This week’s Dirty Dining takes us back to a place we’ve been before. The restaurant’s new owners hadn’t gotten rid of old problems.
The King & I Thai restaurant on East Tropicana near Maryland Parkway is a Dirty Dining repeat offender.
When inspectors came on June 10, co-owner Ontida Tanthmanatham said, “They brought the old report and said, ‘How could you have the repeated stuff?’ And what happened, that was a previous management. And this is no excuse that we still did something wrong.”
We first featured the King & I in February 2013. The owner at the time said they were just having a bad day.
But you might say this one is worse. Back then, they didn’t have roaches.
At the June 10 inspection, the kitchen was harboring a whole cockroach family.
The King & I was shut down with 50 demerits.
Inspectors found dirty, greasy surfaces throughout the kitchen. The bottom of the reach-in doesn’t look too good, but it’s nothing compared to the floors underneath equipment.
The King & I reopened with a zero-demerit “A” grade.