Dirty Dining: Learning Lessons

We show you the dirtiest inspections around and you decide if you want to eat there again. Some places keep getting bad inspections, while others take charge and make changes.

The numbers aren't good. A high number of critical violations means there's more of a mess to clean up. We sorted the state's database to find out which restaurants had an inspection in the last year with the highest number of critical violations. We bring you those results and give you an update on those restaurants. In Indian River and St. Lucie Counties, here are the restaurants that were at the bottom and top of that list.

We start with Zapata's Restaurant on US one in Port St. Lucie. They had an inspection with 42 critical violations in November. However, they know that and they're working to fix things. That means out with the old management and in with the new. We met the new manager, Jesus Blanco, who had just taken over after that bad inspection in November. He told us he had to get rid of the former management for not doing their job and he started cleaning house.

In November, Zapata's got in trouble for having food at the wrong temperature, hand washing problems, dirty food surfaces and insects. Blanco, the new manager told us, "My guys in the kitchen take the temperature from the food in the kitchen every day. It has to be as they say. They are working on that. We're doing a very good job." Their last inspection in March was not too shabby. Good work guys on cleaning house after a real mess.

The next stop is China 1 in Fort Pierce and this place needs a lot of work. China 1 had frequent unwanted guests -- Roaches. Last July, the inspector also found 37 CRITICAL VIOLATIONS. We're talking major roach problems. It happened twice in 2007. The place was shut down temporarily by the state twice in that year for insects and dirty conditions.

This restaurant also got in trouble for another no-no. They were selling imitation scallops, but labeling it on the menu as real scallops. When we were there last year, the man behind the counter told us, "We already fixed everything." He also said they had passed inspection. We checked the records and in China 1's last inspection in March, there were no bugs found. However, there were still a lot of other critical violations noted, including raw food stored over prepared food and more dirty conditions. That means this restaurant still has more work to do.

At Bella Pizza In Port St. Lucie, food storage issues were just the beginning. They also had a big problem with roaches in January and no soap in the kitchen bathroom. In that inspection, the inspector found 30 critical violations.

Roaches were making themselves at home at this pizza place, but no one there seemed to notice until the inspector showed up. The hostess told us, "I was pretty surprised, not because I know I had roaches and it closed, but because we didn't see them!" Bella Pizza was inspected again last March and had a squeaky clean inspection. So, good for them for getting that mess cleaned up. Tara Cardoso, CBS 12 I-Team.

If you want to report a restaurant for our I-Team to check out, e-mail me at tcardoso@cbs12.com.