Behind the Kitchen Door: Local restaurants receive low inspection score due to ants, roaches, and employee hygeine

SAN ANTONIO – Ants marching across plates on ready to serve food and employees not washing their hands earned some San Antonio restaurants low scores on their recent health inspections.

Pik-Nik Foods

Health inspectors found a long list of violations at Pik-Nik Foods, located in the 1200 block of General McMullen.

Inspector reports note the restaurant stored perishables improperly, stating lettuce was “in a state of decay” and mayonnaise and raw eggs were tossed out because they weren’t cold enough. Kool-Aid Jammers were tossed out after being found floating in dirty water.

Although food is typically stored in a walk-in-cooler, their cooler was broken and taken out of service until it could be fixed.

Inspection failures did not end in the freezer. Flies were seen buzzing around the coffee stand and mop bucket, while a roach glue trap w as full of roaches stuck to it.

Additionally, the hand-washing sink didn’t have any water, and another sink was leaking water into a bucket. The inspector told them to fix both sinks.

The business was also cited a second time for selling improperly labeled bags of ice.

The health inspector ranked the restaurant a 72, barely passing with citations needing to be addressed for re-inspection.

Panchos and Gringos

Panchos and Gringos in the 900 block of Nolan Street earned an 80 on their last inspection.

The inspector noted ants were crawling on plates in the ready-to-serve pile. Even more ants were marching around the food prep area and elsewhere.

The hand-washing sink pipes were not connected, and employees were not seen washing their hands during the inspection, according to the report. An employee was also seen grabbing ready-to-eat toast with their bare hands.

The dishwashing temperature was only 88 degrees, well below the required 110 degrees or higher.

A re-inspection was ordered.

Taqueria Jalisciense

Taqueria Jalisciense in the 1600 block of Pleasanton Road received an inspection score of 83.

They also had issues with hand-washing. The inspector didn’t see anyone wash their hands during his visit, and he didn’t see any employees change their gloves while preparing different foods.

There were flies in the kitchen and unpackaged cuts of raw meat being thawed inside a cardboard box without any type of barrier.

Want to know who has good scores and who doesn’t? KSAT 12 has a new tool for that.

Just click this link, and it will take you to a new mapping tool we have showing the recent scores for San Antonio food businesses.

The reports go back two years and are frequently updated.

You can catch Tim’s BKD reports Thursday’s on the Nightbeat.

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