Several Phinney-Greenwood restaurants received poor Public Health Department inspections recently.
The Kabab House at 8202 Greenwood Ave. N. had a particularly terrible inspection on June 29 with a score of 101 points. According to the King County Health Department, 35 or more red critical violation points require a re-inspection within 14 days; 90 or more red critical violation points require the establishment be closed; and 120 or more total red and blue points also requires the establishment be closed.
Kabab House’s points were broken down into 85 red and 16 blue.
Red critical violations have the highest risk of causing food borne disease. “One red critical violation equals an unsatisfactory inspection. Environmental Health Specialists work with operators to make sure that red critical violations are corrected before they leave the establishment,” according to the Health Department’s website. Blue violations are related to the cleanliness and maintenance of the establishment.
Kabab House’s red violations:
- Food worker card not available or current, new food workers not trained (5 points)
- Inadequate hand washing facilities (10 points)
- Food contact surfaces used for raw meat, poultry, aquatic foods, or ready-to-eat foods not thoroughly cleaned and sanitized (15 points)
- Improper cooling procedures (30 points)
- Improper hot holding temperatures (< 130° F ) (25 points)
And its blue violations:
- Non-food contact surfaces not maintained, clean, sanitized (3 points)
- Wiping cloths improperly used, stored (5 points)
- Food not protected from potential contamination during preparation, storage, display (5 points)
- Utensils, equipment, linens improperly stored, used, handled (3 points)
Gorditos at 213 N. 85th St. received a total of 35 points (25 of them red) on June 29 for: plumbing not properly sized, installed, and maintained, improper backflow devices, indirect drains, cross connections present; improper hot holding temperatures (< 130° F ); and improper cold holding temperatures (between 42° F to 45° F).
Wing Dome at 7818 Greenwood Ave. N. received 33 points (25 red) on June 10 for: food worker card not available or current, new food workers not trained; non-food contact surfaces not maintained, clean, sanitized; warewashing facilities not properly installed, maintained, used; no test strips available and used; improper cold holding temperatures (>45° F); inadequate hand washing facilities.
Greenwood Market at 8500 3rd Ave. NW received 20 points on June 24 for: thermometers not available or used as required to evaluate temperature of potentially hazardous foods; food not protected from potential contamination during preparation, storage, display; and improper cold holding temperatures (>45° F).
St. John’s Parish Hall Kitchen at 123 N. 79th St. received 20 points on its June 7 inspection for: inadequate equipment for temperature control; thermometers not available or used as required to evaluate temperature of potentially hazardous foods; and toxic substances improperly identified, stored and used.
25 responses so far ↓
1 JimmyDean // Jul 12, 2010 at 5:20 pm
these inspectors usually are pretty harsh.
2 jose // Jul 12, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Health inspectors are usually pretty fair in their inspections, but they have some egomaniacs who dont like some of the owners of the places they inspect. Take these inspections with a grain of salt!!!
3 HotMama // Jul 12, 2010 at 6:11 pm
I don’t take these with a grain of salt and you shouldn’t either. Foods stored at improper temperatures and cross contamination can kill people. Restaurants need to be accountable and give more of a $hit about the food they are serving to the public and the consequences of being lazy and sloppy.
4 vk // Jul 12, 2010 at 6:56 pm
I used to eat at K House often, until one time when ants were all around me on the table (and on my plate). I’m sure that one is accurate.
5 jose // Jul 12, 2010 at 8:31 pm
hot mama, some inspectors have an agenda!! and it is not always cleanliness, or safe temperatures. I am just sayin!
6 shopdog // Jul 12, 2010 at 8:43 pm
There should be absolutely no tolerance for infractions like these. They need to be corrected immediately, and the Health Department needs to make quick follow-ups.
These inspections are based upon extremely measurable snapshots: you have a Food Handlers’ Card or you don’t. It’s below 40 degrees or above 140 degrees ( or more, depending upon the item), or it’s not. The sanitizing bucket either has too much bleach or not enough.
I had a cafe for eight years. I looked forward to their inspections and I took their visits as an opportunity to learn something new.
I ate a few times at the K House until I couldn’t stand any more how subservient the women working there were to the men working there. They were not treated kindly or in a collegial fashion.
7 jw // Jul 12, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Some jurisdictions require that all restaurants display their health department ratings on the front window. This is a really good idea. These ratings are available on line at kingcounty.gov, but you do have to do some searching.
It’s good of Phinneywood to warn about where you probably don’t want to eat — anything.
8 Whopper // Jul 13, 2010 at 7:37 am
I always assumed getting the runs was part of the kabab experience?
9 JLW // Jul 13, 2010 at 8:14 am
phonneywood did not post the WORST inspection which was at the greenwood mandirin restaurant next to prost and the japaneese restaurant at 1st ave and nw 85th. they had RODENTS, and BUGS, and they scored close to the closing range and i see many people especially families go into the greenwood mandirin….i always look at inspections if i frequent a restaurant i have never been too in the hood..
10 Iron City Mike // Jul 13, 2010 at 8:14 am
This is why you never want to see what goes on in the kitchen of your favorite restaurant…
11 JLW // Jul 13, 2010 at 8:15 am
sorry misspelled phinneywood.
12 Jon // Jul 13, 2010 at 8:20 am
Interesting that they are citing Gorditos for: plumbing not properly sized, installed, and maintained, improper backflow devices, indirect drains, cross connections present;
***I call BS on this… This is probably a new code and deals nothing with food.
*improper hot holding temperatures (< 130° F ); Does anyone believe this? The food is out for everyone to see… it’s in the stupid incubator that melts cheese… I am saying that 90-120 degrees doesn’t melt cheese… not in the short time they put it in there!
13 mybackhurts // Jul 13, 2010 at 9:41 am
We are lucky to have such a public health system we do. We have very few cases of food borne illness.
No surprise about the wingdome. Last time we were there they had kegs stored in the bathroom. And the manager couldn’t understand what the problem was. Some folks have to learn the hard way – and it isn’t just some inspector with an agenda.
14 gerry // Jul 13, 2010 at 12:57 pm
I don’t take it seriously especially when the OK Coral graded better than olive you. which would u choose?
15 outside the box // Jul 13, 2010 at 2:33 pm
OK corral or Olive you? Both out of business??? I choose neither!
16 a.out // Jul 13, 2010 at 4:19 pm
I got salmonella from Olive You about 2 years ago.
17 JLW // Jul 13, 2010 at 5:41 pm
i got sick from olive you as well
18 anotherneighbor // Jul 14, 2010 at 6:01 am
JLW, please share where you saw high scores for Greenwood Mandarin Restaurant and Mori Japanese Restaurant.
I looked on the King Country site, and didn’t see any recent scores, and the old scores that were there were on the low side.
19 Emily // Jul 14, 2010 at 6:56 am
I worked at Burgermaster near U Village many years ago (1975-76). During my six months as a burger lady, the health inspectors came at least three times. The first time there were some minor problems, the second time we aced the test and got NO demerits and the third time they just took a sample from the milk shake machine. I wondered if this was an unusual number of inspections.
Before Burgermaster, I worked at Kazdel’s Deli on the Ave. The boss said one day, “I’ve got a feeling the health inspectors are going to show up soon,” and sure enough, they were there in just a couple of days. So somebody had tipped him off. That’s not good.
20 gorkahna // Jul 14, 2010 at 10:53 am
tipped him off?dont they tell them they are coming?Health inspectors were coming to a place i worked boss gave me the day off since i didnt have food worker card.
21 jessica // Jul 14, 2010 at 7:24 pm
right on shopdog!!!
22 R // Jul 16, 2010 at 1:55 am
There is currently a search tool at (http://www.decadeonline.com/main.phtml?agency=skc).
This currently contains the following scores, in agreement with some of the above text:
Scored 028 (03-2010) – Mori. (scored ’15′ in February 2009)
Scored 020 (09-2009) – Olive You.
Scored 101 (06-2010) – Kabob House. (scored ’10′ in April 2009)
Scored 039 (12-2009) – Greenwood Mandarin. (scored ’8′ in March 2009)
Scored 040 (03-2010) – Kort Haus. (scored ’32′ in March 2009)
Scored 005 (06-2010) – Red Mill. (scored ’65′ in March 2009)
Reminder: A score of 120+ (red + blue) closes a restaurant.
Safeway (June 2010) scored 10 + 15 + TBD + 5 + 25.
It would have been nice if Phinneywood would have reported all of the local June results, rather than giving a partial picture.
23 HotMama // Jul 16, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Good info R, thanks!
24 Doree // Jul 16, 2010 at 6:56 pm
R – We don’t report every restaurant inspection in the neighborhood because there are so many. We get a daily email list of all kinds of neighborhood news mentions from Every Block. Most of the time the inspections list no violations or very low scores. We reported on this one because that day’s Every Block report listed about a dozen inspections, and so many of them had high scores.
25 l // Jul 27, 2010 at 8:29 am
@ ShopDog. Food handling standards that are in place in this country are a great thing, but the fact of the matter is that people worry way too much about this stuff. Some of the best food I have ever eaten has come out of kitchens that I wish I had never looked into. Until a health department inspection is bad enough to shut a place down, the restaurant is considered safe to eat at.
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