3 restaurants closed for health violations

Flies land on chocolate doughnuts, roaches crawling under wok station

A trio of South Florida restaurants were ordered shut by state inspectors last week, with issues including flies landing on chocolate doughnuts, cockroaches crawling under a wok station and poor sanitation practices.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel typically highlights restaurant inspections in Broward and Palm Beach counties from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. We cull through hundreds of restaurant and bar inspections that happen weekly and spotlight places ordered shut for “high-priority violations,” such as improper food temperatures or dead cockroaches.

Sun Sentinel readers can browse full Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade county reports through our state inspection map, updated weekly (usually Mondays) with fresh data pulled from the Florida DBPR website.

Any restaurant that fails a state inspection must stay closed until it passes a follow-up. If you spotted a possible violation and wish to file a complaint, contact Florida DBPR here. (But please don’t contact us: The Sun Sentinel doesn’t inspect restaurants.)

Dunkin’, Miramar

6190 Miramar Parkway

Ordered shut: Dec. 8; reopened Dec. 8 Why: Six violations (four high-priority), led by 16 live flies, four of which landed directly “on trays of chocolate doughnuts.” Flies were also seen “around the mop sink by exit door away from the kitchen” and on an empty rack in the same area.

The restaurant was dinged after one employee “proceeded to [handle] cooked hash browns for an order without removing gloves or washing hands.” The restaurant was ordered to stop selling and toss 24 doughnuts and the “serving of hash browns.” During the inspection, the operator sanitized trays and other areas that the flies touched.

The chain reopened the same day after a second inspection revealed zero new issues.

South China Restaurant, Cooper City

5550 Flamingo Road Ordered shut: Dec. 7; reopened Dec. 8

Why: Five violations (three high-priority), including 10 cockroaches found crawling “on floor under wok station” in the kitchen and on shelves on the cookline.

Inspectors also discovered shelled eggs and cooked pork stored at improper temperatures on top of and inside the kitchen’s flip-top cooler.

During a follow-up inspection the next day, inspectors found no new problems and green-lit the restaurant’s reopening.

Taco Masala, Lauderhill

5415 N. University Drive

Ordered shut: Dec. 7; reopened Dec. 8

Why: 30 violations (nine high-priority), including “20-30 or more live flies in dry storage area” landing “directly on onions, paper goods, to-go silverware, sugar bags” and tin foil, as well as another “10-15 live flies landing on cans, can sodas, opened foil catering container and open to-go containers in secondary dry storage area.”

The report also noted “fly sticky tape hanging over food/food preparation area/food-contact equipment.”

About 150 dead flies were “attached to sticky rapid fly adhesive tape over onions and gallons of oil” in a dry storage area.

Inspectors also caught multiple examples of poor sanitation, such as “peeled onions on prep table beside” the sink that were exposed to “splash from dirty wash sink area,” and onions not washed before preparation.

They saw an “employee buttering cooked bread [and] handling raw dough without gloves,” as well as “employees touching face, hair, to-go containers, tickets for food” and then returning to cook food without “washing hands or wearing gloves” in between tasks.

Despite finding a trio of intermediate and basic violations during the next-day inspection, the state cleared the restaurant to reopen.