The majority of Coachella Valley restaurants passed their Riverside County health inspections this past week. Three, however, have a mix of minor and major violations that they need to improve upon before their reinspection dates.
Lavender Bistro in La Quinta received a B grade for both dead and live flies throughout the facility, Woodhaven Country Club received a B for improper food holding temperatures and lack of hand soap, and Manhattan in the Desert was inspected during a foodborne illness investigation.
Here are the restaurants that were inspected in the Coachella Valley March 6 through March 12:
‘B’ grades
Lavender Bistro, 78-073 Calle Barcelona, La Quinta
- Major violation: Dead fly on clean plate stored on shelving above flip-top cold holding table in food preparation area; flies in contact with surfaces of rear food preparation table; food debris on cutting knives stored on wall mount
- Major violation: Observed numerous flies inside main kitchen and food preparation area
- Minor violations: Improper hot and cold food holding temperatures (mashed potatoes, liquid eggs, calamari out of temperature); shellstock tags not maintained in chronological order and stored in a plastic bag inside meat/seafood walk-in cooler, and no shellstock tags displayed for shellstock product at food preparation line; and others
- “B” card posted and a reinspection date has been set
Woodhaven Country Club (main), 41-555 Woodhaven Drive E., Palm Desert
- Major violation: Observed approximately 11 packages of raw salmon and three packages of raw ahi tuna thawed, not frozen, and reduced oxygen packaged at flip top cooler; approximately 15 frozen packages of reduce oxygen packaged raw salmon thawing in walk-in cooler and flip top cooler
- Minor violations: Hand sink not supplied with hand soap or paper towel; improper hot and cold food holding temperatures (hard-boiled eggs, pico de gallo out of temperature); improper chlorine concentration in dishwasher; lack of food separation and possible contamination (several food containers uncovered; one dented can of roasted peppers); and others
- “B” card posted and reinspection has been set
Manhattan in the Desert, 2665 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs
- Minor violations: During a foodborne illness investigation on March 11, the inspector found the conveyor chlorine dishwasher was not dispensing chlorine sanitizer on the final rinse, so the unit was impounded. They also found that barware wash 3-compartment sink was measured with low sanitizer level (approximately 100 ppm quaternary ammonia). The restaurant must correct both violations by the reinspection on March 18.
Note: They were not graded, but Oscar’s passed its follow-up inspection for complaint CO1006041, meaning the inspector verified that the gap/holes observed at the initial complaint investigation were properly sealed. Additionally, a thorough inspection was conducted, and no live/dead cockroaches were observed.
‘A’ grades
An “A” grade, or a score of 90 to 100 points, means a restaurant passed an inspection and met minimum health standards…