Two ‘C’ Ratings, One ‘A’ in Latest Health Inspections at Darien Restaurants

Two local restaurants inspected in the last week received a “C” and one an “A” in the latest food inspection reports released by Darien Health Department.

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 (Jan. 26)
• 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):

• 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.”
• Taco Bell — Darien South rest stop, Interstate 95 — Jan. 30 — Town Rating: A — State Score: 99
• Tengda Asian Bistro — 25 Old Kings Hwy. South — Feb. 1 — Town Rating: C — State Score: 81 — Inspector’s Remarks: “Lowboy refrigerator (sushi area) not cold holding (57 degrees) quail eggs stacked in fridge, large piece of yellowtail tuna; time/temperature logs not maintained for sushi rice (four-hour rule); washing hands in three-bay sink; washing cutting boards in prep sink with soap […]; no hot water and poor water pressure at hand sink in sushi area; paper towel unit […] in sushi area; duct tape inside bain marie unit, screws missing; plumbing issue at hand sink on the line, large amount of water on the floor.” Inspector’s additional comments: “Raw fish offered: striped bass, fluke, red snapper, salmon, uni, eel-cooked coming in fresh not frozen (frozen on-site at 10 degrees for 5 days per sushi head chef), escolar mackerel, yellowtail arrives frozen […] Discussion with the manager about removing bulky waste from outside, training logs and sushi freezing parameters left for review and implementation.”

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.

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.