CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Do you ever think about the quality of the food you eat when you go to the mall?
A local mall food court is making this week's restaurant report card. There's also potentially one of the worst violations we've ever seen: A sushi bar lying about the fish they're serving.
We have five malls in this area. All of them have food service in the form of a food court or restaurants, and they are not immune to health department oversight.
We start this week with the Sbarro, which is classified as a food stand. One of their employees was seen handling money with their food service gloves and not changing them or washing before going back to making food.
Also, there wasn't any soap at the hand sinks; how do you wash thoroughly with no soap? Their burgers and hot dogs, which should at least 135 degrees, were not.
Next up, Emzy Sushi Bar at 550 South Tryon. Food has to be honestly presented and one of their menu items was not.
The "spicy white tuna" in the "sexy salmon roll" wasn't tuna. It was something called escolar, which is a fish, but experts said consumption of escolar causes explosive, oily, orange diarrhea. People have reported the discharges are often difficult to control and accidents can happen while passing gas.
Some of their infrastructure was in need of repair, the beer cooler door was held together with duct tape, and the racks were beginning to rust.
Last up this week, Hickory Tavern on Steelcroft Parkway. They had employees washing hands for less than 15 seconds, then they recontaminated by touching the dirty faucet to turn the water off.
There weren't any paper towels at the three different hand sinks. As for the food, the diced ham, diced eggs, chili, pulled pork, and some sausage were not date marked from the day before.
An interesting set of violations this week, some with A grades, so always check if you see a low score.
