Latest Darien Food Establishment Health Inspection Ratings: 2 Poor, 1 Fair, 7 Good

Out of 10 restaurants in Darien recently inspected by Darien Health Department sanitarians, two received a “Poor” rating; one, a “Fair” rating; and seven others were rated “Good.”

Details about the towns rating system for restaurants and other food serving establishments are at the bottom of this article.

The 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 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 (May 12)
• You Can Now Read Full Health Inspection Reports on Darien Restaurants Online

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For restaurants and other food-serving establishments rated “poor,” and for some others of interest to the public (like schools) additional information is given. When we provide that here, then 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 that perfect state score of 100 points.

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, occasionally the best do, and every restaurant normally gets a few things wrong):

• Country Club of Darien snack bar — 300 Mansfield Ave. — June 3 — GOOD — 99
• Chipotle Mexican Grill — 71 Post Road — May 16 — GOOD — 99
• Darien Doughnut — 370 Heights Road — June 3 — POOR — 93 — Inspector’s remarks: “Gloves worn but zero hand washing after handling money; hand sink used as dump sink; hood filters unclean.” Inspector’s additional comments: “Hand washing is a must after handling money, even if gloves are worn.”
• Duchess Family Restaurant — 306 Post Road — May 19 — GOOD — 98
• Jake’s Place — 4 Ledge Road — June 3 — GOOD — 95
• Scena Wine Bar & Restaurant — 1077 Post Road — June 6 — GOOD — 93
• Sono Baking Company — 49 Tokeneke Road — June 8 — FAIR — 92
• Stop and Shop — 148 Heights Road — June 6 — POOR — 89 — Inspector’s remarks: “Chicken not hot holding in display case (between 117 and 123 degrees) approximately two hours after labeled, corporate policy has a four-hour hold time; (1) inside deli display case unclean, (2) inside bain marie unclean, (3) knives in storage racks unclean (deli and seafood areas); large amount of ice buildup in seafood walk-in, defrost ASAP (as soon as possible); grease dripping onto floor from the oven in deli area; floor and floor drain in poor repair — meat department walk-in; corner wall in dairy walk-in in poor repair (bare wood exposed); venting near deli area unclean and venting near ovens and over deli meat open refrigeration.
• Wee Burn Country Club (main kitchen)— 410 Hollow Tree Ridge Road — June 6 — GOOD — 95
• Wee Burn Country Club (satellite kitchen) — 410 Hollow Tree Ridge Road — June 6 — GOOD — 96

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.

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Health / Health

A Darien Health Department inspection certificate posted on Darien Doughnuts window, near the door.

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, 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.