The Hawaii Department of Health (DOH) has issued a red placard to Thai Taste in Honolulu, resulting in the immediate closure of the restaurant due to serious health violations. This marks yet another instance of a Hawaii eatery being shut down as the state’s food safety system remains in disarray.
Health violation leads to closure
According to the DOH, Thai Taste was cited for the lack of operational hand washing facilities for employees, which is a obviously a fundamental requirement for food safety and employee hygiene. The restaurant is required to address this violation before it can reopen. A follow-up inspection and potential reopening could occur as soon as September 3.
The closure of Thai Taste comes shortly after the shuttering of another well-known L&L BBQ location earlier this month, highlighting ongoing concerns about food safety and public health in Hawaii.
Located within large chain Honolulu grocery store.
The restaurant is listed as being within the Don Quixote grocery store. That chain also includes Big Save and Times Markets, among others. It isn’t clear to us how a restaurant inside such a prominent store could find itself lacking the most basic of working safety features, hand washing.
Growing issues with the state’s food safety system.
The recent closures bring into focus the ongoing challenges with Hawaii’s food safety system. As we previously reported, the state’s Food Safety Branch has been operating without a fully functional online portal for restaurant inspection reports for a long time now, while they report that they are still transition to a new system. This situation has created significant inconvenience for consumers who that to rely on for information about their dining choices.
The DOH food safety website now features strange and somewhat cryptic updates about the status of the food safety system. For example, recent updates read:
- UPDATE 06/14/24: “The Food Safety Branch is in the process of transitioning to a new IT system. Annual food establishment permits which expire on May 1, 2024, or beyond will not be renewed until the new system is in place. Renewal invoices will be sent out once the new system is operational. We apologize for this inconvenience.”
- UPDATE 01/24/24: “The Food Safety Branch is currently in the process of switching vendors to manage the inspection report public website. Copies of all inspection reports are available by contacting the Food Safety Branch on each of the respective isles. To request copies of inspection reports for Oahu, you can contact via email at [email protected].”
We also spoke with food safety earlier this month, and were provided no update as to when their system would transition to a working online portal. These updates suggest that the transition to a new IT system is fraught with delays and complications, leaving everyone in the dark about the dining food safety in Hawaii.
Impact on the Hawaii visitors, residents and restaurants.
The ongoing lack of a user-friendly online portal is continuing to make it more difficult for residents and visitors to access crucial food safety information. Now Hawaii restaurant owners, too, are facing challenges due to the delays in permit renewals.
While the DOH is working to resolve these issues, there remains no clear timeline for when new systems may be fully operational. Until then, the public is encouraged to directly contact the Food Safety Branch for any concerns. You can contact the Food Safety Branch via email at [email protected].
Has anyone informed our Physician Governor about this food safety issue? Maybe he needs to appoint someone to manage this digital problem!!
I remember walking in China town and looked at menu and if you couldn’t understand Chinese you had to guess by the photp’s. Sticky tables and fly’s everywhere. Sorry walked out. Waikiki a street buffet style ( pick entree and x amount of sides) and fly’s landing on the selections and the worker didn’t even care. Bottom line most don’t care. IMO maybe my biggest concern is how many lost dog and cat posters are littering the street corner light poles. Maybe pick a different restaurant neighborhood.
Are you saying they’re killing the pets to serve? Sounds like felonies need to be reported…
Remember those spotlessly clean restaurants back in the day? Sparkling glass, painted regularly, well dusted, clean, wiped counters, floors mopped, no damaged wall, fixtures and tiles, trash emptied, pride of ownership very evident… Yes. there were plenty of dives back then but generally…
Best Regards
The state should mandate if a restaurant fails inspection or rodent issue that the establishment must refund all customers credit cards for the previous 30 days or a month of all tip charges to all said customers as a deterent or penalty. Some restaurants force customers to leave tips by adding the tip amount prior to totaling the bill without consenting with the customer. I’ve had this done to me and I was not happy. If the establishment expects a tip then the customer then should expect the food and establishment to be a safe place to eat. Look how quick this will solve the food establishment cleanliness problem.
If the State does not have a functional food safety and licensing program can folks sue the State if they get a food borne illness? Maybe losing a lawsuit or three would get their attention.
IMO best meal in Hawaii,best service in Hawaii, and don’t require a 30% tip. Go to Safeway,Foodland,Sam’s Club,Walmart or Costco and purchase a 24pc box of spoons, 12 paper dixie brand bowls,and a gallon or so of milk. Choose a couple of boxes of your favorite cereal and a few varieties of fruit and you’re all set. Serve yourself in your hotel or condo while watching tv and enjoy a meal without waiting an hour to get served. Wait need a refill no problem. You know who and how your meal was prepared. Just make sure your rental provides you a refrigerator. It’s called be Safe not Sorry.
All that’s necessary for the state to pull its pants up and get to a nationally accepted level of food safety is to be sued. Don’t worry, it’ll happen. Someone will get very sick or worse (but most notably) die from some pathogen that was accommodated by poor food health practices. Just like Hawaii had problems with the safe engineering of dams and monitoring building codes, food safety will change only when it costs much more money to settle suits than it does to be proactively food-safe. Welcome to the Banana Republic of Hawaii.
Is there a shortage of Health Department Inspectors? Seems like the establishment that gets closed has had sewer backups or serious violations over a long period of time. Customers wait long times for their dining experience so IMO some restaurants just don’t care. Why care until you finally get caught game. Who’s really to complain if most tourist’s are only on vacation for a week. If you eat out a lot it makes it hard to determine what establishment served you the bad food. I guess you have to only eat at a couple places to pinpoint the source.
I’m assuming, since they’ve passed inspection before, they have a handwashing station. You can get cited for having your paper towel dispenser empty, your soap dispenser low or empty, or even the temp on the hot water set a few degrees too low. How devastating for a small business to be shut down for an entire month until the inspector returns.
Whatever the infraction(s) are, they need to be corrected in a timely manner. Remember, these rules around restaurants are to keep people safe. I for one have no problem with that idea. You mentioned that the inspector wan’t be able to review the offending establishment till the inspector returns from a vacation? That’s wrong, it will cost the restaurant a great deal of money to wait unnecessarily. Such unfair activity would smack of, “Black Hand” tactics.