Business & Tech

Wild Ginger Restaurant Faces Health Dept. 'Legal Action'

A cook working with an open, unbandaged cut on his hand and unclean equipment were some of the problems Darien health inspectors reported at Wild Ginger Dumpling House restaurant in Darien.

When a restaurant does poorly in town Health Department inspections, it gets low scores and ratings. When it continues to do poorly, it gets more inspections.

And when that doesn't satisfy the Darien Health Department, it takes "legal action" against a restaurant -- which doesn't mean a court hearing or lawsuit, but apparently an administrative hearing which can result in an outcome short of closing down the eatery.

That's the situation that Wild Ginger Dumpling House restaurant at 971 Post Rd., next to Dunkin Donuts downtown, is in right now with the town Health Department after a number of inspections, including several in the past six weeks. Some of those inspections have resulted in low scores in the state's scoring system and ratings of "Poor" in Darien's own ratings system.

The restaurant has continued in business for about seven years -- a good long time for many restaurants.

"There are legal actions being brought by the Health Department because of the issues of these inspection reports," said town Health Director David Knauf, referring to recent inspections that he says the Health Department is not able to make public while the administrative proceedings take place.

"I'm not free to discuss the nature of what is at issue right now," he said. But he added that the poor scores in the inspection reports are "repetitive, that's all I can tell you."

Knauf has said in the past that if the Health Department had reason to believe that a restaurant was unsafe, the establishment would be shut down. But a visit to the restaurant on Thursday afternoon showed that it was open.

The owner, Yeh Ching, was not at the restaurant. A verbal message was left with him, inviting him to contact Darien Patch to state his view of he matter.

Chiu Yeung, a manager who said his English was limited, pointed out that the restaurant is working with the Health Department, and the department was giving the restaurant better ratings and scores than previously.

Another employee, Cherry Yap, made the same point: "Now it's getting better," she said of the restaurant's health ratings. "It's better than it used to be."

On Jan. 30, Wild Ginger received a failing inspection, scoring 74 under the state scoring system. In order to stay open under state regulations, a restaurant must immediately correct enough of the designated problems to get its rating back above 80 and not fail in certain critical areas (no matter what the overall score). The restaurant also received a "Poor" rating under the Darien Health Department's own ratings system.

These were some of the inspector's descriptions of state health code violations: "Rinsing hands in prep sink; fried wontons with vegetables, cooling at 70 degrees; food stored on floor under bain marie; storing items in hand sink (silverware); work prep areas unclean; rusty equipment -- can opener, meat grinder; unclean food processor on shelf in storage; uncovered food -- storage; raw meat stored in grocery bags, freezer walk-in; meat slicer and large mixing bowl left unclean; two moldy items in produce walk-in; water not running [in] restroom for employees; untrained staff working in kitchen."

In a follow-up inspection on Feb. 2, the restaurant scored 84 and received a town rating of "Fair." Violations found in that inspection included "unclean knife and tongs; improper storage of scoop in use/hanging tongs; large unclean bowl in storage; large storage container for food -- chipped/broken/cracked; bowl used to dispense cooked chicken -- must have handle; *** line chef with open cut -- must wear a band aid and glove while working with food; no documentation of training, QFO [Qualified Food Operator, a state required test that food handlers must pass in order to cook and serve food] has begun, training staff."

Those health inspection reports were sent to Darien Patch as part of this publication's regular coverage of the inspections before the Health Department initiated its legal action. Under state law, ater inspection reports remain private until the legal action is resolved, according to Knauf.

Wild Ginger hasn't received a "Good" health inspection rating under the town's three-tiered Good-Fair-Poor rating system since Sept. 16, 2013. Here are the dates and ratings of subsequent inspections, according to this Health Department Web page:

Dec. 20 -- Fair
Jan. 22 -- Poor
Jan. 30 -- Poor
Feb. 3 -- Poor
Feb. 14 -- Poor
Feb. 18 -- Fair
March 6 -- Poor
March 10 -- Fair

A Darien Health Department ratings certificate on the wall of the restaurant shows the results of the last two inspections (see photo attached to this article).


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