Moldy pork. Running rodents. No running water. South Florida restaurant filth

One of the 11 restaurants on this week’s Sick and Shut Down List of South Florida restaurants that failed inspection broke ground with a new violation we haven’t seen in almost a decade of reporting inspections.

An inspector hit a bunch of food with Stop Sale orders. The restaurant served the food anyway.

Once again, we state that we don’t do the inspections nor do we choose who gets inspected. Both of those are handled by the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation. Complaint inspections spawn from customer complaints to the DBPR.

Restaurants that fail inspection remain closed until they pass a re-inspection or callback inspection. The first of those usually occurs the next day. Unless otherwise stated, restaurants passed their first callback inspection.

In alphabetical order, the worst of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties…

Amar Sandwich Shop, 522 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach

Complaint inspection, five total violations, three High Priority violations

You can’t have four pieces of rodent poop, even in an unused pizza dough bowl, and stay open. There was one more poop piece on the floor by the pizza dough machine.

None of the handwash sinks had paper towels.

Asahi Restaurant, 9240 W. Commercial Blvd., Sunrise

Complaint inspection, 20 total violations, eight High Priority violations

The inspector saw an “accumulation of dead flying insects on fly traps in kitchen.” Despite being apparently effective, you can’t have “fly sticky tape hanging over food, food preparation area or food-contact equipment.”

Alas, four flies escaped the deadly sticky tape and were “at the food preparation station, landing on precooked chicken.” Stop Sale on the chicken.

Over in the dishwashing area, 10 flies landed on clean food containers and a prep table. Two flies buzzed the cookline and were “landing on an in-use cutting board.” No more can that cutting board be called “sanitized.”

Someone “washed hands with no soap.” So, in other words, the employee got his/her hands wet.

The inspector saw an “employee touch gloves with his mouth and continue to engage in food preparation without changing gloves.”

The “walls throughout the kitchen soiled with an accumulation of black mold-like substances and old food residues.”

El Rancho Bakery and Restaurant, 6023 Kimberly Blvd., North Lauderdale

Routine inspections, 19 total violations, seven High Priority violations

Of the seven live roaches seen, five were “seen crawling in the crease of the wall behind the chest freezer in the warewashing area.”

The floor under the three-compartment sink was “covered with standing water.”

The wiping cloth sanitizer strength measured none: zero parts per million.

The manager “came to work, put on gloves and went to the cookline to start making orders without washing hands.”

Maybe the manager didn’t feel like flapping their arms to dry them, seeing as how the cookline handwash sink didn’t have paper towels or a blower.

Two deep buckets of cooked black beans had been in the walk-in cooler cooling overnight. But, because they were “being cooled by a nonapproved method as evidenced by the inadequate rate of cooling,” they measured 51 and 52 degrees. They needed to be at 41 or below. Stop Sale and Stop Sale.

READ MORE: Unsafe croquetas and empanadas plus dirty equipment cited at a Vecky Bakery

Kelly’s Cajun Grill in Westland Mall, 1635 W. 49th St., Hialeah

Routine inspection, 23 total violations, four High Priority violations

Here’s this week’s first appearance of that staple violation: “accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.”

An employee came from the bathroom and “began work without washing his/her hands.”

Food was “stored in dirty plastic containers at the walk-in cooler.”

Some rodent left four droppings under a kitchen food prep table.

A cookline freezer contained 10 roach corpses. Six were in the walk-in cooler. Three were under cookline equipment.

Someone didn’t understand single-use gloves meant one task, not one day. “Observed employee changing tasks without changing gloves.”

Standing water covered the floor under shelves at the walk-in cooler.

“Interior of the oven/microwave has an accumulation of black substance/grease/food debris.”

The sauce containers weren’t covered at the cookline.

On the cookline, “cardboard used on the floor as an anti-slip measure was not replaced every day or when heavily soiled, whichever comes first.”

The wiping cloth chlorine sanitizing solution lacked proper chlorine sanitizer.

La Guajira Pizza Cubana, 1905 W. 60th St., Hialeah

Routine inspection, 10 total violations, two High Priority violations

Dust was “accumulated on a fan located at the pizza assembly area.”

The back door was fully open during the inspection, inviting the local roaches. Four came in for their last party and died in the kitchen mop sink. Three died by the kitchen reach-in freezer.

Three live roaches were by the pizza assembly area in the kitchen. One roach crawled on the oven. Three roaches hung out by the back door. Four live roaches were in the dishwashing area.

Las Carnitas Latin Cuisine, 3305 N. Federal Hwy., Pompano Beach

Routine inspection, 12 total violations, one High Priority violation

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

About 30 roaches died on the glue board under the front counter microwave. One made it to the clean utensil rack in the warewashing area before his clock struck 0:00.

Flies beat roaches on survival rate. The inspector counted 35, 20 of which were “resting on the wall around the dish machine.” .

Four were on a shelf and single service styrofoam food containers. Two were “resting on a breadcrumbs container at a kitchen storage rack.”

The inside of the microwave had an “accumulation of black substance/grease/food debris…”

The Original Pancake House, 105 S. State Rd. 7, Royal Palm Beach

Routine inspection, eight total violations, three High Priority violations

You know what’s not original about this place? Making the Sick and Shut Down List. This is the first time for this location of “Original Pancake House,” but the third one to make the list just in the last year.

Once again, we start with an “accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.”

Rodents love dry storage areas. These furry vermin left over 40 poop pellets on the dry storage floor. More than 30 were behind the cookline and grill area equipment. More than 20 dotted the floor of the dishwashing area.

Behind the cookline equipment, the rodent dung shared space with 20 dead roaches.

“At the front counter, an employee touched hair, handled soiled dishes then touched clean plates and utensils without washing hands.”

Did the employee know the handwash sink didn’t have any soap?

The cookline cutting board had “deep groove marks, and is no longer easily cleanable.”

Pubbelly Sushi, 8970 SW 72nd Pl., Kendall

Routine inspection, eight total violations, three High Priority violations

There sat “one case of potatoes with approximately 20 live flies inside the plastic bin, touching the product.” Big Stop Sale on the potatoes.

Three flies also were on just washed, dried and sanitized cooking equipment. Two were on a box of parchment paper. Two buzzed the area outside the walk-in freezer.

The cold holding equipment was broken. Management was told to not use it until the unit was fixed.

Quates Mexican Restaurant, 3701 N. Andrews Ave., Oakland Park

Routine inspection, 14 total violations, six High Priority violations

The kitchen looked like a big roach cemetery with 27 dead roaches sprinkled around the area and the walk-in cooler. Ten died in a control device behind a cookline tank. Five died inside a dishwasher control panel. Three were on the floor over here in a prep area next to the kitchen, another three were over there on the ground next to the walk-in cooler.

As for the surviving roaches, three were in a flip top cooler gasket on the cookline, two were inside the control panel atop the dishwasher with their five dead friends. One was behind a wall-mounted internet router in the dishwashing area and another under the three-compartment sink.

Unsurprisingly, the inspector saw an “accumulation of roach excrement around the wall mounted internet router in the dishwashing area.

A Stop Sale came down on the “cooked pork stored in the walk-in cooler with mold-like growth.”

Less gruesome, but also dangerous, were food that needed to be kept at or under 41 degrees, but were well above that line after a sleepover in the walk-in cooler. Stop Sales rained on cooked beef, cooked rice, cooked white rice, refried beans and raw chicken.

The “interior of the microwave has an accumulation of black substance/grease/food debris.”

The “cookline cutting board has cut marks and is no longer cleanable.”

Everyone else passed their re-inspections. These folks had theirs ruined by the next shift of roaches, the five who died and the nine spotting living their lives.

Quates passed the re-re-inspection.

Sweet Bubble in Southland Mall, 20505 S. Dixie Hwy., Cutler Bay

Routine inspection, 11 total violations, four High Priority violations

“Five flies flying around the booth and landing on the three-compartment sink and clean equipment” was, by far, the secondary problem.

“Establishment operating with no potable running water…As per employee the establishment has not had running water since last Sunday.”

So, that’s no running water at the three-compartment sink.

Nobody’s washing their hands. Water of at least 85 degrees at the handwash sink? No, no hot water, no warm water, no cold water during the inspection.

Tom Sawyer Restaurant & Pastry Shop, 1759 NW Second Ave., Boca Raton

Routine inspection, 20 total violations, 14 High Priority violations

When Tom Sawyer made this list last September, live roaches partied on the kitchen floor near the window where the kitchen puts up finished food for wait staff pickup and in a paper towel dispenser. Another standout problem: handwashing seemed unpopular among staff.

Still, that inspection makes Tom Sawyer look sterile enough for a heart transplant compared to what the inspector found on July 15.

Even after the inspector found food that needed to be tossed into the garbage, management and staff served it to customers. Let’s just let the inspector tell it.

“Operator failed to comply with a Stop Sale Notice. Food for which a Stop Sale Notice was issued continued to be prepared for service/served to the public.”

Milk, sour cream, cream cheese, coleslaw and butter had been in the reach-in cooler for more than four hours without getting down to 41 degrees. The inspector dropped Stop Sales on all of them.

The “Stop Sale was explained/communicated to the Operator, who acknowledged it and then communicated to servers that items must be discarded. Items continued to be served to customers after stop sale issued and communicated to staff.”

“Butter and ultra pasteurized half-and-half remained on customers’ table after one customer ate/left through new customers being seated at same table.”

Something new has been added to something old: “Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance and hair (attached to the chute shield not in contact with ice) in the interior of the ice machine/bin.”

Three dead roaches under a handwashing sink. Two live roaches “crawled on the floor next to the oven.”

Handwashing remains a problem.

“Employee(s) entered the kitchen/establishment by the rear exit door, then handled clean equipment, clean utensils and prepared beverages/food for customers without washing hands.”

“Employee handled soiled dishes while washing/rinsing then handled clean/sanitized dishes in removing them from the dishwasher…” There was no handwashing between those tasks.

“Employees touched their faces (mouth/nose/forehead) and hair while scratching/rubbing/repositioning then continued handling clean equipment, clean utensils and preparing food/drinks for customers without washing hands.”

“Employees touched cellphones, a garbage can, picked trash up off floor then continued handling clean equipment, clean dishes and preparing food/drinks for customers without washing hands.”

A server “removed soiled dishes from a customer’s table, then picked up plated food, prepared beverages and toasted bread for other customers without washing hands.”

The soap dispenser at the cookline handwash sink wasn’t working. The warewashing are handwash sink didn’t have any way to dry your hands.