Food for Thought Report 8.13 - KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock

By Christy Moreland  - bio | email

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - They are famous for one thing: their burgers, "We've got the best hamburgers in town" Mike Swissler says. 

5 Guys Burgers & Fries, at 4410 19th Street, has been open for just less than a month and already they're grilling up perfection, "We strive for customer satisfaction and food safety all the time."

So if the name itself doesn't explain it, "We do hamburgers and hotdogs, and that's about it. We just do one thing, and we do it right." Oh wait, there is one more thing, "and fries, gotta have the fries."

From the veggies, to the buns and of course the burgers everything is made from scratch every day. There's not a single freezer in any one of their 400 plus restaurants across the nation.

"We don't do anything fancy with it; we make a perfect burger. We have 15 items, all your basics - tomatoes, pickles, onions, all the normal stuff that you make on hamburgers. Our burgers come plain and dry, and you build them how you want them. You just tell us how to do it."

They're not kidding about that. They inspect each burger before adding the beef. "We completely disregard our food cost. We just worry about making the best hamburger every time."

This isn't the only burger stop at the top. There's a royal appearance from the Burger King at 1901 Marsha Sharp as well.

Thinking outside the bun, Taco Bell/TCBY at 5713 4th street wraps up a flawless health inspection.

And finally taking over the pizza throne, Little Caesar's inside Kmart at 6201 University once again reins supreme as they deliver a perfect score.

Now to this week's only low performer.

Manila Café at 4917 34th Street had seven critical violations.

• Fish in a freezer was not in a container and not properly labeled.
• Numerous other items did not have an expiration date.
• According to the report, the cutting board had remnants of chicken and pieces of paper on it.  There were also towels and wiping clothes.
• A plastic pail was in a bathroom hand sink - which should be used for hand washing only.
• The manager did not demonstrate knowledge of proper and safe food handling.
• There was no digital thermometer.
• Several items in the kitchen were dirty or broken.

According to the report, most of the violations were corrected during the inspection. Management says all violations have since been corrected.

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