One Restaurant Gets a ‘C’ — the Worst Rating — in Latest Health Inspection Results for Darien Restaurants

One Darien restaurant received a “C” rating — the worst in the town A-B-C ratings system — in the most recently released town Health Department inspection reports.

A total of 17 health inspection reports were released on Thursday by the department. Twelve received “A” ratings; four each got a “B.” The inspections took place from  Nov. 9 to 27.

Here’s an alphabetical list of the most recently released health inspection results (an explanation for each part of the list, including links, is just below the list).

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 (an explanation of how this list is put together is immediately below it):

—Atria Darien — 50 Ledge Road — Nov. 27 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 89

—Coromandel Cuisine of India — Goodwives Shopping Center, 25 Old Kings Hwy. North — Nov. 21 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 94

—Cesco’s Trattoria — Goodwives Shopping Center, 25 Old Kings Hwy. North — Nov. 21 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 95

—Dunkin Donuts — Darien North rest stop, Interstate 95 — Nov. 16 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 92

—Dunkin Donuts — Darien South rest stop, Interstate 95 — Nov. 9 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 96

—Jake’s Place — 4 Ledge Road — Nov. 21 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 93

—McDonald’s — Darien North rest stop, Interstate 95 — Nov. 19 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 95

—McDonald’s — Darien South rest stop, Interstate 95 — Nov. 16 — Town Rating: A— State Score: 95

—The Melting Pot — 14 Grove St. — Nov. 26 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 94

—Post Corner Pizza — 847 Post Road — Nov. 26 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 90

—Rory’s — 416 Post Road — Nov. 19 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 93

—Sbarro — Darien North rest stop, Interstate 95 — Nov. 19 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 93

—Sbarro — Darien South rest stop, Interstate 95 — Nov. 14 — Town Rating: B — State Score: 91

—Steam — 971 Post Road — Nov. 27 — Town Rating: C — State Score: 82 — Inspector’s Remarks: “Food not covered in various parts of the kitchen, including the walk-ins [refrigerators]; large bag of corn starch on the floor; no hand washing by an employee after using his personal phone, and no hand washing by another employee after taking out the trash; no sanitizer b uckets set up in the kitchen, prep [preparation area] or three-bay [sink]; unclean wiping cloths in use; soap dispenser at line hand sink not working; granular items not in original [containers] unlabeled in both kitchen and prep areas; several portions thawing on counter (chicken, beef and pork); around prep sink unclean, rolling tray near line unclean, under line unclean–grease buildup; two leaks at the three-bay [sink] faucet; hood system unclean and dripping over exposed foods—hood was turned on during inspection, ceiling light panels off, ceiling cracked and hanging near ice machine.” — Inspector’s comments: “Large five-gallon buckets of old grease in the kitchen, water wash hood system with foul odor–is this working properly? New employee handling raw chicken and not sanitizing after, using a dry wiping cloth to clean area and slicer. Employee training–was this completed?”

—Subway — Darien North rest stop, Interstate 95 — Nov. 16 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 98

—Subway — Darien South rest stop, Interstate 95 — Nov. 15 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 98

—Taco Bell — Darien North rest stop, Interstate 95 — Nov. 19 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 96

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 (Nov. 15)
  
• 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.