The state ordered eight South Florida restaurants to temporarily close last week after inspectors found violations including “objectionable odors,” rodent droppings, and live flies on clean cutting boards, a knife handle and napkins.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel typically highlights restaurant inspections in Broward and Palm Beach counties from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. We cull through hundreds of restaurant and bar inspections that happen weekly and spotlight places ordered shut for “high-priority violations,” such as improper food temperatures or dead cockroaches.

[  FULL DATABASE: See Florida restaurant inspection reports from the last 30 days ]

Sun Sentinel readers can browse full Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade county reports through our state inspection map, updated weekly (usually Mondays) with fresh data pulled from the Florida DBPR website.

Any restaurant that fails a state inspection must stay closed until it passes a follow-up. If you spotted a possible violation and wish to file a complaint, contact Florida DBPR here. (But please don’t contact us: The Sun Sentinel doesn’t inspect restaurants.)

Ordered shut: Aug. 26; reopened the same day

Why: The state reported seven violations (two high-priority), led by 36 live flies “landing on cutting board and clean containers” in the prep area next to the kitchen, flying around the ceiling of the same prep area and inside a dry storage area. One inspector spotted an employee cracking “raw shell eggs and proceeded to touch a clean plate without washing hands,” and saw an employee’s personal “beverage cup stored on prep table next to clean bowls and knives.” The arepa bar was cleared to reopen after a second inspection found a single basic issue.

Ordered shut: Aug. 24; reopened Aug. 25

Why: Inspectors noted six violations (three high-priority), including eight live flies “flying round 50-pound bag of red onions” and “around soiled aprons hanging on rack at exit door,” as well as “over dishes” at a sink and “around the deli slicer” in the kitchen. The restaurant was ordered to stop selling and trash its chicken wings and tenders, chicken breast, ground beef, quinoa and yellow rice “due to temperature abuse.” Zero violations were discovered during inspectors’ follow-up visit on Aug. 25, and the restaurant reopened.

Ordered shut: Aug. 25; reopened Aug. 27

Why: Inspectors found 37 violations (eight high-priority), such as more than 16 live flies landing “inside orange juice maker at front counter,” as well as flying around the coffeemaker and sink in the same area, and “flying around standing reach-in cooler” in the kitchen prep area. The report also mentioned “10 or more dead roaches on floor next to wine bottles” stored at the front counter and “40 or more rodent droppings throughout kitchen prep area” — plus examples of unsanitary conditions, including one employee’s beverage container, without a lid, on a food prep table near clean plates, and an employee “eating empanadas at front counter.” The restaurant also was ordered to stop selling and toss its salmon, bacon, provolone, American white cheese, Swiss cheese, corn, tomato sauce, feta cheese, sliced turkey, cream cheese, chickpeas, boiled eggs, butter, cheesecake, empanadas (beef, chicken, ham and cheese), cooked onions, ricotta cheese and lettuce “due to temperature abuse.” Ohana’s next inspection, on Aug. 27, found a single basic issue, and the restaurant was cleared to reopen.

Ordered shut: Aug. 26; reopened Aug. 27

Why: The state reported 10 violations (four high-priority), including 24 live flies landing “on red cutting board at sandwich station at front counter,” landing “on knife handle on” the same cutting board, as well as “on red plastic baskets stored on rack” in the back room and “on a small red plastic apple device for pest control.” One inspector saw an employee remove his slippers “and put on shoes and [start] working without washing hands.” Finally, the restaurant was ordered to stop selling and junk its mac ‘n’ cheese, Monterey jack cheese, pepper jack cheese, whole turkey breast, shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes, sliced ham and sliced turkey “due to temperature abuse.” Inspectors green-lit the chain eatery’s reopening after finding a pair of minor issues.

Ordered shut: Aug. 25; reopened Aug. 26

Why: Thirteen violations (five high-priority) were reported, including 56 rodent droppings “on canned goods and dry storage items on shelving across from kitchen cook line,” “on cardboard lining shelving” and “on floor between shelving” in the same area. Inspectors also saw an “employee with no beard guard/restraint” while preparing food, and examples of unsanitary conditions, such as the interior of a microwave and a “food-contact surface soiled with food debris.” The restaurant was cleared to reopen the next day with a single minor issue.

Ordered shut: Aug. 25; reopened Aug. 25

Why: The state discovered 10 violations (two high-priority), such as 40 rodent droppings “on top shelf with cleaning supplies” and “on shelf with single-service lids and to-go containers in storage room” next to the kitchen. Despite finding six basic and intermediate issues during a follow-up inspection on Aug. 25, the restaurant was allowed to reopen.

Ordered shut: Aug. 23; reopened Aug. 24

Why: The state report included five violations (three high-priority), such as four live cockroaches found crawling “on floor behind reach-in chest freezer” in the kitchen, “on lid of cookline flip top cooler” and on the floor underneath the same cooler. (The restaurant’s operator later killed the vermin and sanitized the area.) Inspectors discovered another major violation during their on Aug. 24, a “vacuum breaker missing at mop sink faucet or on fitting/splitter added to mop sink faucet,” but cleared The Locale’s reopening.

Ordered shut: Aug. 22; reopened Aug. 23

Why: Inspectors found 37 violations (nine high-priority), led by 15 to 20 live flies “flying around bar area landing on napkins, cup covers covering nozzles of liquor nozzles and counter of the bar,” as well as landing on dining room tables, “flying around cook line” in the kitchen and “flying around drains” in the dry storage prep area. Meanwhile, there were five “dead flies on window sill in dining room” and “one dead roach under prep table.” Inspectors also found “objectionable odors in bathroom” and around the kitchen’s cook line and dry storage areas. The restaurant was ordered to stop selling and toss its cooked rice “due to temperature abuse.” Although three subsequent issues were spotted during the Aug. 23 reinspection, the state let Crazy Crab reopen.