Latest Darien Food Service Inspections: One Rated ‘Poor,’ Three ‘Fair,’ Six ‘Good’

One Darien food-serving establishment received a “Poor” rating; three others, “Fair” and six others (including two schools), “Good” in the most recent Darien Health Department food service inspections.

The inspections reported in this article took place from Friday, May 6 through Wednesday, May 11. 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 9)
• 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):

RESTAURANTS

•  Chipotle Mexican Grill — Darien North rest stop, Interstate 95 — May 9 — GOOD — 95
• The Cho Bop Inc. — 1015 Post Road — May 11 — GOOD — 96
• Darien Social — 10 Center St. — May 9 — GOOD — 97
• Duchess Restaurant  — 306 Post Road — May 11 — POOR — 93 — Inspector’s remarks: “Chili at 110 and 115 degrees; marinara at 115 degrees; improper reheating of potentially hazardous foods; evidence of fruit flies; floors unclean.” Inspector’s additional comments: “Improvements made, but heating in a steam bath is not an option. Chili and marinara reheated to 165 degrees in my presence.”
• Fisherman’s Net — 11 Old King’s Hwy. N. — May 11 — GOOD — 95
• Matsuri Grill — 390 Post Road — May 6 — FAIR — 88
• Sbarro — Darien North rest stop, Interstate 95 — May 9 — FAIR — 93
• Stop & Shop — Goodwives Shopping Center, 25 Old Kings Hwy. N. — May 11 — FAIR — 91

SCHOOLS

• Middlesex Middle School — 204 Hollow Tree Ridge Road — May 9 — GOOD — 98
• Royle School — 133 Mansfield Ave. — May 9 — GOOD — 100

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.