VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT SHUTTERED BY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
Maoz Vegetarian on Broadway and 71st street was shuttered on Friday by the Health Department because of several violations, including flies and problems with food temperatures. See the violations below:
Sanitary Violations
1) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F.
2) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.
3) Appropriately scaled metal stem-type thermometer or thermocouple not provided or used to evaluate temperatures of potentially hazardous foods during cooking, cooling, reheating and holding.
4) Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies include house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies. Food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and Phorid flies.
5) Insufficient or no refrigerated or hot holding equipment to keep potentially hazardous foods at required temperatures.
6) Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
7) Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
8) Facility not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to attracting vermin to the premises and/or allowing vermin to exist.
See other news about Upper West Side health violations here. Thanks to Lisa for the tip.
I need great falafel balls and this chain has just OK ones.
No surprise here.
That entire strip of restaurants is NASTY.
You are so right! That block is a mess…garbage on the street…filthy. obviously it’s not only the restaurants but the clientele…it amazes me how little respect kids AND some adults have for their city and their surroundings.
The Paris Baguette, at the south end of the strip, is nice and clean.
Maoz is no longer “vegetarian” as they started to serve meat several months ago.
Anyway, I liked it much better when it really was vegetarian.
I preferred it when it was vegetarian too. You can get chicken anywhere.
@ Trish and Sherman-
Aside from your (obvious) preferences for vegetarian, the POINT of this story is that the restaurant is FILTHY……which doesn’t seem to bother either of you enough to comment on.
As long as I don’t get dysentery eating thereI don’t care what those health inspectors say.
I stopped going once they switched over. Feh. Bring back SoomSoom on West 72nd.
I THINK Soom Soom is closed. Pretty sure
I used to like this chain until one day I realized that it is very unsanitary how all visitors handle the utensils to serve themselves food from the buffet. Those big spoons are basically dirty subway poles. I would go if they had employees doing the serving but until then – no thanks.
“…dirty subway poles…” — hilarious! (Albeit gross.)
Maoz had reopened by yesterday.
Fine with me. I prefer meat. McDonalds anyone?
At least they got rid of that disaster of a plant seller that was right outside. That no doubt contributed to the large number of fruit flies and Med flies found in the restsurants along that strip. And the pizza place appears extremely shady.
I never ate at MAOZ. EVERYTHING WAS FRIED. Sorry, but this is not healthy. A failed vision for a restaurant. Add dirty hands, and “good riddance to bad rubbish”.
That entire area/block is nasty, dirty, smelly…
The best falafels I had in and around Chicago at Vegetarian food festival in Naperville. It happens every year in and around end of July or first week of August. Check their website http://www.veggiefestchicagoland.org
cool story bro