Restaurant Inspections: La Tolteca and Katie's Irish Pub

From Oct. 24 to Nov. 2, quite a few restaurants in the Burke and Fairfax Station areas were inspected. For prior restaurant inspection reports, click here.

In Virginia, restaurant inspection reports aren't quite as simple as getting a letter grade or an easy to see number rating to post in the front window.

That said, we all want to know how our favorite restaurants stack up on cleanliness and sanitation. Inspectors grade restaurants based on critical and non-critical violations.

A "critical violation" is one that "poses a direct or immediate threat to the safety of the food being served." Non-critical violations are generally related to cleaning or maintenance.

"Ideally, an operation would have no critical violations, or none which are not corrected immediately and not repeated. In our experience, it is unrealistic to expect that a complex, full-service food operation can routinely avoid any violations," according to Virginia Department of Health's website.

The site continues: "Keep in mind that any inspection report is a 'snapshot' of the day and time of the inspection. On any given day, a restaurant could have fewer or more violations than noted in the report. An inspection conducted on any given day may not be representative of the overall, long-term cleanliness of an establishment."

Below, find the latest restaurant inspection from the Virginia Department of Health. These inspections reflect visits from inspectors during the last few weeks. Some of the violations were corrected immediately during the recent inspections.

The full reports can be accessed on the health department's website.

Paradise Biryani Pointe
11274 James Swart Circle
Date of inspection: Nov. 2
Critical: The cookline refrigerator is slow to drain. Water pools on the interior of this unit.
Critical: Plumbing connections under the 3-compartment sink piping are leaking.
Critical (corrected during inspection): Raw animal food holding in a manner that may cause cross contamination of ready-to-eat food.
Non-critical: Employees are not properly trained in food safety as it relates to their assigned duties.
Non-critical: Openings to the exterior of the building are present along the base of the back door entrance to the kitchen.

El Sabor Boliviano
6715 Backlick Rd
Date of inspection: Nov. 1
Critical (corrected during inspection): One or more of the elements of an effective employee health policy is either missing or incomplete. A complete employee health policy is required to be in place at the food establishment.
Critical (corrected during inspection): Cooked potentially hazardous foods are not being adequately cooled from 135 degrees to 70 degrees within two hours and to 41 degrees within a total of six hours.

Katie’s Irish Pub
6131 Backlick Rd
Date of inspection: Nov. 1
Critical (corrected during inspection): A food employee was observed handling bread using their bare hands Employee discarded the bread.
Critical (corrected during inspection): Food items were observed to be unsound or adulterated.
Critical (corrected during inspection): Raw animal food holding in a manner that may cause cross contamination of ready-to-eat food.
Critical (corrected during inspection): Observed cutting board located at the prep cooler that is not being cleaned at least every 4 hours. It was being cleaned every evening. Manager prepared sanitizing wet wiping cloth bucket to wash, rinse, and sanitize food contact surfaces every 4 hours.
Critical (corrected during inspection): Pesticides labeled for residential use were observed in the facility and are being applied by the operator to control pests: insect spray bottle at bar - manager discarded.

La Tolteca
5614 Ox Rd
Date of inspection: Nov. 1
Critical (corrected during inspection): Fish offered for service or sale in the ready-to-eat form was not frozen to ensure parasite destruction.
Critical (corrected during inspection): Cooked potentially hazardous foods in the walk-in cooler are not being adequately cooled from 135 degrees to 70 degrees within two hours and to 41 degrees within a total of six hours.
Critical (corrected during inspection): Food items for which time rather than temperature is used as a control is not marked or otherwise identified to indicate the time that is four hours past the point in time when the food is removed from temperature control.
Critical (corrected during inspection): Pesticides labeled for residential use were observed in the facility. Observed three spray cans of Raid in facility.
Non-critical (corrected during inspection): Employees are not properly sanitizing cleaned multiuse equipment and utensils.
Non-critical (corrected during inspection): Observed that the sign that notifies food employees to wash their hands is not clearly visible.

Sushi Jin
5624-A Ox Rd.
Date of inspection: Nov. 1
Non-critical: The person in charge has a valid certificate of successful completion of a Certified Food Manager exam but does not possess the CFM card issued by ORS Interactive, Inc.
Non-critical: No records of freezing for parasite destruction are maintained for raw, raw marinated, partially cooked or marinated-partially cooked fish that are served or sold in ready-to-eat form.

Burke Lake Park Ice Cream Parlor
7315 Ox Road
Date of inspection: Oct. 26
No violations were found during the inspection.

Chicken Palace
6030-K Burke Commons Road
Date of inspection: Oct. 26
Critical (corrected during inspection): There is no certified food manager present at the beginning of the inspection.
Critical (corrected during inspection): A food employee failed to wash his or her hands before engaging in food preparation, after touching bare human body parts, after coughing, sneezing, eating, after handling soiled utensils, or after engaging in any activity that could contaminate the hands. Observed food employee fail to wash hands after draining dirty sanitizer water and before engaging in preparing customer orders. Also observed food employee fail to wash hands after running cash register and before putting on clean gloves to prepare customer order.
Critical (corrected during inspection): Observed food employees using improper handwashing procedures. Observed food employee washing hands for only 3-5 seconds.
Critical (corrected during inspection): Equipment/utensils were observed soiled to sight and touch.
Critical (corrected during inspection): The food-contact surfaces of some equipment were not observed sanitized.
Critical (corrected during inspection): Pesticides labeled for residential use were observed in the facility. Observed three spray cans of Raid in facility.
Non-critical: The person in charge has a valid certificate of successful completion of a Certified Food Manager exam but does not possess the CFM card issued by ORS Interactive, Inc.

Starbucks
8068 Rolling Road
Date of inspection: Oct. 25
Critical (corrected during inspection): One or more of the elements of an effective employee health policy is either missing or incomplete. A complete employee health policy is required to be in place at the food establishment.