Palm Coast’s Golden Chopsticks Buffet Open Again 2 Days After Sanitation Inspection Ordered It Closed

Two days after it was ordered closed due to several sanitation violations, Golden Chopsticks Buffet, the less-than-one-year-old Chinese restaurant on Palm Coast’s Cypress Edge Drive, was bustling with business again today at lunch, its neon “open” sign burning red. 

The business, operated by Jingming Zhang, according to the state Division of Corporations, was ordered temporarily closed following an inspection on Monday (May 19) by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulations, which inspects restaurants, hotels and motels. The inspection had found five high-priority violations and three lesser violations. 

Among the high priority violations: Live, “small flying insects” were observed in buffet areas and in the food and chemical storage room. Raw sewage was found on the ground of the establishment (though what the inspection termed “raw sewage” appeared to be wastewater overflowing a floor drain under a triple sink), and rodent activity was present “as evidenced by rodent droppings found under a preparation table and behind a deep freezer. Rodent droppings were also found under a hand washing station next to the dessert buffet, and 36 droppings were observed in a cabinet under the fruit buffet. 

Sanitizing equipment was found to be malfunctioning, and food-contact surfaces were not sanitized, according to the inspection report. “Observed employee washing dishes at triple sink and then placing dishes in plain water and then placing wet dishes on drying rack without sanitizing dishes,” the report states. “Person in charge stated all dishes are suppose to be ran through high temp dish machine before drying.”

Lesser violations included such issues as standing water and the plumbing system in disrepair. 

A DBPR inspector conducted a follow-up inspection on Tuesday. The inspection found the number of flying insects sharply diminished but persisting in some areas. An employee sought to kill a few in front of the inspector. But the drainage was working properly and the rodent droppings had been cleaned up, with no additional droppings found. But as of May 20, DBPR was indicating that the restaurant was still “temporarily closed.” 

Golden Chopsticks Buffet, a sprawling buffet-style restaurant with several buffet areas–including sushi, hibachi, salads, fried donuts, clams, mussels, french fries and desserts–opened last summer at 225 Cypress Edge Drive, an 11,100 square-ft. Space that was a former Golden Corral. 

Golden Chopsticks passed its first inspection last Aug. 8,  but a Sept. 24 inspection found 18 violations, eight of them high priority. “Violations require further review, but are not an immediate threat to the public,” DBPR reported at the time. A follow-up inspection found just three violations, and by November the restaurant was meeting inspection standards.