State inspectors temporarily shut six South Florida restaurants last week, citing issues such as live flies on dining room walls and drying pans, rodent droppings along kitchen walls, and roaches crawling on a dishwasher.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel typically highlights restaurant inspections in Broward and Palm Beach counties from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. We cull through hundreds of restaurant and bar inspections that happen weekly and spotlight places ordered shut for “high-priority violations,” such as improper food temperatures or dead cockroaches.

[  FULL DATABASE: See Florida restaurant inspection reports from the last 30 days ]

Sun Sentinel readers can browse full Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade county reports through our state inspection map, updated weekly (usually Mondays) with fresh data pulled from the Florida DBPR website.

Any restaurant that fails a state inspection must stay closed until it passes a follow-up. If you spotted a possible violation and wish to file a complaint, contact Florida DBPR here. (But please don’t contact us: The Sun Sentinel doesn’t inspect restaurants.)

Ordered shut: Oct. 28; reopened Oct. 29

Why: Six violations (two high-priority), including 32 live flies at “mop sink room laundry basket,” as well as in the dishwashing area of the kitchen on “open paper towel roll” and on drainage rack.

Inspectors also spotted 10 rodent rings along walls in the kitchen dishwashing area. During the next-day reinspection, inspectors found no follow-up issues, and the burrito joint was cleared to reopen.

Ordered shut: Oct. 27; reopened Oct. 28

Why: Five violations (two high-priority), led by 60 live cockroaches found crawling “on the floor and walls under and behind clean utensils and dry goods shelf” by the restaurant’s back door and reach-in coolers, as well as “on top of the dishwasher machine” in the kitchen, “on the floor by prep table window to front counter” and “behind ice machine and floors” at the front counter. (The operator later sanitized and cleaned these areas with bleach.)

The inspection also uncovered examples of “accumulation of debris” on the “perimeter walls and floors on entire kitchen area and front counter area.” The restaurant reopened the next day after a reinspection found one intermediate violation.

Ordered shut: Oct. 27-28; reopened Oct. 28

Why: Five violations (three high-priority), such as 57 rodent droppings “behind reach-in cooler on ground in prep area,” on ground next to an unused walk-in cooler in a rear hallway, “on top of AC filter” stored next to the unused cooler, “under air handler in kitchen area” and on shelves inside of the air-conditioner closet next to the bar area. (The operator discarded the filter and sanitized the area during inspection.)

The state also spotted a single dead cockroach under the “air handler in office,” which the operator also cleaned and sanitized. A discovery of 25 rodent droppings on Oct. 28 forced a second shutdown of Saxies, but the restaurant reopened the same day after the state’s third visit found no new issues.

Saxies was last ordered shut on Oct. 4 for similar rodent dropping issues.

Ordered shut: Oct. 26; reopened Oct. 27

Why: Two violations (both high-priority) included 48 flies “landing on boxes of single-service items” in the kitchen’s dry storage area, “on walls in dining room” and on the “walls over front register counter.”

The state also red-flagged a missing mop sink fitting called a vacuum breaker. The wing joint reopened the next day without any follow-up issues.

Ordered shut: Oct. 25; reopened same day

Why: Five violations (four high-priority), including “sewage/wastewater backing up through floor drains at dishwashing area by the walk-in cooler, prep station and throughout kitchen area.”

The inspection also found “sewage/wastewater backing up through mop sinks.” The fast-food chain was ordered to stop selling and trash its cheese, corn, shredded cheese and coleslaw “due to temperature abuse.” It reopened the same day despite the state discovering major and intermediate violations.

This Pollo location was last ordered shut in July 2021 for issues including live flies.

Ordered shut: Oct. 24-25; reopened Oct. 25

Why: 10 violations (five high-priority), such as about 77 live flies landing on drying pans in the kitchen’s dish room, as well as on walls in dining room, “walls of front serving counter,” and “at dishwasher station door frame in kitchen.”

They were also seen in a dry storage room — landing on “boxes on storage racks for single-service items” and on “shelving for wrapped single-service items.” The restaurant was ordered shut again on Oct. 25 with two basic violations, but reopened later that day.