RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) - El Tio Grocery and Restaurant at 4800 Jefferson Davis Highway hasn't had a critical violation on a state health inspection in more than a year. But recently, it had 4 critical violations, including that some unsafe meat had not been discarded or rendered unusable.
The manager agreed to talk to us on camera, but when we arrived for our appointment, he wasn't there.
We asked a woman working in the restaurant if she could call him for us, but she said she didn't know his phone number and didn't speak much English.
We called the restaurant for the manager a couple of times but have not heard back. The restaurant corrected all violations during the inspection.
Another Spanish restaurant, Mi Hacienda at 8250 Midlothian Turnpike in Chesterfield had 4 critical violations. The report says that some foods in the walk-in cooler were not cold enough. The same problem happened when Mi Hacienda had 4 critical violations on a follow-up inspection.
The manager tells us the inspections happened on the weekend before they had a chance to have the cooler and steam table repaired. But Mi Hacienda got everything fixed for a perfect score just one day later.
Inside a Marriott hotel is Bistro 64 at 4240 Dominion Boulevard in Henrico, with 4 critical violations. The Bistro usually gets better scores. The head chef tells us they simply threw out some old blender containers that weren't coming clean, and had the dishwasher fixed. That earned them a perfect follow-up inspection just days later.
The Richmond Health Department is honoring Champps Restaurant and Bar at Stony Point with its Food Safety Star Award for excellent compliance with regulations.
Said Dan O'Connell, Champps' managing partner, "I've got some long term guys back there. My chef is an ultimate neat-freak, so to speak, and he really takes a lot of pride in what he does."
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