Restaurant Report Card: Rats, roaches infest local eateries

HOUSTON – Rat droppings are not on the menu at Angelo’s Pizza, 5414 Birdwood Road, yet that's what health found on the floor in the kitchen, behind the reach in coolers and in the storage room.

From rats to roaches, our next stop is Jack In The Box on West Mount Houston Road, where one health official actually watched with his own eyes as a roach scampered across the food-prep table.

The restaurant was ordered to bring in professional pest control right away.

And hold on to your pancakes everybody, at the famous Waffle House on Almeda Genoa, food inspectors found raw sewage backing up into the food-preparation area and also backing up at the dish-washing area.

That restaurant was ordered by the Houston Health Department to shut its doors temporarily.

And this week, we’re asking questions at the Natto Chinese Restaurant at 1818 Hamilton.

There, inspectors found evidence that rodents had been gnawing on sacks of rice.

They also found significant amounts of rat droppings throughout the restaurant in the food-prep area and the back-kitchen area.

When we asked what the management was doing about it, one man promptly showed us an invoice showing that an extermination team had just been there to eliminate the pests.

Let's move on to Dave And Buster’s at 7620 Katy Freeway, where restaurant inspectors actually quarantined the reach-in cooler.

The problem was several foods had been stored at unsafe temperatures, including short ribs, pork, bacon, wrapped beef, turkey and burgers.

All of that food was ordered to be thrown away.

And this week, we salute the very hardworking crew at Denny’s at 8401 Westheimer.

Not only do they serve us the All American Grand Slam, they earn our coveted A-Plus Award for earning an absolutely spotless restaurant inspection.

So we say Boo-Yah! Baby!

Make my bacon hot and crisp.


About the Author:

Emmy-winning investigative reporter, insanely competitive tennis player, skier, weightlifter, crazy rock & roll drummer (John Bonham is my hero). Husband to Veronica and loving cat father to Bella and Meemo.