Restaurant Observation Project

Restaurant Observation Project

When given the task of finding a restaurant that has an open kitchen a restaurant that came immediately to my mind was the Roberto's taco restaurant just down the street from my house, on the corner of Maryland Parkway and Harmon Avenue. I had previously dined at this establishment on numerous occasions after long nights out at our local Las Vegas watering holes, until learning in my food purchasing class in the fall that Roberto's had received various demerits dealing with their cleanliness of work.

1.) Exterior of the Restaurant

The Roberto's on Harmon is adjoined with three other eateries behind a gas station in a strip mall type design. The parking lot was littered with trash, most of it seemed to be food wrappers from the Subway next door, burrito wrappers from Roberto's, or drink napkins from the bar adjoined to Roberto's. The parking lot was well lit with no bulbs out of commission. The landscaping left much to be desired, simply because there wasn't any. At first glance this particular Roberto's had no curb side appeal. The parking lot leads right onto the sidewalk which leads directly into the restaurant with no foliage of any kind in front of the restaurant. Their signage was appropriate in the fact that it has the name of the restaurant on it, but not appropriate in the fact that it's too high, and the first time I went there I didn't even know where I was going. The signage was also very hazy. The bulbs are bright inside but the wording seemed murky as if there was dirt or dust on the inside of it.

2.) Dining Area

Upon entrance of the restaurant I noticed that the garbage was overflowing, and that it was right next to the door. This is probably where all of the burrito wrappers from the parking lot came from. The floor of the establishment was somewhat dirty. All around were particles of tortilla, salsa both green and red, and vegetables from the uncovered vegetable/salsa serving area. The tabletops were wiped clean regularly. The dÐ"©cor of the restaurant gives off a feel of the seventies or of a Tijuana dining area, but I believe the furniture to actually be from the seventies. It tilts in awkward directions, squeaks, and is covered in this god awful orange color. The Area where their "condiments" are stored was disgustingly un-kept. It was a four tray room temperature storage unit. It contained vegetables, green and red salsa, and a jalapeno tray with carrots soaking in the jalapeno juices. Contents from each tray was cross contaminating the other trays, because in order to get the desired condiment you had to reach under an awkward sneeze guard with, in most cases, an inappropriate tool causing you to drip fluids from one tray to another. If a person didn't drip fluid into another tray they generally spilt all over the edge of the unit itself. Their beverages were self service units as well. The traditional Mexican beverages like Horchata were kept in their own cold storage units, while Pepsi and all other Americanized beverages were kept in another. The Pepsi machine was covered in a sticky film around the buttons. The Horchata dispenser was facing towards the employees so I could no see the condition of that particular machine.

3.) Service Staff

This particular Roberto's didn't have any serving staff, merely a cook and a cashier, and in some cases these positions were interchangeable. None of these employees were in proper attire for their jobs. None of them had hair nets on. None of them had gloves on. Even the cashier should have been wearing gloves because he would touch food himself, and then go and touch either the cash register or the dirty window to the adjoining bar to take orders.

4.) Kitchen Staff and Area

I walked up to the register to make my order where the gentleman using the cash register with his bare hands took my check card and swiped it through his machine. Immediately after this he went to the refrigerator, which was already open mind you, and pulled out a tortilla and with his shiny hands began to stretch and pull at it on the grill. There were many things here that made me quite nauseous. The fact that he had something disgusting all over his hands, touched my personal belongings with those hands, then began to rub them all over my food. I believe they were failing every process that we have discussed