Two Restaurants with Poor Ratings: For One, Rating Improves, for the Other, It Worsens

One of the Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants in Darien received a very good score in its most recent inspection, after its “Poor” score in the previous inspection.

During the same period, Fuji’s Restaurant, which had a low score, received an even worse one in the most recent health inspection reports released by the Darien Health Department.

Chipotle Mexican Grill

Along with nationwide publicity when customers were sickened after eating at Chipotle restaurants in various states, here in Darien the Health Department gave “Poor” ratings to both the Chipotle at 71 Post Road and at the Darien North rest stop on Interstate 95.

The rest stop eatery received a score of 93 under the state ratings system, but a “Poor” rating under the Darien system largely because (like its fellow store on the Post Road), employees didn’t seem to be trained properly.

The rest stop Chipotle’s was reinspected on Jan. 5 and passed with flying colors. A single violation was found, resulting in a 2-point deduction from a perfect 100 score: “Rinsing metal glove in the hands sink.”

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Sanitarian Mindy Chambrelli added these remarks at the bottom of the inspection (which didn’t affect the state score): “Hand washing observed, additional training completed.” Result: “Good” on the three-part Darien scale (of “Good/Fair/Poor”).

Fuji’s Restaurant

In a Dec. 22 inspection, a Health Department inspector cited Fuji’s Restaurant at 111 Old Kings Hwy. N. several times for code violations related to sanitizing and several more times for unclean parts of the kitchen.

In that inspection, the restaurant received a score of 88 in the state ratings system, and while the sanitarian gave the restaurant a “Fair” rating, Health Director David Knauf, head of the department, said the rating in this case should’ve been “Poor,” and he ordered a reinspection.

In that inspection, conducted Dec. 31, the same kinds of code violations cropped up and the restaurant received an even worse score of 85 in the state system, and this time a “Poor” in the Darien system.

Sanitizing again came up repeatedly in the inspector’s remarks, each of which related to a health code violation (separated here by semicolons): “no sanitizer in sanitizer bucket; food contact surfaces not sanitized every 4 hours; wiping cloths not kept in sanitizer between use.”

Violations related to cleanliness also came up: “hand sink used for purposes other than washing hands; outside of fryer unclean; dishwasher area unclean; walls behind and adjacent to fryer unclean.”

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You can read all the comments further down in this article, and comments from the previous inspection by going to this article. You can see more Fuji’s Restaurant inspection reports by following the links from this Health Department Web page, which shows the restaurant did not receive a “Good” rating in any of the most recent six inspections, going back to Jan. 16, 2015.

How Darien’s restaurants are rated

Restaurants in town are rated under the Darien Health Department’s own Good/Fair/Poor 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.

The Darien system takes into account problems that are ongoing or that have been fixed, so a restaurant scoring higher than others on the state scale may actually get a lower score on the Darien scale, or vice versa.

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 in the same place.

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See also:

• Our previous article showing restaurant inspection ratings (Dec. 29)
• You Can Now Read Full Health Inspection Reports on Darien Restaurants Online (Dec. 8)
• Health Director: Chipotle Seems to Have Had Problems Training Employees in Health Practices (Dec. 29)

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Any establishment actually deemed unsafe can be closed by the town Health Department until violations are fixed. Knauf says that has never happened in the time he’s been with the department.

(In the list of health inspection results, below, information is listed by name, address, date of inspection, Darien rating, state score. Dates link to the restaurant’s inspection report online, if it’s available yet, and Darien ratings link to a Web page showing the restaurant’s recent inspection ratings.

(For restaurants and other food-serving establishments rated “poor,” and for some others of interest to the public (like schools) additional information is given: inspector’s comments that led to the state rating and additional remarks on the inspection report [information within brackets has 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 a perfect state score of 100 points]. Darienite.com will change abbreviations, punctuation and other grammar to fit our editorial style, usually silently, sometimes with brackets, you can see the original online.)

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 “Fair” or “Poor” inspection rating, and occasionally the best do, and everyone normally gets a few things wrong):

• Abello’s Deli — 72 Tokeneke Road — inspected on Jan. 4 — Darien rating: “Fair” — state rating: 93
• Chipotle Mexican Grill — Darien North rest stop on Interstate 95 — Jan. 5 — “Good” — 98
• Coromandel Cuisine — Goodwives Shopping Center at 25 Old Kings Hwy. N. — Jan. 4 — “Good” — 93  (see also “Coromandel Cuisine Named One of Best Indian Restaurants in CT & What Else Is on the List“)
• Darien Pizza — 55 Old Kings Hwy. N. — Dec. 31 — “Fair” — 88
• Fjord Fish Market — 1015 Post Road — Dec. 29 — “Fair” — 89 — Health Director David Knauf directed the inspector to conduct a reinspection because a new facility “should have a ‘Good’ rating,” Knauf said. Darien Health Department generally gives all new establishments a “Good” rating, largely because a restaurant’s ongoing practices strongly influence the Darien rating. On Jan. 6 the establishment received a “Good” rating and a state score of 94.
• Fuji’s Restaurant — 111 Old Kings Hwy. N. — Dec. 31 — “Poor” —85 — inspector’s comments: “containers with food stored on floor in walk-in freezer; hand sink used for purposes other than washing hands; no sanitizer in sanitizer bucket; food contact surfaces not sanitized every 4 hours; wiping cloths not kept in sanitizer between use; granular mislabeled; ice buildup in walk-in freezer, plastic shopping bags used to store foods; outside of fryer unclean; dishwasher area unclean; utensils stored hanging from cooking equipment; garbage/recyclables not removed from kitchen in an approved manner; walls behind and adjacent to fryer unclean; unnecessary articles throughout kitchen.”
• Rory’s — 416 Post Road — Jan. 4 — “Fair” — 92
• Steam — 971 Post Road — Jan. 4 — “Fair” — 87
• Vavala’s Delicatessan/Caterer — 156 Heights Road — Dec. 22 — “Good” — 94