Stinky wastewater backup at IHOP among worst South Florida restaurant issues

Food admin September 18, 2026 0 Comments

Stinky wastewater backup at IHOP among worst South Florida restaurant issues

This week’s list of South Florida restaurants failing inspection doesn’t bring volume — four restaurants — but does bring a strong amount of disgust.

Inspections are done by the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation. Complaint inspections are from customer complaints about restaurants, which can be filed online.

Restaurants that fail inspection are closed until they pass a re-inspection. The re-inspection usually occurs the following day, although some inspectors will do a same-day re-inspection.

In alphabetical order:

Golden Corral, 1734 W. 49 St., Hialeah

Routine inspection, 11 total violations, five high priority violations

We told you this week about the inspector finding filth and evidence of vermin, both insect and furry, on the buffet line.

READ MORE: Roaches and rodents on the buffet line at a Hialeah Golden Corral

IHOP, 1503 Belvedere Rd., West Palm Beach

Complaint inspection, 15 total violations, four high priority violations

“Objectionable odor coming from the rear of the ice machine near the floor drain.”

That’swas likely from the “sewage/wastewater backing up through the floor drains.” The drain under the ice machine at the kitchen entrance backed up “when the handwash sink was in use or the ice machine drained water. The area cannot be isolated. The cook walked through water to the walk-in cooler and the cookline.”

A roach died in the chemical storage room.

At the dishwasher, 18 flies were “landing on dishwashing drying racks, shelves and … on soiled dishes.”

The dishwasher lacked sanitizer.

“Multiple cookline reach-in cooler door handles and gaskets were soiled with an accumulation of slime-like residues.”

“Multiple ceiling vents in the customer dining room were soiled with an accumulation of dust debris.”

“Multiple cutting boards at the cookline are grooved and no longer cleanable.”

There was a “large accumulation of trash debris on the ground around the dumpster.”

The IHOP passed a same-day re-inspection.

READ MORE: Walmart store brand frozen food recalled nationwide after listeria found

Nissen’s Catering, 7495 Park Lane Rd., Unincorporated Palm Beach County

Routine inspection, 16 total violations, 11 high priority violations

Rodents left six poop pellets on the kitchen floor under prep tables, storage shelves and equipment.

Three roach corpses lay in the kitchen at the dishwashing area.

The inspector spotted “one live roach in the kitchen crawling on the wall over/behind the three-compartment sink” and a roach couple “crawling into the lighting timer control box behind the three-compartment sink/dishwasher.”

Also in the kitchen, eight flies were “flying around and landing on in-use food preparation tables, equipment and utensils.” And four flies were “in the food preparation/order packaging area flying around/landing on single service packaging materials.”

“Employees entered the establishment’s food preparation area from outside and began preparing/packaging food for customers without washing hands.”

“Employees handling cellphones, then continued preparing food without washing hands.”

“Employee washed and rinsed heavily soiled food preparation utensils and equipment in the handwash sink without required subsequent sanitization.”

Also, the handwash sink is supposed to be used for one thing: handwashing. So, that got Nissen’s dinged for “the kitchen handwash sink being used to wash or rinse heavily soiled food preparation equipment and utensils.”

Stop Sales came down on “multiple dented canned food items (black olives/tomatoes) on the canned food storage rack.”

Nissen was “cooking a whole muscle beef partially, not to a minimum of 145 degrees for 15 seconds and not for longer than one hour.”

Nissen, wjich bills itself as a “premier kosher caterer,” passed re-inspection on the day before the High Holy Days began.

READ MORE: Stones in frozen dessert triggers recall from Publix, Walmart, Target, others

Victory Restaurant & Lounge, 3252 NE First Ave., Miami

Complaint inspection, 17 total violations, two high priority violations

At this Midtown restaurant, the inspector saw “a dead rodent in the second floor storage next to the freezer.”

There were over 25 poop pellets in that storage area, near the stairs where there was also a dead roach. Another 10 were by the air conditioning unit pipes. ‘

The prep table can opener was “soiled.

Someone wore “no hair restraint while engaging in food preparation.”

There was “standing water at the floor by the bar area.”

“No measuring device available for measuring a utensil’s surface temperature when using hot water as sanitizer in a dishmachine.”