Popular South Side restaurant Mallorca was tagged Monday with a consumer alert by the Allegheny County Health Department for unsafe food temperatures and soiled surfaces, among other issues, but the manager said early Tuesday that violations were already addressed.
“I had a refrigerator that broke in the middle of the night and when they came in, everything was above temperature,” restaurant Manager Antonio Pereira said. “Everything is all right now.”
Mallorca was issued a notice to correct issues pertaining to lack of temperature monitoring and poor employee personal hygiene.
“The improper hygiene is that they were touching their cell phones. The new rule is that everyone has to drop their phone when they come to work now,” Pereira said.
Mallorca is at 2228 East Carson Street.
The East Carson Street Meditteranian restaurant’s cuisine earned a 2017 Diner’s Choice Award with features like wild boar and paella.
Health Department inspectors listed several problems to be corrected in the kitchen, including unsafe thawing of vacuum packed fish, malfunctioning facilities to maintain safe food temperatures, soiled food contact surfaces and lack of demonstration of food safety knowledge.
Dirty tongs were found hanging on the cook line and were not cleaned from the previous night’s cooking, the report said. Also, the slicer was dirty with old food debris, and there were multiple dead roaches and one live roach found on the basement floor. The restaurant has been schooled several times on how to thaw vacuum packed food in order to prevent botulism growth, according to the report.
Pereira said all issues have been corrected after speaking with his employees. The Health Department is scheduled to return Wednesday, he said.
“I feel confident that everything will be OK,” he said. “It should be no problem.”
