Dirty towels on clean plates, infrequent handwashing , and roaches near food caused a South Miami-Dade restaurant to fail inspection last week.
Actually, DiCrespo Steakhouse, 13772 SW 152nd. St., failed two inspections: the first look Wednesday and Thursday’s re-inspection before coming correct for Friday’s second re-inspection. Throw in October’s failed inspection and that’s three inspection flops in five months for the Argentine steakhouse.
October’s report revealed only 21 violations . Wednesday’s routine inspection showed 37 total violations, 12 of which were High Priority violations. Here’s a selection of them.
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“Observed flan at the reach-in cooler with mold-like substance.” That mold brought down a Stop Sale on the flan.
Of the 17 live roaches, six were “crawling inside a reach-in cooler where food is stored”; two were on a cookline stove; three strolled on a kitchen sanitizer bucket; two were inside the three-compartment sink “adjacent to the cookline” and three were seen “crawling out of a raw potato bag near the exit door.”
Stop Sale on the potatoes.
Eight roaches died inside a reach-in cooler. But, more problematic appears to be five dead roaches inside one kitchen handwash sink and four dead roaches inside another kitchen handwash sink, indicating neither handwash sink gets heavy use.
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Tha various handwash violations supports that hypothesis, such as “the cook began preparing a sandwich at the cookline” without handwashing”; “cook cracked raw shell eggs, then proceeded to plate food to serve to customers”; and “cook touched soiled aprons, then proceeded to plate a sandwich to serve to customers.”
Washing hands at the bar area handwash sink left the person with wet hands as there was no paper towel or mechanical blower.
The inspector “observed the server and cook using soiled wiping cloths to wipe a clean plate.”
A wet wiping cloth sat on a cookline prep table instead of bathing in sanitizing solution, as it’s supposed to between uses.
“Clean utensils and equipment were stored on a dirty wire shelf above the three-compartment sink.”
The outside of the microwave was “soiled” and the inside “soiled with old food debris.”
“Soiled with old food debris” also described the shelves in dry storage and the inside of a cookline food storage container.
“Cutting board has cut marks and is no longer cleanable.”
The cookline in front the fryers was “covered with standing water.”
Raw, marinated chicken, flan, cooked rice and breaded steak didn’t have date marks. Nobody knew when they’d been prepared, only that it had been more than 24 hours before. Stop Sales hit all.
The apparently worthless reach-in cooler across the cookline didn’t keep raw chicken (59 degrees), cut lettuce (48), yuca (62) or fresh garlic (59) at or below 41 degrees. So, each got smacked with a Stop Sale.
DiCrespo Steakhouse, 13772 SW 152nd St., near the Country Walk area of South Miami-Dade. DAVID J. NEAL dneal@miamiherald.com
This story was originally published March 17, 2026 at 12:53 PM.
Miami Herald
Since 1989, David J. Neal’s domain at the Miami Herald has expanded to include writing about Panthers (NHL and FIU), Dolphins, old school animation, food safety, fraud, naughty lawyers, bad doctors and all manner of breaking news. He drinks coladas whole. He does not work Indianapolis 500 Race Day.