Triangle Mexican restaurant earns ‘B’ grade for holding old food: Scores (June 25)

The News & Observer publishes a weekly roundup of restaurant sanitation scores to keep you up-to-date on the health grades at Triangle dining spots.

Sanitation scores and their corresponding letter grades are used in North Carolina to assess restaurants’ adherence to rules and standards intended to mitigate and prevent the spread of food-borne illnesses.

You’ve likely seen sanitation grade cards at restaurants you’ve visited, and The N&O previously explained what those scores mean and how they’re calculated .

Here are sanitation scores in Triangle counties for the week of June 19-25.

Wake County sanitation scores

The Wake County sanitation grades database shows that 66 restaurant inspections were completed June 19-25.

▪ Most restaurants received an A grade, or a score of at least 90%.

▪ One restaurant received a B grade, or a score of at least 80% but lower than 90%.

Tacos y Mariscos Vallarta (3177 Capital Blvd in Raleigh ) received a score of 87.5% during an inspection on June 21.

• The restaurant was in violation of 17 standards. Of these, eight were considered critical violations.

• Critical violations included finding several containers of salsas, soups and other foods held beyond seven days (beef soup since June 12, salsa roja since June 9, birria since June 10 and others), and several containers of queso cheese sauce made the following afternoon were held at improper temperatures. Flies and gnats were also noticed during the inspection both upstairs and downstairs.

• Some violations were corrected during the inspection.

• The restaurant previously scored 94% in February 2024 and 93.5% in July 2023.

▪ No restaurants received a C grade, or a score of at least 70% but less than 80%.

▪ No restaurants received a failing grade, or a score below 70%.

You can search all restaurant inspections in Wake County at wake-nc.healthinspections.us .

Durham County sanitation scores

The Durham County inspection management system shows 10 restaurant inspections were completed June 19-25.

▪ All restaurants received an A grade.

You can search all restaurant inspections in Durham County at bit.ly/3pVQfpG .

Orange County sanitation scores

The Orange County inspection management system shows that 25 restaurant inspections were completed June 19-25.

▪ All restaurants received an A grade.

You can search all restaurant inspections in Orange County at bit.ly/3eQqpxc .

Johnston County sanitation scores

The Johnston County sanitation inspections database shows that five restaurant inspections were completed June 19-25.

▪ All restaurants received an A grade.

You can search all restaurant inspections in Johnston County at johnston-nc.healthinspections.us .

Chatham County sanitation scores

The Chatham County inspections management system shows that that two restaurant inspections were completed June 19-25.

▪ Both restaurants received an A grade.

You can search all restaurant inspections in Chatham County at bit.ly/3JfiHwq .

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• If you have a question about the Charlotte area , send The Charlotte Observer team a question by submitting questions to this form .
• If you have a question about Raleigh or a Triangle area community, send The News & Observer team a question by submitting questions to this form .

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