Tiki bars and stuff...

::edited:: based on current, more relevant information.

[ Edited by: porco 2014-04-29 12:14 ]

[ Edited by: porco 2014-04-29 12:18 ]

My father always said if a Chinese restaurant wasn't dirty it wasn't any good. :)

It is sorted.... is being sorted.

The actual report was from last week sometime, the Mai Kai is open.

Here is the official response from the Mai Kai:

Message from The Mai-Kai Restaurant: We are completely committed to our guests safety and well being and we did everything possible to address the situation and subsequently we were open the next evening Friday April 25. Please be rest assured that we will continue to give our guests the same good service and great experience that our guests deserve and have been used to for the past 58 years. Thank you.

38 violations. That's quite a list. Some of them I give leeway (roaches in Florida? Who can imagine!) Others, such as temperature violation, are more serious:

"Rodent activity present as evidenced by rodent droppings found. 20 Fresh and dry rodent droppings in storage area, 10 fresh rodent droppings in food dry storage area, two dry rodent droppings on linen storage area."

"Dead roaches on premises. Two dead roaches in storage area, five dead roaches inside a non working cooler at the Molokai bar."

"Outer openings not protected during operation and vermin and/or environmental cross contamination present. Doors wide open during operation."

"Roach activity present as evidenced by live roaches found. 1 live roach in dry storage food area floor. 1 live roach inside a cabinet in prep area. 8 live roaches in kitchen bar area (one in the ice crusher, one in a prep table, the other ones in floor and wall ), 1 live roach inside a reach in cooler used for single service articles storage at the Molokai bar."

"All potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) foods in walk-in cooler cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Ham, cheese, beef, duck, seafood, plant foods in the walk in coolers 1,2 and 3 at 45-53 degrees Fahrenheit."

"Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cooked/heated yesterday/on a previous day not cooled from 135 degrees Fahrenheit to 41 degrees Fahrenheit within a total of 6 hours. Food has been cooling overnight. Prime rib, discarded."

"Nonexempt fish offered raw or undercooked has not undergone proper parasite destruction. Fish must be fully cooked or discarded. Raw salmon served in sushi rolls."

"Stop Sale issued on potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food due to temperature abuse."

"Employee eating in a food preparation or other restricted area."

Not the first time:

Mai Kai .... problems in the kitchen?

Our other local paper has an actual article on the issue.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/crime/crime-safety-blog/sfl-mai-kai-polynesian-among-restaurants-cited-by-state-inspectors-20140429,0,7583961.story

Key point of the article:

The business met inspection standards on April 25 and was allowed to reopen when it was found conditions were no longer a threat to public health and safety.

The closure was for one day.

[ Edited by: Chip and Andy 2014-04-29 11:49 ]

glad to see it was resolved. i could only imagine the task of pest control in such a "natural" setting as theirs. and by no means was i looking to slam the mai kai in any way, i was just shocked by the story it had been closed and no mention was made here. but alas, the facts come to the forefront, and thanks Chip and Andy for the prompt correction.

Wow. Might be a one day fix & clean if walk-in's are working and are able to cool to the proper temp. The roaches are already dead and show me a place with no roaches, just saying. Best of luck, I wish the Mai Kai continued success.

Porco, you might want to change your thread title now. It does seem kind of sensationalist and inflammatory for anyone just casually browsing through the General Forum.

On 2014-04-29 12:06, JOHN-O wrote:
Porco, you might want to change your thread title now. It does seem kind of sensationalist and inflammatory for anyone just casually browsing through the General Forum.

agreed, and done. if the admin wishes to scrap the whole thread, fine by me.

If the restaurant you go to has Coke, Pepsi or soft drinks on a gun or fountain
they have roaches, as the company that brings them product every week or so brings them
roaches in with the boxes of syrup they deliver.

The produce that comes in at least here in Columbus is sorted and packed by homeless and this too
can bring you bugs of all sorts.

Your customers can and do bring bugs in on their bodies I have seen this over the years.

When you have a restaurant you can't be pest free but are always fighting the pests so
the problem does not get out of control.

At my restaurant I had a pest guy come in once a month and I still had to do some measures to fight
this problem, and I'm not in FLA.

The Mai Kai has so many places for bugs to hide like bamboo, man I don't know how you could fight
this problem.
Just need to hope the city does not have a jones for the Mai Kai and want them out.
Cuz the health Dept could write pages on a place like that DALIY.

Not to slam on the Mai Kai, but out of over 12,000 health inspections in the past year, they ranked in the top 50 for the most health violations at one time. That seems a bit excessive. I realize they were only closed for one day, but the fact they were closed at all is a huge deal. There's tons of pressure not to close restaurants because it costs them so much money.

I realize the Cult of Tiki doesn't like to say anything bad about their own and I will almost certainly be flambeed for saying it, but did this discussion really need to be sanitized so much? Removing any mention that it even happened seems excessive.

I bet most people that might have got food poisoning there were going to be sick from being hungover anyway.

I worked at a deli that got tagged once. They wrote us up for stuff that passed for years before that inspection without mention. Enequal and inconsistent enforcement...
The bugs always came in from boxes from somewhere else, like Skip says.
Most people have worse food handling, storage, and safety issues in their own homes than any restaurant.

I proudly scored 100% on the SD County foodhandlers test every time!
Buzzy Out!

As long as a place has a "C" rating or better, I'm still chowing down. A little dirt don't hurt and I don't mind some grit in it.

"Not to slam on the Mai Kai, but out of over 12,000 health inspections in the past year, they ranked in the top 50 for the most health violations"

The Maki Kai is HUGE!
My place was about the size of the bar there and it ran me ragged.
Can you even think about how you would clean that place, with 30?foot ceilings.
All the stuff everywhere, man if you get roaches under that carpet your done, how
ya gonna fight that?

Plus a place like the Mai Kai may make big bucks when they are full but hey that meter is
still running when they are dead, the rent is still high you still got all that power running
all that stuff, and employees, on and on the money is flowing outta that place.

New walkin cooler is like 15 to 20 thousand bucks or more.
What do you think a new roof costs?

I don't think it would still be there if not for Hukilau.

On 2014-04-29 12:41, TikiTacky wrote:
.... but did this discussion really need to be sanitized so much? Removing any mention that it even happened seems excessive.

What really happened ? If the Mai Kai was closed indefinitely then that would be significant. One day?... Meh.

Seems hardly a reason for starting a net new thread in the General Forum with such an alarming title.

I'd still love the Mai Kai even if the drinks and food were swill and a roach ran across the bar top in front of me. It's a miracle the place even exists in this day and age, and we should cherish every day of its existence. :)

Bravo John-O, Bravo! OGR

I'd still love the Mai Kai even if the drinks and food were swill and a roach ran across the bar top in front of me. It's a miracle the place even exists in this day and age, and we should cherish every day of its existence. :)

Definitely agree with you there!

I think one of the things I have trouble with is that a lot of people view this (and so many other topics on here) as black or white. Either something is 100% good, or it's 100% crap. I'm a grayscale kind of guy. I can just as easily acknowledge that the Mai Kai is amazing, and that it's truly a Tiki Mecca, while still saying that it's kind of disturbing that they aren't (weren't) refrigerating their food properly. Just because I might have a criticism doesn't mean I can't like it—and vice versa.

You need to remember that one article in the paper took out the Tropical Bistro.
Yes they did kind of help by not doing a good job when the reviewer came to The Bistro
but the article was so bad it pushed the place over the edge and out of business.

It's part of the reason these HUGE dinner club restaurants go out these days.
If you own one of these places it's your whole life day in and day out.

Everyone above has good points, and I'm sure the fact that the restaurant opened the very next day with a clean bill of health speaks for itself.

But I'm bumping this thread in the hopes that some of you guys make take the time to post a review on Yelp and any other review sites you may frequent.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/mai-kai-restaurant-and-polynesian-show-fort-lauderdale

The Mai-Kai is taking some heat and may need a some positive reviews.

Aloha!

[ Edited by: Hurricane Hayward 2014-05-09 14:38 ]

The roaches were easy to spot, passed out from drinking Jet Pilot's. No, big deal alcohol is a great disinfectant!

I bet this never happened when Bob Thornton was around.
Whos managing the place now. Does he have a clue what goes on there ?
It's like it's all left up to the gift store lady.

This was an interesting read. I personally think restaurants, hospitals, grocery stores, etc. need to meet their health code expectations. I certainly don't want to be eating or drinking something that has had a cockroach checking it out...I don't want to be in a hospital that has flies in it settling on a wound I have. Sure it is hard to keep the cleanliness up on an ongoing basis but that is part of offering your service to the public. JMHO

"don't want to be eating or drinking something that has had a cockroach checking it out"

Stop eating now, unless you grow and make it yourself then.
Have you ever eaten food from other parts of the world? where standards are much lower than ours.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/but-not-simpler/2013/06/05/i-hate-to-break-it-to-you-but-you-already-eat-bugs/

Out of Sight, Still In Your Mouth

You’re deluding yourself if you think farming is as clean as making a microchip. We are always on insect territory. Try as we might with insecticides and other engineered poisons, bugs crawl all over our food to feed (and procreate) on it. When we harvest and package our crops, a lot of bugs come along for the ride. Be aware, all the hitchhikers aren’t removed. At least there are limits on how many bugs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lets you unknowingly eat.

«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»«::»
"I wonder what it is that always makes the Rodneys choose the wrong side"

How many bugs does a person eat during their lifetime?
A person eats 3 to 5 hundred thousand. usually about 100,000

http://www.chacha.com/question/how-many-bugs-does

I know bugs get on food....but I just like to think I am not eating them. I did eat a chocolate covered bee on a dare when I was in grade school...it was crunchy.

While I'm sure we do eat some bugs mixed in with our food, it would be nearly impossible to calculate a number. I'm sure it's a fairly significant number though. As opposed to the "eating spiders in your sleep" claims that have been passed around for a while.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine

Interesting....that's an angle I never considered. I was thinking more in terms of accidental ingestion, but as an additive? That takes the question in a whole different direction.

The composition of my innards must now be re-written as "guts, black stuff, 100 Slim Jims" and industrially pureed insect parts. For me personally, I think you may have just put the final nail in Kool-Aid's coffin.

Thank You!