Food for Thought Report 5.3 - KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock

If you blink you could miss it, but if you try it, you'll never forget it. Dingy's Burger at 1103 East 50th Street is where we start this journey. Open only two weeks, Dingy's is already making a name for itself. 

"I was looking for somewhere to get a good burger, and when I saw they were open I just came in and tried it. And it was awesome," customer Dwayne Small loves the burgers.

And the burgers should be great. Owner, Sonia Arcos says it's Dingy's specialty, "It's just an old fashioned hamburger place. I don't do catfish. I just do hamburgers. Old fashioned greasy toasted buns."

But if you are looking for chicken this place is clucking' with perfection. Wing Stop at 6807 Slide Road had zero critical violations.

And our last stop at the top serves to please. Ambrosia Catering at 4208 Boston was flawless. Making them a top performer.

Food for Thought 5.3 Here is a complete list of the restaurants and their violations for the week ending on 5/3/07.

Now to our low performers.

Big John's Sports Bar inside the Ramada Inn at 6624 I-27 had six critical violations. Big John himself brought us inside the kitchen to explain his violations.

• A walk-in cooler was holding at 50 degrees. It must be 41 degrees a colder. 

"That was actually being fixed at the time the inspector showed up. The parts were on order. It was just bad timing," owner John Evans said. The report shows that as well.

• Chicken fried steak was not date marked.

"They know better, especially my head cook. He's very good. He usually pays a lot of attention to that. He just, for some reason, missed a couple."

• Rodent droppings were found in a storage area under the buffet table.

"That actually is an area we never use. It's actually a salad buffet. It's a cooler. We don't do that. We don't even serve in that area."

• There was no thermometer for thin foods.

"The one we had was out-of-date by their standards. They wanted the new high-tech one."

• Cooking utensils were on top of soiled towels.

"That's another thing that I got onto them about. They know better than that."

• And finally there was no consumer advisory about the consumption of under-cooked foods.

"The last inspector I talked to said if we wanted to put that up there than we could, but we didn't have to, so I never made a point of it, but we have it up now."

John says all violations have been corrected.

"We haven't had any complaints, nobody's gotten sick. Everybody enjoys the food, enjoys the price, so we're just going to continue to operate as we've done before."

Finally, Taqueria Guadalajara at 1925 19th Street had seven critical violations.

• Potatoes and pork were above the safe temperature of 41 degrees.
• A hand sink was used for purposes other than hand washing.
• A cook handled tortillas without gloves.
• Multiple foods were not date-marked.
• The restaurant did not have the proper thermometer for thin foods. 
• Soiled plates and bowls were stored with clean dishes.
• There was no consumer advisory about the consumption of under-cooked foods.

Management was unavailable to comment. The report shows most violations were corrected at the time of the inspection.