One local restaurant received a “C” rating, four others each received a rating of “B”; and “A” ratings went to three more in the latest food-serving establishment health inspection reports released by Darien Health Department.
Town Health Department ratings certificates are supposed to be displayed prominently, like this one at the Frosty Bear Cafe at Darien Library.
Details about the towns rating system for restaurants and other food serving establishments are at the bottom of this article, and you can find an article about the ratings system here.
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’s own A/B/C 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 (Feb. 16)
- Darien Health Department Starts Letter Grades for Food Service Inspections
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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 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 poor inspection rating, occasionally the best do, and every restaurant normally gets a few things wrong):
- Convent of St. Birgitta — 4 Runkenhage Road — Feb. 17 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 100
- Heights Pizza — 330 Heights Road — Feb. 15 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 94
- Jennifer’s Kitchen @ White Bridge — 284 Tokeneke Road — Feb. 21 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 94
- Jimmy’s Southside Tavern — 340 Heights Road — Feb. 13 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 93
- Matsuri Grill — 390 Post Road — Feb. 15 — Town Rating: C — State Score: 82 — Inspector’s Remarks: “Cooling chicken on shelf at 68 degrees; raw chicken in walk-in [refrigerator] over beef and ready-to-eat foods; food on the floor of walk-in freezer, rice on floor in dry storage; bowl in soy sauce: no handle; misuse of hand sink (lettuce in hand sink) and washing utensils in prep sink and hand sink (sushi area); knife stored unclean in storage; no hot water in sushi bar hand sink; shellfish tags not maintained for 90 days: not organized; thawing yellow tail in a bucket (on the floor); floors unclean: grease buildup near fryer.” Inspector’s comments: “Greek orato, fluke, striped bass, red snapper, salmon all listed fish served fresh. Salmon frozen in freezer at 0 degrees for a few days (escolar served bought frozen) […] Do not leave produce outside to dry! Training of staff? Training template left again.”
From the Feb. 15 town health inspection report for Matsuri Grill
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HERE’S WHAT THE PREVIOUS INSPECTION OF MATSURI GRILL SAID (from our Jan. 27 article: Matsuri Grill — 390 Post Road — Jan. 27 — Town Rating: C — State Score: 81 — Inspector’s Remarks: “Rice held at 95 degrees/tempura shrimp at 70 degrees; no thermometer in sushi cooling unit; no sanitizer set up in kitchen; food contact surfaces not properly sanitized every four hours; dishwasher not properly working; cutting board grooved and stained. Must be replaced; label all granular; chipped bowls in use; reuse of single-serve items; shelving above three-bay sink unclean; floors unclean; grease buildup on hood; back of establishment/dumpster area harboring unnecessary debris.”
Part of the Jan. 27, 2017 Health inspection report for Matsuri Grill.
- Meatball & Co. — 23 Tokeneke Road — Feb. 10 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 96
- New Beijing Restaurant — 5 Tokeneke Road — Feb. 15 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 93
- Stop and Shop Supermarket — 148 Heights Road — Feb. 22 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 94
How Darien’s restaurants are now 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.
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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.
The “A”, “B” and “C” letter grades a restaurant gets in its last inspection will be prominent on these certificates, which must be posted where customers can see them, and you can use your phone and the “QR” code to the right of the letter grade to get to the department’s ratings website for more information.
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.