Most Recent Darien Restaurant Health Inspection Results: 6 Good, 1 Poor

Six Darien food-serving establishments received “Good” ratings in the most recently released Darien Health Department inspections, and one was rated “Poor.”

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 (Aug. 5)
• 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 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 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 get a “Fair” or “Poor” inspection rating, occasionally the best do, and every restaurant normally gets a few things wrong):

• Bertucci’s Italian Restaurant — 54 Post Road — Aug. 9 — POOR — Inspector’s remarks: “Two custom cases not cold holding—product temp ranging from 50 to 56 degrees, saute and salad units; chicken (half chicken) cooling out on rack at 82 degrees, zucchini out cooling at 92 degrees; uncovered food in refrigeration, rolls/knots held uncovered on lower tray under ovens—close to floor; bare hand contact with RTE [ready-to-eat] foods upon entry (cheese?); storing items in hand sink area, unclean hand sink—pizza dough prep area; mold growth in low boy fridge (pizza/meatball fridge); cold water turned off at ware wash hand sink—leaking; no soap or paper towels in ladies (employee) restroom, no paper towels in prep area hand sink, soap dispenser not working at bar hand sink; knife stored under basket in prep station, ice scoop stored on top of ice machine; chest seafood freezer door downstairs in several pieces—poor repair; fruit flies observed in several areas (kitchen and bar)—last treated in July 2016; unclean walk-in [cooler?] floors downstairs; air-return vents very unclean—over-exposed lettuce/salad unit, ceiling downstairs in poor repair—moisture problem? service area vents moldy/unclean.” — Inspector’s additional comments: “Several meatballs stacked too high — talk to employees about over-stocking product, ice used to keep product cold holding in custom cases during dinner service, fix as soon as possible.”
• Chipotle Mexican Grill — Interstate 95 Darien North rest stop — Aug. 5 — GOOD — 97
• Center Street Public House — 22 Center St. — Aug. 4 — GOOD — 94
• Coromandel Cuisine of India — 25 Old Kings Hwy. N. — GOOD — 94
• Fjord Fish Market — 1015 Post Road — Aug. 10 — GOOD — 96
• Post Corner Pizza — 847 Post Road — Aug. 10 — GOOD — 96
• Sbarro — Interstate 95 Darien North rest stop — Aug. 5 — GOOD — 94

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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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.