CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Coral Gables restaurant Canton Chinese has been a fixture in the Miami-Dade city for 28 years.
They are located at 2614 Ponce De Leon Boulevard.
Earlier this week, an alert Dirty Dining viewer became concerned when he saw a sign in the window that they were temporarily closed, with no explanation.
That viewer reached out to Local 10 News’ Jeff Weinsier, and sure enough, it turns out the closure was not voluntary.
Weinsier spoke to a man named Steve, who said he was the manager of Canton.
“There were rodent droppings, roaches, cleanliness issues, the inspection was based on a complaint, and there were 26 violations found?” Weinsier asked him. “Is that acceptable?”
“No, it’s not,” Steve replied. “We called in professional cleaners, professional pest control, that we always use. We took care of the problem, so everything is solved.”
An inspector was there Monday based on a complaint.
Among the 26 violations, rodent droppings were found droppings by prep sink on the second floor, live and dead roaches were found by the sushi station and the dessert unit in the dining room.
Inside a reach in cooler at a sushi station there was roach excrement by a sink, flies coming out around a drain, and a stop sale was issued on chicken being held at an unsafe temperature.
Sauce containers and the microwave were soiled.
There was slime in the ice machine, and an employee was, “manipulating coleslaw without gloves.”
“But what happened?” asked Weinsier. “How did it get that way?”
“Nothing to really say,” said Steve. “It’s just…we took care of the problem.”
“Nothing to say, but your open to customers. Your serving food,” said Weinsier.
“It’s completely clean,” Steve replied.
“Today? But yesterday it wasn’t?” Weinsier said.
“We cleaned up everything, everything was good,” said Steve. “It wasn’t like that, but whatever.”
“Wasn’t like that? Is this not true?” Weinsier asked, referencing the safety inspection.
“Nothing to say, we took care of the problem,” said Steve. “Give us your trust, we are doing it right. We have been doing it for many years.”
Well that’s not exactly the case.
Local 10 News searched state records that date back to 2012.
Follow up inspections were required at Cancon 11 times.
They were fined in 2016 and in 2014, one inspection had 56 violations. In 2015, another inspection had 54 violations.
According to records, they have been warned over and over about violations.
“Is the place clean today?” Weinsier asked.
“Of course,” replied Steve.
“Can we go back and take a look?” asked Weinsier.
“Umm, we don’t allow you in there, I’m sorry,” said Steve.
Canton was allowed to re-open following an ordered clean up and then a re-inspection.