One Darien Restaurant Gets Second ‘C’ Rating in a Row in Latest Health Inspection Reports

For the second time in almost two weeks, one Darien restaurant received a rating of “C,” — the worst in the town’s A-B-C ratings system —  in the eight food health inspection reports released Thursday by Darien Health Department.

The most recent batch of reports are from inspections that took place from Feb. 20 to March 4. Four of the establishments inspected received a rating of “A.” Three others received a “B.”

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):

—Country Club of Darien — 300 Mansfield Ave. — March 1 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 93

—Country Club of Darien Satellite Kitchen — 300 Mansfield Ave. — March 1 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 91

—Hibachi Sushi Ya REINSPECTION — 111 Old Kings Hwy. North — March 1 — Town Rating: C — State Score: 82 — Inspector’s Remarks: “No thermometer in sushi display case; raw meats stored over vegetables in hibachi reach-in cooling unit; box of broccoli stored on top of trash receptacle; hand sink unclean; surfaces not properly sanitized between cutting raw chicken and broccoli; utensils stored unclean in kitchen, sushi; no paper towels at prep hand sink; labeling issues in kitchen; uncleanable cardboard and styrofoam containers used to store hibachi utensils, condiments; two cutting boards severely grooved and stained; multiple non-food contact surfaces unclean; pooling of water in sushi and cook line bain maries; floors unclean, cracked floor tiles in kitchen; paint peeling from ceiling in prep area.” — Inspector’s Comments: “Current rating not posted but corrected. Hand washing improved, more training needed. More effort needed for peeling paint on ceiling. Walk-in cooling units clean and organized. Rest of establishment must follow.”

—Jimmy’s Southside Tavern — 340 Heights Road — March 1 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 91

—Juice Press — 72 Heights Road — March 4 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 96

—Sbarro Darien Southbound REINSPECTION — Darien South rest stop, Interstate 95 — Feb. 27 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 93

—Shake Shack — 1340 Post Road — Feb. 27 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 97

—Steam — 971 Post Road — Feb. 20 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 89

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.

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 (“;”) separate individual comments by the inspectors. Each comment separated by semicolons is about a particular violation that triggers a deduction of one or more points from a perfect state score of 100.

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See also:

• Our previous article showing restaurant inspection ratings (Feb. 21)
  
• STAMFORD online health inspection results
• NORWALK online health inspection ratings (explanation of ratings)

You can find the past several inspection ratings under the Darien ratings system for food-serving establishments along with copies of inspection reports, including state health code scores on this website.

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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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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. Town Health Director David Knauf says that has never happened in the time he’s been with the department.