One Restaurant Gets ‘C’ Rating — the Worst — in Most Recent Darien Health Inspection Reports

One Darien restaurant received a “C” rating — the worst in the town A-B-C ratings system — in the most recently released town Health Department inspection reports.

Six other health inspection reports were released on Thursday by the department. Four of the establishments inspected received “A” ratings; two others each got a “B.” The inspections took place from Oct. 10 to 17.

Here’s an alphabetical list of the most recently released health inspection results (an explanation for each part of the list, including links, is just below the list).

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 (an explanation of how this list is put together is immediately below it):

—Chipotle Mexican Grill — 71 Post Road — Oct. 13 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 94

—Darien Grille — 22 Center St. — Oct. 15 — Town Rating: A  — State Score: 94

—Four Forks LLC — 7 Tokeneke Road — Oct. 15 — Town Rating: A  — State Score: 96

—Hibachi Sushi Ya — 111 Old Kings Hwy. North — Oct. 17 — Town Rating: C  — State Score: 86 — Inspector’s Remarks: “Prep cooling unit on line ambient temperature 50 degrees Fahrenheit, product temp 48 [degrees], items removed; scoop with no handle used for dispensing foods; slicer not broken down and sanitized every four hours–corrected; shelving in walk-in cooler rusty and unclean; under-shelving of prep table unclean; table holding rice cooker unclean; unnecessary items in dumpster area and outside back door; floors under shelving in walk-in [cooler] unclean; walls in walk-in cooler unclean.” — Inspector’s Comments: “Refrigeration company called in my presence and will be out today. Will focus on two cooling unites. The one not in compliance and the walk-in freezer. Was walk-in freezer in defrost mode at time of inspection. Items still frozen but fans not running. Ambient temperature was 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Will follow up. Owner will call post repairs. Sanitizer set up and accurate. No activity during inspection. Dish[washing] machine OK.”

—Meatball & Co. — 23 Tokeneke Road — Oct. 10 — Town Rating: B  — State Score: 92

—Middlesex Middle School — 204 Hollow Tree Ridge Road — Oct. 17 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 98 — Inspector’s Remarks: “Make sure all spray bottles are labelled with contents; frozen condensate built up on floor in walk-in freezer. “ — Inspector’s Comments: “Spoke with Debbie and she told me a custom door for walk-in freezer has been ordered and [is] currently being fabricated. Unit currently maintaining temperatures. Soups (155, 154 [degrees]), ham and cheese (40 [degrees]), pizza (203 [degrees]), tuna (38 [degrees]), egg and cheese (42 [degrees]), chicken patty (158 [degrees]).”

—Sbarro — Darien North rest stop, Interstate 95 — Oct. 12 — Town Rating: B  — State Score: 91

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.

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 (“;”) separate individual comments by the inspectors. Each comment separated by semicolons is about a particular violation that triggers a deduction of one or more points from a perfect state score of 100.

_________

See also:

• Our previous article showing restaurant inspection ratings (Oct. 12)
  
• STAMFORD online health inspection results
• NORWALK online health inspection ratings (explanation of ratings)

You can find the past several inspection ratings under the Darien ratings system for food-serving establishments along with copies of inspection reports, including state health code scores on this website.

_________

How Darien’s Food-Serving Places 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.

_________

Like this article? …

• Sign up for the Darienite.com newsletter.
• Like Darienite.com on Facebook.
• Follow Darienite.com on Twitter.

_________

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.

 

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.