Roaches in rice. Flies on cakes. Check restaurant inspections in South Florida

Repeat offenders, one of which is a retirement community, the usual vermin and an unusual amount of food thrown out for temperature violations highlight this week’s roll call of South Florida restaurants failing inspection.

The 13 eating spots on this week’s Sick and Shut Down List represent Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. They were closed after failing inspection by the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation. Inspections were either routine or sparked by customer complaints. Restaurants must pass a callback inspection before reopening.

In alphabetical order:

Brass Monkey Sports Bar and Grill, 7781 Lake Worth Rd., Unincorporated Palm Beach County

Routine inspection, 12 total violations, eight high priority violations

Haven’t we seen you here before? Back in April, roaches outnumbered the multiple holes in the kitchen walls and the handwashing was poor. So, what brings you back?

Rodents doing their business under the dishwasher (two droppings) and under a kitchen shelf “where clean dishes and pans are stored” (five droppings).

A dead roach was next to that same rack. Another 10 were in the back of a cookline flip-top cooler.

This inspection was Tuesday. Brass Monkey’s gravy was eight days old. The clam chowder, which you definitely want fresh, was nine days old. Stop Sales came down on both.

The Stop Sale party continued with cooked potatoes that, within two hours after cooking, needed to be cooled to 70 degrees. The taters measured 118 degrees. The diced tomatoes that needed to be kept at 41 degrees or below measured 61 degrees.

READ MORE: Publix recalls even more fruit linked to sicknesses in an E. coli outbreak

Craft Ft. Lauderdale, 551 N. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale

Routine inspection, 13 total violations, two high priority violations

“Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.”

An “in-use ice scoop was stored on a soiled surface between uses.” Where? “At the bar, the ice scoop was stored on the top on the side with black residue.”

Also at the bar, “flies were landing on the cut fruit caddy.” The caddy got evacuated, washed and sanitized. Some lime wedges and maraschino cherries were lost.

The flies liked the bar area. About 20 were “landing on the power cords of hanging lights over the bar” and another 20 were “landing on the wall next to the bar by the office.” Ten kept “landing on the drain behind the bar.”

A trash can blocked a cookline handwash sink.

READ MORE: Parkland food company recalls powder after a customer’s medical issue

Gourmet Creole, 416 E. Sample Rd., Pompano Beach

Complaint inspection, 13 total violations, three high priority violations

About 25 pieces of rodent poop sat on the bottom shelf of a food prep table in dry storage. Ten more pieces were behind the dry storage area refrigerator.

The staff for put a glue board under the food prep table, but they didn’t pick it up once it killed 10 roaches. Same for the glue board in a closet, which also had 10 roaches.

The kitchen “ceiling tiles and vents were soiled with accumulated food debris, grease, dust, or mold-like substance.”

Maybe the rodents were attracted to the “buildup of spilled dry rice and beans on floors, under tables and equipment in the dry storage area.”

Despite spending the night in a reach-in cooler, cooked chicken, cooked beef and pikliz measured 48, 51 and 49 degrees, earning a trio of Stop Sales. They needed to be at or under 41 degrees.

Ifra’s Indian Kitchen, 9543 S. Dixie Hwy., Pinecrest

Routine inspection, 22 total violations, six high priority violations

Four live roaches spread out across the kitchen, the two most prominent on a reach-in cooler and an empty container over the handwash sink. Five flies were in the kitchen and restroom.

The kitchen floor was described as “soiled/has an accumulation of debris.”

“Soiled” also described food and dish shelves, as well as the inside of the ovens, microwave and traditional.

Ifra’s got caught reusing single-service or single-use articles when the inspector saw “multiple containers of seasonings and yogurt reused for other food items.”

The reach-in cooler measured 54 degrees inside, so riddle: How could it keep at or under 41 degrees? Answer: It couldn’t, and Stop Sales sent lamb, chicken, cheese, cooked potatoes and cooked cauliflower into the trash.

The handwash sink didn’t have paper towels or a blower.

At the first callback inspection, several violations were repeated, the most living being six flies in the restroom, three dead roaches under lobby shelves and on a wall, and four live roaches in the kitchen “behind a window, shelf as well as coming out of the floor drain.”

For Callback No. 2, Inspection No. 3 overall, fewer violations, but they still included three live roaches.

Ifra’s passed the third callback inspection on Thursday.

READ MORE: An Aventura child supplement maker had no permit and used vodka as sanitizer

Just4Fun, 5701 Sunset Dr., South Miami

Routine inspection, one violation, zero high priority violations

This indoor playground, the kind of jump around place weary, busy parents hold kids’ birthday parties, lives in The Shops at Sunset Place retail cemetery.

“No dishwashing facilities of any kind provided.” The three-compartment sink was gone and there was “no dishwasher available for proper wash rinse and sanitizing.”

The manager said “the mall had them remove all warewashing equipment and the drain was sealed.”

Las Delicias Restaurant, 748 W. 49th St., Hialeah

Routine inspection, 18 total violations, five high priority violations

“Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.”

Seven roaches died under a kitchen food prep table. One climbed onto the table and died there.

Three live roaches huddled under a kitchen chest freezer. Three roaches were “inside a rice container.” Stop Sale on the rice.

South Florida’s heat must be exhausting these reach-in coolers as another bucket of Stop Sales came down on cooked pork, cooked rice, beans, cooked yuca, chicken soup, chicken wings and ground beef. All of the above remained too warm despite a sleepover in the reach-in cooler.

Raw pork was left uncovered inside a kitchen mop sink.

Lucky Cat Street Eatery, 6322 N. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale

Routine inspection, 13 total violations, nine high priority violations

The inspector counted 10 roaches “crawling on the floor, the wall behind the reach-in freezer and under the reach-in freezer on the cookline next to a cooler with food.”

Someone working with food “left the kitchen area, touched dirty surfaces in the dining room, touched his face, then put on gloves and started to make food without washing hands.” Yes, handwashing is required even if you’re putting on gloves.

Here’s another place where the coolers don’t do enough cooling. Stop Sales came down on cooked bamboo, raw breaded chicken and ha-boiled eggs.

The inspector noticed “multiple coolers in the kitchen” were overstocked. When you’re trying to cool cooked food, crowding warm and lukewarm containers of food into one place doesn’t get it done in a timely manner.

Palomino Gardens Retirement Community, 9885 Palomino Dr., Unincorporated Palm Beach County

Complaint inspection, six total violations, three high priority violations

You don’t expect a first appearance on this list, much less a repeat, for a place whose parent company brags, “At Resort Lifestyle Communities, our Signature Freedom Dining program is a standout reason why residents love living here. … Designed to mirror the dining experience of a luxury resort, we offer chef-prepared cuisine, flexible dining options, and a variety of inviting settings to enjoy with friends and family.”

Somebody fell out of love — a complaint sired this inspection.

Last August, most violations could be forgiven, but a swarm of over 100 flies shut things down for a couple of days. Well, the flies of Palomino Gardens came back, Jack, and did it again, only more efficiently with about 65 flies.

About 20 flies were “landing on a homemade fly trap container with liquid bait in the pantry room.” About 18 flies were on shelves and racks in that food pantry room. Nine flies hung out around clean dish storage racks. Three flies were on a kitchen meat slicer. Another threesome landed on bread molds. Five kitchen flies kept coming down on bags of bread.

When the inspector returned the next day, the food pantry featured “13 small live flying insects landing on shelves with sealed boxes of food” and six flies on a kitchen dish storage rack.

Later that day, the staff somehow kept the flies out long enough to pass a re-inspection.

Raja, 12794 Forest Hill Blvd., Wellington

Routine inspection, nine total violations, five high priority violations

And, a sorry to see you back to Raja, a rodent restroom when it made this list in September.

Rodents took dumps on a bucket of sauce in dry storage (one dropping), on a kitchen prep table (one dropping), on a bar floor under an ice bin (three dropping), and behind the bar on a shelf under a tap beer dispenser (one dropping).

Five dead roaches were spotted. Three roaches were “crawling behind shelf supports over unpackaged food in the dry storage area.”

Three flies were in the kitchen flying around the food prep and storage areas.

The “cooked rice dessert and candies at self service buffet were uncovered, no sneeze guard.”

The mounted can opener blade on the prep table was “heavily soiled.”

An “employee touched his face/mouth/nose while scratching/rubbing/wiping with hands then handled clean equipment and clean utensils to prepare food for customers without washing hands.”

Upon re-inspection, the kitchen rodent poop was down to two pellets. One live roach walked like The Omega Roach among approximately three dead roaches on the floor behind the bar. Another three dead roaches were on the kitchen floor.

Raja passed a same-day re-re-inspection.

Rendez-vous, 1576 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Oakland Park

Routine inspection, 10 total violations, three high priority violations

A door by the three-compartment sink “has a gap at the threshold that opens to the outside.”

And, could that be the entryway for whatever left four rodent droppings on a shelf next to dry pancake mix and one dropping on top of a pancake mix box?

Three roaches were dead and one roach stayed alive under dry storage shelves.

Workers left “containers of glaze on the floor in dry storage.”

Seabra Bakery & Cafe, 465-475 NE Spanish River Blvd., Boca Raton

Routine inspection, 21 total violations, 12 high priority violations

The inspector saw “four live ants crawling on a fresh fruit squeezing machine at front counter.” Is that as unnerving or icky as “six spiders on the ceiling in a dry storage area used to store flour and other canned foods?”

In addition to the ants, the inspector saw six flies landing on the fresh juice squeezer. Three were landing on baked cakes sitting on a rack (Stop Sales on the cakes). In total, the inspector counted 25 flies.

Sebra’s employees possessed fuzzy comprehension of the “sanitizing” concept, as demonstrated by the following violations.

An employee rinsed dishes after sanitizing. Sanitizing should have been the last step — wash, rinse, sanitize.

The three-compartment sink, where you manually wash, rinse and sanitize, measured zero on the sanitizer parts per million.

The wiping cloth storage bucket sanitizer also measured zero point zero on the sanitizer. So, it was just water.

The dishwasher “with soiled gloves put halfway on her hands, rinsed off dirty dishes, rinsed off with clean water, put in sanitizer compartment and rinsed off again with clean water. The employee kept repeating this without changing gloves and washing hands.”

“Numerous times” an employee “cracked raw shell eggs and touched clean utensils and plates before changing gloves and washing hands.”

There was a “heavy accumulation of food debris and grease behind all equipment and throughout the entire facility.”

Subway in Southland Mall, 20505 S. Dixie Hwy., Cutler Bay

Routine inspection, nine total violations, one High Priority

Foul funk from sewage backup will get you every time, as we told you earlier this week.

READ MORE: Sewage backup and accompanying stink shuts down a Cutler Bay Subway

Sushi Yan, 1929 N. Federal Hwy., Boca Raton

Routine inspection, 19 total violations, 10 High Priority violations

“Bags of rice and soy sauce were stored on the floor of the dry storage area.”

Guess where the inspector found rodent doo dots? “At the dry storage area, approximately 50 rodent droppings were observed: on the shelf, where single service containers and buckets of soy sauce are stored; under a shelf where bags of rice are stored; on the floor next to boxes of single service sushi base and lids; inside a saucer; next to a container of cashews.”

There were another four droppings next to a kitchen reach-in cooler.

Two flies buzzed the kitchen while three of their friends did the same in the dry food storage area.

The chef “cut raw salmon then began to handle a clean colander, clean spoon and clean pan” without washing his hands.

An employee “employee touched his clothes then handled bottles of sauces.”

“Fly sticky tape was hanging over clean pans stored near the three-compartment sink.”

A ceiling tile bulged by being “swollen from water damage, causing an opening in the ceiling inside the dry storage area. A pot is used to hold the ceiling tile up above a dry food storage rack.”

Someone ignoreed the label on the commercially processed reduced oxygen packaged tuna stating that it’s to stay frozen until you’re ready to cook it. Don’t remove it from the packaging even for thawing, which usually is allowed for reduced oxygen packaged seafood.

Instead, the tuna was thawing in the packaging, inviting bad bacteria growth, in the reach-in cooler. Stop Sale.