A dead mouse and live roaches: Latest Kansas City-area restaurant inspections
Health inspectors in Missouri and Kansas found fruit flies hanging around the kitchen and fuzzy blue buildup on tomatoes at Kansas City-area restaurants last week.
Dining establishments like sit-down restaurants, drive-thrus, gas stations and grocery stores are required to get food inspections, and governments have to release those inspections to the public.
In Kansas City and Independence, each city’s health department enforces the food code while in Kansas, the state’s Department of Agriculture handles inspections. The lower the number of violations, the better.
Most restaurants correct violations at the time of the original inspection or shortly after. The full inspections show how each establishment has corrected or is working to correct any remaining violations. They are available for Kansas City at inspectionsonline.us/foodsafety/mousakansascity/search.htm and Johnson and Wyandotte counties at agriculture.ks.gov.
Here are the restaurants in Kansas City and Johnson County that received seven or more critical or priority and priority foundation violations from May 3-10. No Independence or Wyandotte County businesses met that threshold in that time.
The Parker at the Fontaine
- 901 W. 48th Place
- 8 critical violations for a May 4 routine inspection
Buildup on the can opener blade in the main kitchen and excessive fruit flies were spotted around the dish machine, soda bib area and back dry storage area corner in this Country Club Plaza establishment. A follow-up inspection on May 11 reported that the right faucet handle of the three-compartment sink was leaking water.
JJ’s Bar & Grill
- 900 W. 48th Place
- 8 critical violations for a May 5 routine inspection
Fuzzy blue buildup was seen on four packages of cherry tomatoes and a cook handling raw meat changed gloves without properly washing hands while the inspector was observing at this Country Club Plaza restaurant. A follow-up inspection on May 12 had no critical violations.
Joy Wok Super Buffet
- 8320 N. Church Road
- 7 critical violations for a May 6 routine inspection
Multiple containers of prepped and sliced fruits and vegetables inside the walk-in cooler had no date markings, and a large bowl of prepped raw chicken was stored on the floor near the cooks’ line. All of these were corrected immediately, and a follow-up inspection on May 14 had no critical violations.
Mogadishu Market
- 2319 Independence Ave.
- 12 critical violations for a May 7 routine inspection
A dead mouse on sticky trap was located under a pallet of rice on the retail floor, and rodent droppings were spotted on product shelves. Several Ziploc bags of raw frozen meat did not have date markings or labels during the inspection at this market in Pendleton Heights.
A follow-up inspection on May 11 found four critical violations.
Taqueria Los Altos De Jalisco
- 3719 St. John Ave.
- 7 critical violations for a May 8 routine inspection
A complaint sent into the health department was related to a live cockroach on floor underneath one of the dining tables. Unnecessary items were spotted inside the bar handwashing sink at this Mexican restaurant in northeast KC.
No critical violations were reported on a May 14 follow-up inspection.
Texas Roadhouse
- 11973 S. Strang Line Road, Olathe
- 7 priority and priority foundation violations for a May 7 inspection based on a complaint
An inspector observed an employee using the hand washing sink to get water for rolls at the chain steakhouse and approximately 25% of all dishes in the clean section had visible residue or debris. Many of the violations were corrected during the inspection.
Suspensions
One Kansas City food business was suspended due to ineffective pest control measures.
Street Foods 2 Go, 4416 E. 39th St., was suspended after an inspector found a live mouse run across the floor. The inspector also observed mouse droppings in multiple areas of the kitchen, like behind the grease trap and on dry storage shelves.
A follow-up inspection on May 14 had no critical violations, and it is open for business.
Two establishments also found themselves with suspended licenses due to outstanding fees, according to a spokesperson with the city.
- EJ African Market, 2532 Independence Ave.
- Somali Star Shops, 1208 Brooklyn Ave.
By ordinance, food establishments had until May 1 to renew their operating permit before the suspension was enforced. The number of suspensions could stay elevated for a couple of weeks as the businesses work toward getting their permits renewed.
