We're changing the criteria for which restaurants are featured on Dirty Dining as we seek to raise the bar to ensure we profile places that truly deserve to appear on our program.
Until now, we've been reporting on the place with the highest demerits, but sometimes that may have seemed unfair.
We'll now only report on food establishments that get 38 or more demerits--38 is one violation short of shutdown.
And of course, we'll continue to also report on imminent health hazard closures.
Contact 13 Chief Investigator Darcy Spears kicks things off with a multiple-time Dirty Dining repeat offender.
"You may remember me from the last time we were here," said Darcy Spears to the person in charge. "I remember you."
Kapit Bahay Filipino fast food on Spring Mountain and Wynn in Chinatown Plaza is a repeat offender.
This is the restaurant's second location and fourth time on Dirty Dining.
When we asked the person in charge for comment, she walked away to take a phone call instead of answering questions about Kapit Bahay's May 7 inspection.
She's the same woman inspectors say was not knowledgeable about basic food safety and did not have a valid health card.
We saw several handwashing violations as we waited to talk to her. Health inspectors did too.
They also found pork, chicken and fish at unsafe temperatures, an employee's cell phone on a prep table with open banana pastries, build-up on floors and a complete absence of sanitizer solution in open food areas during active food prep.
"We're just trying to find out what the issue was with all these violations," Spears said.
Instead of answering, the person in charge packs up food, cleans tables and tries to hide behind a pole to avoid our camera. She also says her English is not good and she had no comment on the restaurant's C grade.
Inspectors warned Kapit Bahay that continued non-compliance and lack of active managerial control will result in more serious enforcement action.
