It's a tie for the dirtiest dining tonight.
And it's got Contact 13 Chief Investigator Darcy Spears spanning the valley from west side to east side to road side.
Eric Kim is very proud of his sushi restaurant.
"We make our own special soy sauce for sushi sashimi."
He's not at all afraid to address the issues that landed him on Dirty Dining.
"It's not because the food is dirty. It's not because of something wrong with that."
Yummy Grill and Sushi on Lake Mead and Tenaya got a 36-demerit C grade after inspectors found repeat violations from their routine inspection in April, including documenting proper parasite destruction in raw fish.
Darcy: Was there a concern that the parasites were not destroyed in the fish or was it just a paperwork thing?
Eric: Only paperwork. If you see my fish, I'm sure I'm the best. I'm the best wherever you go in Las Vegas. I'm the best because of how I'm checking it.
Inspectors also wrote up improper ware washing and not enough hot water, which Kim says is because they're in the midst of expanding the restaurant.
And he admits some shortcomings with employee training. His person in charge could not answer the inspector's basic food safety questions.
"My in charge--he doesn't have enough experience to, you know, he got nervous to explain to her."
The inspector photographed a shoe sitting on boxes of soda syrup. The beverage lines coming from those boxes were strung through dirty ceiling tiles, which Eric showed us have been replaced.
The only food issue inspectors noted--pork belly sauce that was two weeks old.
"Not expired but just, like, different cultures," Kim explained. "It's more flavor, more long time, it's not spoiled."
Restaurants are only allowed to keep prepared foods for seven days.
Eric says he understands and vows to stay on the Health District's good side.
We head across town to the other 36-demerit C grade--Little Dumpling on Stephanie and Horizon Ridge.
There, inspectors found pork, cut green onions, cream cheese, raw beef, raw chicken, shrimp, eggs and a number of other foods in the temperature danger zone. All of it had to be thrown out.
Darcy: There's a lot of violations written up in there.
Trun Zang: Just because we have two cooler have problem. That's why.
There were also uncovered fried wonton strips in tubs by the open back door.
Prepared, cut broccoli was stored in an old cardboard box.
Basil in an open container had definitely seen better days.
There was also excessive grease, trash and food debris build-up under and behind equipment.
Darcy: How come it got like that? It looked like it was really thick on the floor.
Trun: Oh, we didn't know. It's behind or whatever. Maybe the mop... We didn't... (she shrugs)
It wasn't just the floor. The handle of a cooler certainly hadn't been cleaned in awhile. There were also utensils stored in dirty containers throughout the kitchen.
And expired soda syrup dating back to May.
"We didn't realize that," Zang said.
The list of imminent health hazard closures is a long one.
There are five, beginning with Sammy's doghouse on Tropicana near Eastern. It was shut down because employees had nowhere to go to the bathroom or properly wash their hands. Inspectors also found expired custard, yogurt and buttermilk. And excessive mold in the ice machine.
Next--El Azteca Taqueria and Restaurant on Charleston near Lamb. It failed reinspection from a previous C grade when inspectors found dead roaches and food at unsafe temperatures.
Tacos El Primo, a portable outdoor unit on East Lake Mead, was closed due to no employee restroom or hand washing facility.
Two other mobile food set-ups--Felipe's Tacos and Felipe's Hot Dogs on Decatur near Vegas--were both closed for lack of adequate refrigeration.
All the restaurants and food trucks are back to A grades, except El Azteca, which is still closed according to the Health District's website.
