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Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- Something's rotten at Tamba Indian Cuisine.

And that's just part of why the Strip restaurant was shut down.

For the second time in three months, Contact 13 is back at the Hawaiian Market Place on the Las Vegas Strip near Harmon.

This time, we're visiting Tamba Indian Cuisine -- the only functioning restaurant inside an otherwise shuttered food court.

How well it's functioning is another story.

Tamba was closed by the Health District with 56 demerits.

Darcy: Who's the person in charge right now?
Employee: Right now nobody's in charge.

That right there is a violation of Health District rules.

When there was someone in charge, that person got written up for not being able to demonstrate food safety knowledge.

As for the food itself, inspectors found rotten parsley and expired containers of half and half.

Fried vegetables, gravy, soup, cooked spinach, rice and chicken were all way out of the safe temperature zone and had to join the parsley and the half and half in the garbage.

They also had to throw away other food in the fridge that had no labels or dates.

Raw beef was stored above ready-to-eat food, and someone was storing their medicine above the food too.

Some food was covered by wiping cloths and other stuff in the refrigerators and dry storage was uncovered and unprotected from contamination.

The refrigerator racks were heavily soiled, which is no wonder since so much food in there isn't covered.

What wasn't in the fridge was being stored on the floor. Inspectors found containers of food on floors throughout the facility. It's got to be at least six inches off the floor, for obvious reasons.

Inspectors found utensils stored in a soiled container and the produce slicer was also soiled with dry food.

There was improper hand washing and no hot water in the restroom.

Scoop handles in food means hands in food and that's not okay with health inspectors.

Neither was a room inspectors found that technically isn't part of the restaurant.  It's an unpermitted area where Tamba was storing food and equipment, including pots on the ground next to garbage cans and someone's bicycle.

Inspectors told them to relocate all that stuff and to deal with something else that was obviously amiss -- one employee's health card had expired in January of 2011. And multiple other employees didn't have health cards with them at all.

No one was available to talk to us at the restaurant and though they promised to call, no one did. 

Tamba was re-inspected one day after they were closed, but had to stay closed because of repeat, critical violations.

But the third time was the charm for them. Their third inspection in as many days allowed them to re-open with a 5-demerit "A" grade.