Health Director: Restaurant’s ‘Fair’ Inspection Rating Should’ve Been ‘Poor’

A health inspection report for a restaurant in town led to an unusual reaction from Darien Health Director David Knauf:

He said the inspector’s description of the health violations was more serious than the “Fair” rating the inspector gave, and Knauf ordered a new inspection to make sure problems were being fixed.

Fuji’s Restaurant at 111 Old Kings Hwy. S. received a “Fair” rating in a Dec. 22 inspection, which noted several violations regarding:

• sanitizing (“sanitizer solution not adequate; food contact surfaces not sanitized every four hours; proper sanitizing not achieved; wiping cloths not kept in sanitizer between use”) and
• other violations mentioning lack of cleaning (“upper shelving of prep tables unclean; hood unclean, fryer unclean; floors in kitchen unclean; utensils stored stoiled and not in use on equipment”).

A full quote of the inspector’s remarks and links to the report online are presented at the bottom of this article, along with ratings and information on other recent restaurant inspections.

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When the next inspection report for Fuji’s Restaurant is released by the Health Department, Darienite.com will report on it.

How Darien’s restaurants are rated

Restaurants in town are rated under the Darien Health Department’s own Good/Fair/Poor 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.

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

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 in the same place.

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See also:

• Our previous article showing restaurant inspection ratings (Dec. 17)
• You Can Now Read Full Health Inspection Reports on Darien Restaurants Online (Dec. 8)
• Health Director: Chipotle Seems to Have Had Problems Training Employees in Health Practices (Dec. 29)

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

(In the list of health inspection results, below, information is listed by name, address, date of inspection, Darien rating, state score. Dates link to the restaurant’s inspection report online, if it’s available yet, and Darien ratings link to a Web page showing the restaurant’s recent inspection ratings.

(For restaurants and other food-serving establishments rated “poor,” and for some others of interest to the public (like schools) additional information is given: inspector’s comments that led to the state rating and additional remarks on the inspection report [information within brackets has 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 a perfect state score of 100 points]. Darienite.com will change abbreviations, punctuation and other grammar to fit our editorial style, usually silently, sometimes with brackets, you can see the original online.)

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 “Fair” or “Poor” inspection rating, and occasionally the best do, and everyone normally gets a few things wrong):

• Aux Delices — 25 Old Kings Hwy. N. — Dec. 16 — GOOD — 97
• Chipotle Mexican Grill — 71 Post Road — Dec. 22 — FAIR — 91
• Country Club of Darien Satellite Kitchen — 300 Mansfield Ave. — Dec. 10 — GOOD — 95
• The Depot youth center— 25 Heights Road — Dec. 22 — GOOD — 97 — Inspector’s remarks: “Grease buildup between fryer and grill; grease buildup under fryer on the floor; hood system needs cleaned.” — Additional inspector’s comments: “No cooking, hot-holding or [food] prep[aration on-site].”
• Espresso NEAT — 20 Grove St. — Dec. 23 — GOOD — 100 — (This establishment’s ratings don’t appear to be listed on the Health Department website.)
• Fuji’s Restaurant — 111 Old Kings Hwy. N. — Dec. 22 — FAIR — 88 — Inspectors remarks: “Raw foods stored above/adjacent to RTE [ready-to-eat] foods in walk-in cooler; sanitizer solution not adequate; food contact surfaces not sanitized every four hours; proper sanitizing not achieved; wiping cloths not kept in sanitizeer between use; [container of] granular [food] not labeled/mislabeled; utensils stored soiled and not in use on equipment; in-use mixing bowl cracked; plastic shopping bags used to store foods; upper shelving of prep tables unclean; hood unclean, fryer unclean; floors in kitchen unclean; adequate lighting not supplied in walk-in freezer.” — Inspector’s additional comments: “Dishwasher not working at time of inspection. Repair person on premises working to repair.”
• Stop & Shop — 25 Old Kings Hwy. N. — Dec. 10 — GOOD — 96
• Sushi by Jay at Stop & Shop — 25 Old King’s Hwy. N. — Dec. 10 — GOOD — 97
• Tengda Asian Bistro — 25 Old Kings Hwy. N. — Dec. 22 — FAIR — 87
• Unidine at Zotos International — 100 Tokeneke Road — Dec. 21 — GOOD — 96

Editor’s note: at 1:20 p.m. Tuesday, Tengda’s inspection information was added to this list.