Restaurant Report Card: Inspectors find rodent droppings, gnats, roaches

Big John's Ice House, Barnes And Noble Bookstore Café earn perfect inspections

HOUSTON – Rodent droppings, roaches and gnats highlight the most recent Restaurant Report Card in Houston.

Randy’s Smoke House & BBQ in the 15000 block of Old Galveston Road is a popular Clear Lake destination, but health inspectors recently found violations at the restaurant, including rodent droppings and a green block of rat poison in the storage room.

At the original Barnaby’s Café on Fairview, inspectors condemned more than 40 pounds of food found unsafe to eat, including sour cream, cheese and yogurt, all of which were off temperature in a backroom refrigerator.

Inspectors found dried rodent droppings and gnats flying around the kitchen and the bar at Calamari, which opened a few months ago in the 5100 block of Washington Avenue.

"We have fixed that," the manager of Calamari told Channel 2 this week during a tour of the kitchen and bar areas. "You can come to the kitchen and check … everything is already clean."

Channel 2 News found the kitchen and bar both as clean as a whistle as employees took the inspectors' warning to heart.

At Lowbrow in the 1600 block of West Main, inspectors tossed out 26 pounds of chicken wings, salmon and mashed potatoes that were deemed unsafe to eat.

There were no fun and games for inspectors at Dave & Buster’s in the 7600 block of the Katy Freeway, where they found roaches near the dishwasher.

The same problem popped up at La Maytena Bakery in the 8400 block of Long Point, where a dead roach decided to make its final resting place on the kitchen floor.

As for the winners this week, Channel 2 awarded two restaurants an A+ rating. Big John’s Ice House in the 12600 block of Briar Forest and The Barnes And Noble Bookstore Café at 8001 Fulton both earned perfect inspections.


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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.