{"id":420729,"date":"2026-10-06T23:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/420729\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T23:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:54:14","slug":"roaches-mold-at-coral-gables-merrick-park-restaurant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/420729\/","title":{"rendered":"Roaches, mold at Coral Gables\u2019 Merrick Park restaurant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mold<\/p>\n

Mold on food was a problem for a Coral Gables restaurant<\/p>\n

A Coral Gables restaurant with \u201cContemporary Mediterr-Asian Cuisine\u201d<\/a> was shut down Monday and Tuesday by filth, mold and roaches.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what a state inspector chronicled about the visits to Sawa, 360 San Lorenzo Ave., in Coral Gables\u2019 Shops of Merrick Park. Monday\u2019s routine inspection found 15 total violations, including five high priority ones.<\/p>\n

The inspector slammed a Stop Sale on \u201ctwo strawberries in a container with mold-like growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overhead, the inspector saw \u201cceiling and vents throughout the kitchen were soiled\u201d \u201cwith accumulated food debris, grease, dust, or mold-like substance.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Coral Gables lawyer charged with lewd and lascivious behavior on minors<\/a><\/p>\n

In the corner of a prep area, \u201cwhere sushi rise is stored,\u201d were four dead roaches. Another 11 roach corpses were between cooling units and shelves.<\/p>\n

Two roaches moseyed on a prep counter, \u201ccrawling under a rice cooker.\u201d Two other roaches hid in a reach-in cooler\u2019s gaskets. Another roach was under a reach-in cooler.<\/p>\n

The cookline\u2019s hood filters were \u201csoiled with grease buildup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commercially processed reduced oxygen packaged fish carries a label telling you to keep the fish frozen and in the packaging until you\u2019re ready to use it. Otherwise, the fish turns into a big bacteria growth area. But workers ignored that warning, so Stop Sales hit two packages of minced tuna that were thawing in the reach-in cooler.<\/p>\n

Online records say Sawa didn\u2019t get reopened after Tuesday\u2019s re-inspection after the inspector saw a dead roach in the coffee station handwash sink, four live roaches in a reach-in cooler\u2019s gaskets, two live roaches under a kitchen prep cooler and another live roach under another reach-in cooler.<\/p>\n

\"Sawa, Sawa, 360 San Lorenzo Ave., in the Shops at Merrick Park in Coral Gables. Google Earth <\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Since 1989, David J. Neal\u2019s 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.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mold on food was a problem for a Coral Gables restaurant A Coral Gables restaurant with \u201cContemporary Mediterr-Asian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-420729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}