Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- This week's Dirty Dining takes us back to a place we've been before. The restaurant's new owners hadn't gotten rid of old problems.The King & I Thai restaurant on East Tropicana near Maryland Parkway is a Dirty Dining repeat offender.When inspectors came on June 10, co-owner Ontida Tanthmanatham said, "They brought the old report and said, 'How could you have the repeated stuff?' And what happened, that was a previous management. And this is no excuse that we still did something wrong."We first featured the King & I in February 2013. The owner at the time said they were just having a bad day.But you might say this one is worse. Back then, they didn't have roaches.At the June 10 inspection, the kitchen was harboring a whole cockroach family.The King & I was shut down with 50 demerits.Inspectors found dirty, greasy surfaces throughout the kitchen. The bottom of the reach-in doesn't look too good, but it's nothing compared to the floors underneath equipment."A lot of stuff was actually in an area that was difficult to see," Ontida said.The roaches could see it. She said inspectors told her that's what they were feeding on.There were also concerns that many food items, including milk, were at unsafe temperatures. Raw beef was thawing at room temp on top of a cardboard box full of raw eggs.Also, employees weren't properly washing their hands, despite a prominently posted SNHD flier.Their soup pot looked like it was decaying. They've since replaced it with a new one.They were re-selling crispy duck they'd bought from a Chinatown restaurant."There was something that was labeled shrimp when it was actually chicken," said Darcy Spears."That one, I have no comment on that. It just should not be that way," Ontida said.Ontida said management is as much to blame as employees."Think about it. If you have to come by it's actually very embarrassing, and at the same time I truly apologize for our customers, long-time customers, we doing our best and we going to continue to improve."There was no imminent health hazard at the King & I, but there were plenty across the valley.Mandalay Bay Beach's Moorea bar, Hot Dog on a Stick on West Warm Springs, the 7-11 deli on Fremont and 15th, Nanay Gloria's on Spring Mountain and the upstairs bar at Share nightclub on Wynn Road were all shut down for no hot water.Sammy's Food Service truck No. 5 was closed too, because it didn't have adequate refrigeration.The King & I reopened with a zero-demerit "A" grade.Most of the other spots reopened with "A" grades as well, except Share nightclub's upstairs bar and Sammy's food truck No. 5, which are both still closed.
↧
