Restaurant Inspections: Vienna Inn, Tequila Grande, Amma Vegetarian Kitchen

Inspectors from the Virginia Department of Health recently visited several restaurants in or near Vienna:

Vienna Inn
120 Maple Ave. E.
Date of inspection: Sept. 27
1 critical violation, corrected during inspection: "the chlorine-based sanitizing solution was observed to be at a concentration less than what is required for effective sanitization of food-contact surfaces of equipment and utensils;" 7 non-critical violations were found during the inspection. Click here for the full report.
 
Amma Vegetarian Kitchen
344 Maple Ave. E.
Date of inspection: Oct. 18
Three critical violations were found and corrected during inspection; violations included unwrapped potato cake, food not being kept cold enough and rice and lentil cakes being held at improper temps; two non-critical violations were found during the inspection. Click here for the full report.

Tequila Grande
444 Maple Ave. W.
Date of inspection: Oct. 11
One critical violation was found and corrected during inspection (chopped tomatoes and chicken being held at a temperature that wasn't cold enough; the restaurant tossed out the chicken and placed tomatoes in deeper ice bath); five non-critical violations. Click here for the full report.

About these inspections: 

See a sampling of those results below, and visit the health department's website for a complete list of recent inspections.

"Ideally, an operation would have no critical violations, or none which are not corrected immediately and not repeated. In our experience, it is unrealistic to expect that a complex, full-service food operation can routinely avoid any violations," according to department of health website.

The site continues: "Keep in mind that any inspection report is a 'snapshot' of the day and time of the inspection. On any given day, a restaurant could have fewer or more violations than noted in the report. An inspection conducted on any given day may not be representative of the overall, long term cleanliness of an establishment."

Full reports can be accessed on the health department's website.

• A core item "usually relates to general sanitation, operational controls, sanitation standard operating procedures (SSOPs), facilities or structures, equipment design, or general maintenance."

• A priority item is "a provision in this Code whose application contributes directly to the elimination, prevention or reduction to an acceptable level, hazards associated with foodborne illness or injury and there is no other provision that more directly controls the hazard," and "includes items with a quantifiable measure to show control of hazards such as cooking, reheating, cooling, handwashing."

• A priority foundation item "includes an item that requires the purposeful incorporation of specific actions, equipment or procedures by industry management to attain control of risk factors that contribute to foodborne illness or injury such as personnel training, infrastructure or necessary equipment, HACCP plans, documentation or record keeping, and labeling."