Poorest Rating for One Food Serving Establishment in 10 Most Recent Darien Health Inspection Reports

One food-serving establishment in Darien received the lowest town rating of “C” among the seven inspection reports released Thursday by Darien Health Department. The other establishments all got “A’s” and “B’s.”

The worst-rated establishment also received a similarly poor rating in its previous inspection on June 12. Some of the other establishments that previously received low ratings of “C” scored significantly better in this latest round of inspections.

Details from the worst-rated eatery and links to the latest information posted about each of the other recently inspected food-serving establishments are listed below, and you can find an article about the ratings system here.

Most recent inspection results

In the list of health inspection results, below, information is listed by name, address, date of inspection, Darien rating, state score, inspector’s comments that led to the state rating and additional remarks on the inspection report.

Dates link to the food establishment’s inspection report referenced here (when available, sometimes it takes a while to get posted online), and Darien’s own A/B/C ratings link to a Web page showing several of the restaurant’s recent inspection ratings.

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See also:

• Our previous article showing restaurant inspection ratings (June 25)
• Darien Health Department Starts Letter Grades for Food Service Inspections
  

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For restaurants and other food-serving establishments rated “C,” and for some others of interest to the public (like schools) additional information is given. When we provide that information here, then words within brackets (“[ ]”) have been added for clarity by Darienite.com; semicolons like this (“;”) separate individual comments, each one with a particular violation that triggers a point deduction from that perfect state score of 100.

Here’s an alphabetical list of the most recently released results of Darien health inspections (keep in mind that a food-serving establishment with a history of good ratings may occasionally get a poor inspection rating, occasionally the best do, and every restaurant normally gets a few things wrong):

• Abello’s/Mangia — 72 Tokeneke Road — June 29 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 93
• The Cho Bop Inc. at Fjord Fish Market — 1015 Post Road — June 26 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 97
• Darien Butcher Shop — 13 Grove St. — June 26 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 95
• Fjord Fish Market — 1015 Post Road — June 26 — Town Rating A — State Score: 94
• Trader Joe’s — 436 Post Road — June 26 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 97
• Unidine at Zotos International — 100 Tokeneke Road — June 27 — Town Rating: C — State Score: 87 — Inspector’s Remarks: “Staff working without documentation of training; silver two-door upright still not cold-holding (product out of temp, including butter, cream cheese, sliced tomato, cooked pasta, eggs, yogurt and cooked vegetables), disposed of … ; dumping in hand sink, hand sink not sealed — personal cell phone left on hand sink; mold growth inside lower hot holding unit, microwave unclean; no quat test strips available during inspection; strong odor from grease trap; venting in kitchen still unclean.”

 

Here’s what the same inspector said in her report on the June 12 inspection (the one immediately previous):

Unidine at Zotos International — 100 Tokeneke Road — June 12 — Town Rating: C — State Score: 86 — Inspector’s Comments:“New staff member on the line without training documentation; soup holding at 118 to 120 [degrees] on the line (set on low), chicken and farro at 100 degrees hot holding (unit not on); salad fridge frozen over (product temperature at 54 degrees) and two-door refrigerator in kitchen at 55 degrees ambient temperature: product temperature ranging from 50 to 54 degrees; chicken salad at 51 degrees (not cooled before holding); thermometer missing in bain-marie; raw pork stored over ready-to-eat food in two-door low-boy [undercounter refrigerator]; employee with a blue finger cot[?] restocking: no glove; storing spoons in hand sink (twice); no waste receptacle at the hand sink on the line; unclean ceiling vents in kitchen area.”

• The Waters Edge at Giovanni’s — 2748 Post Road — June 26 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 87

How Darien’s restaurants are rated

Restaurants in town are rated under the Darien Health Department’s own A/B/C ratings system. Health inspectors also use the state health code regulations to score restaurants, with a perfect score set at 100, and demerits (of 1 to 4 points each) for various code violations.

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The Darien system takes into account problems that are ongoing, so a restaurant scoring higher than others on the state scale may actually get a lower score on the Darien scale.

 

You can find the past several inspection ratings under the Darien ratings system for food-serving establishments on this website, and now you can also find copies of inspection reports, including state health code scores in the same place.

Any establishment actually deemed unsafe can be closed by the town Health Department until violations are fixed. Town Health Director David Knauf says that has never happened in the time he’s been with the department.