Kitchen Cops 3/13/08

Planning to dine out this weekend? Three local restaurants scored low with health inspectors. This week's lowest score belongs to China Garden at 3905 Independence Boulevard in Wilmington. Five points off for cooked shrimp too warm in the cooler and no cooling times or temperatures for cooked chicken, pork, noodles and egg rolls. Five more points for raw meat stored above and beside cooked and ready-to-eat foods and sauces. Three more because soy sauce bucket lids are not easily cleanable and should not be reused as a food container. And zip lock sandwich bags should not be reused. Just five violations in all, but a score of 84. To Brunswick County and a repeat offender at Betty's Waterfront Restaurant in Supply. The inspector took four points for an on-going problem with pest droppings in the bar and the dry storage room. Glasses in the bar need to be cleaned regularly, and they need to be removed until the area is completely clean and all rodent dropping are removed. And worn and damaged equipment needs to be replaced. 85 for Betty's Waterfront Restaurant. Finally back to Wilmington and Fat Tony's Italian Pub on Front Street. The inspector saw a worker wipe food off the top edge of a customer's plate of food with a towel that had been around the worker's neck. Problems with the way garlic bread, breaded egg plant, chicken and other food was stored including food stored under a condensation drip in the walk-in cooler. There was a roach in the bar ice bin and rodent droppings in a storage closet. And several things need cleaning. 86.5 for Fat Tony's. One Brunswick County eatery made this week's kitchen cops high performers list. The Reserve at St. James in Southport leads the way. A half-point deduction and a reminder to reseal and wipe down the walls behind the hot dog roller, clean the floors in the downstairs storage room and in the corners next to the reach-in cooler. Add in a two-point bonus for workers passing a food safety course for a total of 101.5.