One ‘C’ Rating in Most Recent Darien Health Inspections of Restaurants

Here’s how Darien restaurants and other food-serving places fared in the latest inspection reports, released Thursday by the Darien Health Department.

The department as of Thursday released 18 reports of inspection visits from Sept. 8 to Oct. 21. Of those, 15 inspections resulted in an “A” rating. One establishment was rated “C” (and on re-inspection was rated “A”). One restaurant received a “B,” and an ice cream shop was also inspected, although it wasn’t the type of establishment that gets a rating.

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.

Here’s an alphabetical list of the most recently released health inspection results (an explanation of how this list is put together is immediately below it):

— Coromandel Cuisine of India — Goodwives Shopping Center, 25 Old Kings Hwy. North — Sept. 21 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 92

— Crepes Choupette — 1029 Post Road — Sept. 21 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 97

— Darien Diner — 275 Post Road — Sept. 19 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 94

— Darien High School — High School Lane — Sept. 14 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 98

— Darien Seafood Market — 1941 Post Road — Sept. 19 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 96

— Diane Browne Catering — 865 Post Road — Sept. 19 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 96

— Four Forks — 7 Tokeneke Road — Sept. 19 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 96

— Gofer Ice Cream — 1020 Post Road — Sept. 21 — Note: Ratings are not given to this category of food-serving establishments.

— Heights Pizza — 882 Post Road— Sept. 21 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 94

— Holmes School — 18 Hoyt St. — Oct. 12 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 99

— Jake’s Place — 4 Ledge Road — Oct. 12 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 95

— La Taqueria — 1077 Post Road — Sept. 8 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 96

— Nino’s — 390 Post Road — Oct. 12 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 95

— Pho Fans Vietnamese — 971 Post Road — Sept. 7 — Town Rating: C — State Score: 86 — VIOLATIONS: “Cooked rice noodles left out on the line (91 to 93 degrees) FSE establishment without customers? Three individuals walked in during inspection; raw meats stored above other ready-to-eat food in walk-in cooler (unorganized); no sanitizer set up during a busy prep time and just after lunch service; slicer is being rinsed in prep sink (corrective action during inspection); how are large pots sanitized …. owner says they clean with water and wash in place; bamboo bowled with paper stored unclean? reused; thawing proteins at room temperature; leak under prep sink (bowl catching waste water).” — INSPECTOR’S COMMENTS: “Hood turned off, paper cover rolling carts on the line, staff needs documented training … information provided, protect the bar ice, and do not leave wiping cloths covering food in refrigeration. Hand-washing reminder about using the correct sink with soap [and] paper towels. Rating not posted from previous inspection!”

— Pho Fans Vietnamese — 971 Post Road — Sept. 19 Reinspection — Town Rating: A — State Score: 98

— Restaurant L’Ostal — 22 Center St. — Sept. 14 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 98

— Soiree (caterers) — First Congregational Church, 14 Brookside Road — Aug. 31 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 100

— Vavala’s Deli — 156 Heights Road — Sept. 14 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 93

Dates (normally in this regular weekly feature, but not as of publication time for this article) 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 (those Web pages are also down as of publication time).

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. Each comment separated by semicolons is about a particular violation that triggers a deduction of one or more points (called “demerits”) from a perfect state score of 100.

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How Darien’s Food-Serving Places Are 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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Here’s the most recent previous article on health inspections.

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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.

Any establishment actually deemed unsafe can be closed by the town Health Department until violations are fixed.