Benito's Italian Café & Pizzeria had issues with pest control

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Action News Jax visited Benito’s Italian Café & Pizzeria on Philips Highway after roaches were reported by the health inspector.

During the most recent inspection, a health inspector reported seeing a number of issues including roaches. In the follow up, an inspector saw more issues like live roaches, dead roaches and roach droppings in the kitchen. The health inspector shut the eatery down until it could fix the issue, which included getting rid of the current pest control company.

“We were using them for a while, and for our other location too," said manager Rafaela Gjondrekaj. "And this happens, and it's like so frustrating.”

Benito’s also wanted to apologize to its customers.

“I want to reassure everyone that the problem has been solved,” said Gjondrekaj.

Everything was clear during a follow-up inspection with the health inspectors.

At the Krystal on U.S. Highway 1 in St. Augustine, health inspectors were forced to shut down the restaurant after finding live and dead roaches and noting a blackish-green mold-like substance in the ice machine. An inspector also reported throwing away hot dogs and chicken held at unsafe temperatures.

Health Inspectors visited Tuptim Thai Two, which was on the Restaurant Report in August. The inspectors saw cream cheese too warm to serve customers, saw food contaminated by an employee and the dishwasher sanitizer was too weak to clean. Another follow up inspection is needed for the eatery.

RELATED: Look up a restaurant’s most recent inspection by name

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