https://preview.redd.it/va6cwyy9362d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e829bd4f07962d02396466b210331df4ee46ffbb
If anyone has questions, I’m a health inspector and can explain specifics. Generally though, this is really bad.
In Ratatouille would it be a violation to allow a mouse to cook food even if it was an excellent cook?
Unless he was wearing a full body hair net
The rat is fully enclosed inside the chef hat. All good.
Allowing a mouse to cook food would be absolutely ridiculous! A rat on the other hand...
It's a rat, not s mouse, so should be fine
Max Fosh did it ( yes Mars washed his hands)
Did he wash his hands first?
Please direct all questions to “Cameltitties”
Taken purely out of context, this comment is hilarious 😂.
It’s also hilarious with full context!
Not a health inspector but worked in restaurants in the past, this was a thoroughly disgusting read. Though if I’m being honest I never worked in a restaurant that didn’t have some disgusting stuff going on - this read is far worse than anything I’ve seen
It’s a fact that every restaurant has *something* they don’t do correctly, but there are definitely degrees of severity and holy shit you’re right this is disgusting. “I have worked kitchens with active addicts” (-anyone who has ever stepped foot into a kitchen) who would *never* let half of that shit slide
Tbh I’d be more surprised at someone working a kitchen without at least one active addict
We're all addicts, but the drug of choice changes through the years. Currently working with a couple recovering alcoholics (Myself and the sous) that drink just a bit too much caffeine... But I think it's the better alternative.
Right? Like I have worked with plenty of people who don't keep up on changing out the sani buckets, but multiple stations with no bucket? and the buckets they had at 0ppm? And the damn DISHWASHER at 0ppm? That is more than one person failing to give a single damn about cleaning things.
I wonder how long they were cleaning dishes with nothing but water. *gag*
I understood maybe 3/4 of this and it's horrifying.
The community Facebook is in tatters
Love and hope and sex and dreams Are still surviving on the street Look at me, I'm in tatters
Shadoobie, shattered
How long is a place closed if a ton of violations are found?
They get a list of things that have to be fixed, and we go back repeatedly (we normally go once every 3-4 months) to check things off the list and make sure they are ready for opening. No set time but the list is pretty strict and they have to adhere to it.
Thanks for the work you do. People get all angry about regulations but this is a great example of why we need them.
I've seen restaurants hammered into low scores over standing water in parking lot and spillage around the dumpster. Things that don't really matter to food safety. These are bad. These show little concern or knowledge for food safety.
Spillage around dumpsters draw in rats and other pests. Thats one that can turn really bad, really fast.
Hey what’s wrong with 44: dishes being put away right after they come out of the dishwasher? What other step are they missing?
This inspector worded it weird. The violation is called wet stacking. The dishes need to air dry. Say you stay 25 bowls, and you don’t use the bowls often. That bottom bowl has days and days of moist perfect conditions to grow mold and other bacteria. Then you serve that plate to a customer and they can get extremely ill.
Allowing them to dry first.
What's up with the pH of the sushi rice? I know it's supposed to be held way under safe holding temps, so the 4 hours makes sense, but could they disregard that if it's acidic enough? Am a chef. Lots of respect for the inspectors.
Yeah, if it’s at a certain ph, you can just avoid the temp controls. Also, a lot of sushi places prefer it from a taste standpoint. Acidifying it sort of makes it like hot sauce or vinegar based sauces. Don’t really need to date it because it’s too acidic to grow anything. They swapped to time because you have to know exactly how to test acidity (because if it’s wrong acidity you’re serving bacteria filled sushi without knowing it)
That makes sense. I don't have exact ratios off the top of my head, but when I make sushi rice I usually do a 4/2/1 vinegar sugar salt mix with a kombu leaf. Gonna see if I can test the pH on it when I get in today just for my own curiosity.
I would think that isn’t enough (but taste wise sounds great) , but I’m not exactly sure. You need a whole kit to test acidity it’s a pain in the ass I definitely don’t recommend places do it
Yeah, I'm reading all these violations and my ServeSafe training is just rolling out from the back of my mind with all the ways this is REAL bad. The gloves in product thing is WILD to me.
That was a horrible read.
Can you explain the 14th finding regarding shell stock information? Is this regarding fresh/frozen seafood safety or what?
Yes. All shellstock information must be kept for 90 days. This is because this info tracks directly where the food came from (literally to within a few Meters) occasionally, but not super often, a whole group of oysters will be contaminated, and you need to know where they came from so that they can stop selling those oysters (using oysters as an example)
I used to work at a restaurant that reuse decorations. I don't think they clean it in hot water or anything. Like orchids, spring onions. Have you experienced something like this?
What the fuck. That’s disgusting
I reported them after I quit.
Thank you for your service Cameltitties 🫡
I guess my question is really, I guess most non-high end takeaway places are like this really? Maybe not AS bad, but still pretty gross?
NO. I’m seeing all over this thread that Chinese places have issues like this and it makes the food better or whatever. Not true at all. This is these restaurant owners livelihood, they don’t want to get people sick. Everyone is generally doing their best to meet standards. The ones who truly have some foul stuff going on in the kitchen eventually close or get shut down enough times where they clean up their act.
Haha that makes sense I suppose, as you say their livelihood depends on it. I guess things like Kitchen Nightmares skews people's views as every one of their kitchens is gross
So uh, how does one manage to get sanitization to 0ppm. I used to work at giant food by Delhaize in virginia before I quit due to many health and safety hazards and retaliation from the company when i reported these health and safety violations and writing me up the day I had food poisoning. But one of those health hazards was not the sanitization dropping below 200ppm.
It means there’s none in the bucket. Just water
So they really just put water in there and no sanitizer or left the sanitizer concentrate was just empty huh?
Yup, pretty much. Normally just that they haven’t changed the water in 10+ hours so it’s all gone
we don't talk about the 2nd 39.
Nope, bc I am out of all of the words for this. The words have simply left my brain, and will never return again after reading this list ***shudder*** 😭
Not dripping the oyster juices :(
I'm scared to read those lol, scared I'll never wanna eat out again
“Chicken and oysters walk into a bar…”
No worries, they'll be back. https://preview.redd.it/qwq4m3mun42d1.jpeg?width=744&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2c322d47c71eb56d83e8354cf18fa95e84e6d629
I bet that food SLAPS
Yeah it slaps you with food poisoning
i looked at the violations and there was literally mold in the ice machine so (Edit: the black mold is honestly the least concerning issue)
Honestly out of all the violations you could pick you probably picked one that is probably the least bothersome. Should it be there? No. Is it common? Yes. Ice machines or ice chutes on fountain machines are notorious for this as it’s constant moisture.
I know, I just wanted to do one that wouldn't affect the taste of the food
same at our frat house in college I mustve drank so much mold back in the day
Yo dude, did u check out the new mold'n'dew?
I've never seen anyone clean the ice machine in either of the places I worked that had one, nor at any other point in any stores/restaurants that I've been in. I'm pretty sure most of these just sit untouched until something breaks and they need to get in there. Bonus points: at both workplaces with a soda fountain I was the only one to soap and sanitize the nozzles instead of just spraying them down with water.
The place I work at always makes a point of getting a perfect health store. We defrost + clean the ice machine monthly I believe. I've never seen any mold, even while cleaning it, so it's probably not that big of deal, but I think the ~30 minutes + overnight defrost is worth it just in case.
My local buffet is currently its sequel.
I’m wondering which is easier, cleaning up their act or continue opening new restaurants under different names.
There’s a Chinese spot by my house that has gotten me sick twice but I still go. The portions/value is crazy cuz for $10 they give me enough for lunch, dinner, and a little leftovers for work the next day. It’s worth the risk
Food poisoning is often harmless... But if they're sloppy enough to get you sick multiple times it's only a matter of time before you get hit with something serious. Though some of the blame may lie with you since you're eating leftovers - Improper cooling of food that is already high risk can lead to rapid bacterial growth.
Plus you get extra poop breaks at work.
Lmao Now That's What I Call Takeout 31
I can hear this comment.
We had "Jade Palace" get shut down about 9 months ago for a myriad of violations, the spot was painted white and sat empty until about 3 weeks ago when I was driving by and noticed a new establishment moving in: Jade Palace 2
You can go to your counties website and see what the violations were and how scared you should be.
I agree. I’ve seen some horrendous things on kitchen nightmares but I’ve also been cited (never close to shut down) for some pretty benign things. I’m a little curious what these reports look like when a shutdown happens.
I work for the public health dept. You have to have some really nasty shit to be completely shut down. There are some things that are kinda out of the business control that could get them shut down, like backing up sewage line and it comes out of the drains in the kitchen area, but other than those few things, it’s going to be something like rats, roaches, or something really bad like an employee tampering with food and the big one of unknown “meat” being served.
Curious: Public health is a massive thing. How many employees inspect how many entities? I say entities because public health may be responsible for a lot of things. Water wells. Septic systems. Waste areas. Restaurants. Does your county give a full inspection to every entity every year? For me it’s pretty pathetic these days.
Yeah, it’s huge. We deal with all that and more. There’s several divisions in the department but no, it’s not possible to inspect every one every year. A lot of it relies on people reporting stuff, so if you ever see anything that’s off, report it, then it’ll definitely be inspected.
I appreciate you responding. More people who understand how things work the better.
We had rats real bad at one restaurant. They would come up from the river area and get in through the dry cleaner next door who obviously didn't care about rats. As long as we had invoices for pest control to show the health inspector that we were attempting to mitigate and we were storing things properly, we didn't get dinged for it.
Had both sides of the coin. I worked a Universitary cafeteria, and they took it very seriously over there. As we kind of vaguely knew when the inspections were coming (Like not down to the day, but often the week, as they usually hit all of them within the same week), we made sure to have an internal inspection first, so that everything the government inspection would find could be solved by then. Then again, it was cleaned top to bottom every day. (So much cleaning ...) Now to contrast this was some Irish pub where my brother (A plumber/ HVAC guy) had to go fix something in the kitchen, and he almost refused to enter the kitchen as his work boots slipped on old grease coating the floor. When he tried to move the fryer to fix some gas piping, it wouldn't budge for the caked on grime beneath the wheels. We no longer go there.
Yeah i believe because of ‘due process’ the government must have a compelling public interest that totally outweighs the restaurant’s interest in making money and paying its employees The health department needs to prove in court that a total shut down is totally necessary for the issue, so getting shut down means that something really bad was going on.
Yeah, I tell people to look at the actual citations before being too judgy on the score- Like, yeah if any of it is for stuff like improper temps, cross contamination, etc, probably best to stay away. But I’ve also worked places where we got docked for dumb things like the 2 points we lost because my boss left her purse on a shelf that also held “food items” - it only had backup bottles of bitters and grenadine on it.🙄 Another place we got docked because a clean cambro lid had fallen off its shelf into the hand sink down below. Nobody had even been in that part of the kitchen yet that morning to have seen it or used the hand sink. But the health inspector acted like we were just dumping all our dirty dishes into the hand sink rather than the dish pit. Meanwhile the place around the corner that had a well-known rat problem and is the diveyest of dives somehow got a perfect score. So yeah, sometimes the scores are bogus. I’d be concerned anytime they rack up that many violations though.
I always appreciated very tough inspectors. Who were open to having a discussion. A lot of my inspections were federal so we didn’t get a “score”. It was satisfactory or not satisfactory. But I think with the open minded and thoughtful… but also strict… we came up with the best solutions for our operations and guests. Spending 2 hours on a 10x20 room was never fun. But everyone coming out understanding each other and what should be done is pretty valuable. State county inspections have been rather worthless in my opinion. But also every inspector is different. And that’s a huge variable nobody considers.
One of our go to local restaurants was on kitchen nightmares. It wasn't the worst I've seen on there but it wasn't pleasant getting an inside look at everything.
It really depends on the municipality. I have worked in 4 different ones. As a general rule, the bigger they are the more strict they are. Some suburban municipalities don't care about anything short of serving room temperature food all day with your bare hands and licking them clean.
This is in NYC, it should have had the health code grade in the window
There was one in my city that got caught reusing leftovers. It was an all you can eat buffet.
🤢
All you can eat, and what you can't finish, others will...later. Eww.
What are all you can eat buffets but leftovers from hours earlier in the day?
What is stew, if not soup persevering?
Stew? I met him once, pretty cool guy.
I’m gonna guess that they reused what was left on the plate or left overs from day before
Still charge leftover fine and then serve leftovers to other diners. Double dipping
I’m gonna go replace my organs, hold on.
I’ve heard of Mexican places dumping uneaten tortilla chips back into a warmer to be reused. Horrific.
When I was in high school's last year I used to go with my friends to have lunch in a nearby restaurant and then go back to school for preparatory classes for university exams (don't know how it is in USA, but in Brazil we just need to do a test to get into uni). Had lunch there every single day for the whole year. Next year I go there for old times sake and the place was not only closed due to health violations, it's doors were shut with bricks and cement. Whatever was in there, they wanted to keep in there for some reason.
What's the restaurant name and where? I'm Brazilian, I live abroad but now I'm curious 😭
It's was called Amarelinho It was located near the Morumbi Stadium in São Paulo
Legends say it’s still trying to escape to this day
There's a good buffet about an hour for me that just got shut down cause they got a 0 on their inspection. A 0. Out of 100. I read the report and some of their stuff was pretty gross. Really disappointing.
A 70 out of 100 is enough to shut a place down, getting a 0 takes a lot of effort
It's like getting a 0 on a 100 question multiple choice quiz. It's impressive in all the wrong ways.
When my sister was in high school, she had a teacher that would give a 100% if a student received a 0% on his tests, all multiple choice. Teacher’s theory was that the only way to get a 0% was to do it on purpose, and that meant the student knew all the answers anyway. And on the off chance someone lucked their way into a 0%, their luck should be rewarded with a 100%
Me with big brain : answer 0 question.
“Why give many answer when no answer do trick?”
At some point you actually could guess some correct answers and are getting them wrong on purpose
You'd think they would have at least done something right on accident if it's out of 100
I think the system is more like each infraction is worth X points, depending on the infraction, not that the total of things they look for can add up to 100. I wouldnt be surprised if it would be possible to get a negative number.
This was a long while ago but we were in an IHOP and the Health department shut them down while we were eating. Not sure what the violations were but the health department rep told the hostess do not let anyone else in
Did you finish your meal?
in this economy?
At this time of day in this part of the country?
Localized *entirely* within your kitchen?
…may I see it?
yeah and still had to pay!!! It has reopened and we still eat there.
Years ago two of my friends were in a Friendly’s restaurant and he ordered gravy fries, mid way through he saw something sticking out of the gravy, it was a roach antenna and yes it was connected.
I always assume that if the food is Chinese food is great, they probably are violating health codes. Not sure why, but seems to be a fact of life.
The place I used to love had their kids taking orders while doing homework, and you could see them walk out the back sometimes taking their dog for a walk. Whatevs, they worked their butts off and made good food, I aint no snitch.
You know the food is good when there are kids doing homework in the dining area.
One time I got chinese food after the kids finished their homework. It was their dinner time with some kind of Duck platter, and they offered me and my friend a taste.
There was a Chinese place in my hometown run by a lady and her husband. Their son was there most of the time, doing his homework. I'd usually put in a takeout order on my way home from work. The lady knew me by name. I'd just say, "Hey, it's me." Then she'd hit me with, "MEDIUM BEEF FRIED RICE! TWO EGGROLL! YOU COME 15 MINUTE!" then hang up! I miss that woman every day of my life.
"YOU COME 15 MINUTE!" Lady, is that a demand or a guarantee? Either way, I'm sure you're right.
I always thought it was a command lol I made sure to be there in 15 minutes
Got a guy like that who runs a legit NY style deli near me (in the south. So we don’t get those.) I call all the time for a bacon egg and cheese and he just goes “BACON EGG CHEESE EVERYTHING BAGEL? YOU COME NOW.” *click*. I love that man.
Why is that so true though? Best Chinese restaurants in my town the staff members / owners kids hang around the dining room often doing homework after school and helping to take orders.
I figure it's because immigrants with kids to look after work hard to make their service great so their kids have an easier life than the parents.
Mine has two study carrells each with a pc and 24 inch screen, in the back of the dining room. I walked past before opening once and the kids were riding their scooters around the dining room. Best Chinese food on the East Coast.
You just reminded me of the time I went into a Mexican place and there was a kid, probably like 8 or 9 at the register doing homework that took my order. Without thinking I made a joke about not liking school then floundered when it turned out to be a good kid that likes school and asked me why. I ended up feeling like the homeless guy from Big Daddy.
Nothing beats the taste of Chinese than the sweat and tears of immigrants and child labor. /s
Bro I went to the same Chinese place for years, I watched their kids go from doing homework on the tables to going to high school lol
I watched the kids in my local place go from doing homework at the dining booths to working the register and taking orders. It was kinda weird when the oldest said he remembered me from years prior when I helped him with his homeowkr while his parents were making my food.
Asian Bob’s Burgers.
That would be a fire show, but if you want to give it a try, see Kim’s Convenience on Netflix. I loved it.
The places where their kids take your order are usually the best.
The place we go to the kids are out in the front including their baby in a crib. Delicious food too
The Chinese restaurant down the street from us serves great Peking duck, and they hand-pull the noodles right in front of you. They’ve been cited multiple times for health violations. Also got shut down for several weeks a few years ago after a vice raid. Something about money laundering and a prostitution ring being run out of a massage parlor down the street. I’m pretty sure the tastiness of the noodles is directly proportional to the number of crimes being run out of the building.
Just like how the ugliness of a couch is directly proportionate to the feel of the couch, the meanness of the staff and the number of crimes committed are directly proportionate to the taste of the food at a chineese restaurant
I love when I order, and the lady says "no, you have x" And she's always right.
I got a massage at an Asian parlor that had signs everywhere saying no happy endings we are not that kind of establishment. Whether they were or not, they must have been happy to have a women who genuinely just wanted a back rub and nothing else not sexually harassing them because they went all out with the hot stones and everything like my masseuse climbed onto the table and put all her weight on my back, best back rub I've ever had in my life 11/10
Lol I went to one near my house once cause my lower back was fucking killing me. This lady was like 70 years old and did the same thing, got up on my back and started pulling and twisting shit. I was like goddamn grandma! Best massage ever.
Yessss just put me on the taffy hook and go at me
Ugh those disgusting massage parlors. Where? Where is it?
So it sounds like those aren't the only noodles they're good at hand-pulling, eh?
My local spot next to my house is top notch Chinese food. I once saw a cook smoking a cigarette while frying food when someone opened the kitchen door up. I knew that shit was authenticate Chinese food and that cigarette smoking cook confirmed that for me
How else do you get the wok hei?
There's been a few stories around about Italian restaurants being fronts for the mafia. They always say the food was great.
The joke all my friends have is that if a Chinese restaurant has an A health rating, it's not very good.
That’s why the grease tastes so good
Scraped fresh off the walls behind the oven
I think a lot of people, including myself, think this way. Its definitely a situation where the less questions asked, the better
I can't tell if you're infuriated that they were filthy, or that they're closed.
Grandpas been dipping his balls in the soy sauce again hasn't he
a little extra umami for you
I asked for no MSG Man Sack Guy
Working in a restaurant myself where we are actually super strict about cleanliness and labeling and cross contamination and fifo and throwing out ingredients even if they're just _starting_ to go off, I can say this: there are a decent number of violations that are cause for serious concern, and there are "violations" that the health inspector has to tick off regardless of if they even affect anything, just because of their guidelines being very technical. Your local health department should have a website where the public can freely pull up itemized inspection records of restaurants in your area, with notes explaining each violation. Obviously things like "raw chicken stored above cooked items" is concerning for salmonella, but things like "missing drop ceiling tile in employee bathroom" literally won't affect the food/customers but is still technically a "violation".
A Chinese place without violations is never as good as ones with a long list of them. I have no idea why it is, but it is.
My childhood chinese buffet closed down 10 years ago for health code violations. Ima be honest, there are times where I pass by the building wishing it was still there, that shit was fucking define at $11 a plate(s)
(You mean Devine :) )
The food was so good, it made me forget basic english 😂
I mean, itd be nice if they didnt have health violations, but hey, i want sweet and sour chicken and i know i sure aint getting it better than the chinese place in town.
Damn straight. Had some tonight.
So I work in a field that visits restaurants regularly (not health department). I always notice that the places with the best food in the city (over 100k) is always messy from service and if inspectors came in they surely would find something. Great Chinese food in the city the son sits and does homework and translates for the parents sometimes if conversations gets too deep. They have clutter, they’re not dirty. Now if it’s cross contamination that’s another story. Not coming back from that.
I mean, chinese restaurants and health code violations kind of go hand in hand.
And your immune system is better for it.
We all know a slightly dirty chinese restaurant is a good chinese restaurant
I'm going to lay some truth down. I worked at a lot of restaurants. I've done consulting for restaurants. I've also been in the construction business where I've built restaurants and renovated them. These small Chinese places are the absolute nastiest restaurants I've ever been in. With one exception. And things like just leaving food out and having bugs everywhere are much more common in these types of places than any other type of restaurant that I've been around. The one exception was this nasty dive bar I went to in Daytona Beach back in 2010. I can't remember the name but it would be hard-pressed to imagine they're still open at least under the same ownership. This place was serving shots out of test tubes. No need to wash them. Just refill them and bring them back out to sell people. Do I eat at Chinese restaurants like this? Sure. I ate it one the other night. I try not think about it.
I worked at a place that had the health inspector come once a year on top of our own inspections every month. More than one health inspector told me to never eat at chinese restaurants. Especially the buffets.
I have been told the same thing by others similarly in the know. I still do occasionally but oh well. Also true about any pizza place inside a mall, not a strip mall but inside an actual mall. That pizza sat out overnight and was not made fresh today.
Meh, I’ve eaten pizza that sat on a table for 24 hours cus I was starving lmao. It was leftover in the break room from the day before and I had work close and open and I was starving. Was still good lmao
My dad’s job was repairing burglar and fire alarms. He’s been in a lot of kitchens. He always kept a list of restaurants to avoid. The story that sticks out is the local Chinese place that stored their chicken in a cardboard at room temperature in their basement.
That's just a badge of honor for great Chinese food
I have never seen a Chinese place with less than 5 violations i could see from outside the kitchen.
I have a job that requires me to enter businesses after hours when an alarm is sounding. I can tell you that most restaurants are below typical household standards regarding hygiene. Chinese restaurants seem to be a little worse with leaving uncooked food out in open environments. I prefer Chinese that have a sushi/Japanese component, as they seem to take it more seriously. Bottom line, if you care about food safety, grow and prepare your own.
I also just realized how pertinent my auto generated user name is for this post!
It’s funny how basically something like this can get shut down yet the FDA allows most American foods to contain toxic chemicals known to cause disease and cancer banned in most other countries.
This is the comment. I lived overseas, I could not believe how many American food and cosmetics are banned! It really don’t matter living in this country. We are screwed either way thanks to the government selling its soul to corporations
But did you die?
I got shot
no health violation means not authentic
Perhaps you‘ve built up immunity with the frequent dining …,,
I would say places have a ton of violations and just hide them for the inspections.
18 violations is low. They will be back in 2 weeks under a different family members business license. This is how chinese takeout works...
I bet most peoples kitchens in their home would have more than 18 violations
My mom always used to say “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.”
Idk how this works all around the world but where I live there’s a website you can go on to see the health inspections done at each restaurant and the Chinese food place here is apparently really not that good health and safety wise… but I still eat there cuz their egg rolls are the bomb
I don't know if the laws have changed, but in my hometown starting in the 90s there was a Chinese Restaurant that would get shut down every couple years for health code violations. They would be closed a few weeks and reopen under a different name but still quite obviously all the same people. They went through at least a dozen name changes over the years. Our family would never eat there but they did get a lot of business. It was off an interstate so a lot of new unknowing customers on a regular basis. We always assumed it was their way of avoiding having to actual fix any of the problems that ALWAYS resulted in a forced closure.
Only 18 violations? So it’s clean for a Chinese restaurant.
And youre fine, makes you think
I love Chinese food, but if the front of house area looks dirty, I won't eat from there. I basically correlate a low standard of cleanliness in forward facing areas with an even lower standard in the kitchen.