At La Casita de Dona Machi on Eastern and Sahara, a 39-demerit C grade left them two shy of getting shut down.
"And I'm sure that wasn't something that made you all very happy," said Contact 13 Chief Investigator Darcy Spears. "We'd just like to know what you have to say and how you explain the violations and what you plan to do to make good."
Chef Susana Sandoval said "I have 15 days for putting everything right and I'm working on that now."
Inspectors found grease dripping onto food prep areas from hood filters.
Cooked carrots, corn on the cob, pico de gallo and shrimp were left uncovered in the walk-in and subject to contamination.
Darcy Spears: They said someone was using their bare hands to touch food. You know about that one?
Susana Sandoval: Yeah, I know. I know now and I know always, I know, so something happened and I don't have my gloves on my hands, so now I'm good.
There was also improper handwashing and a custard dessert brought in from an unknown source.
Darcy: There was no invoice, no record, no company name. Where did that custard come from?
Susana: Um, one man from Guadalajara normally come in and all Mexican restaurants sell this kind of dessert.
She says she's been selling it for years and it's never come up in previous health inspections.
But something that did? A repeat violation for food not cooled properly.
They had to throw out chicken broth, menudo, pozole and two buckets of chicken.
Susana: I put it in the garbage and very more be careful now.
Darcy: That's expensive to lose all that food.
Susana: Oh yeah, lot of money.
Inspectors also found large, live flies on food contact surfaces and lots of old food debris on equipment.
Darcy: The can opener blade, the slicer, the mixer, the blender--they were all stored as clean but they were dirty. What happened there?
Susana: Um, well, Saturday and Sunday is too busy over here and I no have time for check that, so now everything is perfect.
Our first imminent health hazard closure is Bangkok Orchid on Sunset and Mountain Vista where health inspectors validated a customer's complaint about cockroaches.
They also found walls, ceilings and floors laden with grease and food debris.
And sticky tape chock full of flies hanging near the sink.
Midori Japanese restaurant and sushi bar on Green Valley Parkway and Pebble was also closed due to a cockroach infestation.
Inspectors found roaches both dead and alive and plenty of roach droppings on walls and ceilings.
And Romano's Macaroni Grill on Stephanie near Sunset was also shut down after inspectors validated a complaint that the restaurant was preparing food when there was no water available throughout the entire facility--so no one was able to wash their hands.
La Casita still has a C grade but expects re-inspection before the end of this week.
All the rest are back open with A grades.
