Restaurant Inspections: 1 Restaurant With Violations

Alexandria Health Department officials inspected numerous restaurants in Old Town Alexandria in recent weeks. We all want to know how our favorite restaurants stack up on cleanliness and sanitation.

"Ideally, an operation would have no critical violations, or none which are not corrected immediately and not repeated. In our experience, it is unrealistic to expect that a complex, full-service food operation can routinely avoid any violations," according to Virginia Department of Health's website.

The site continues: "Keep in mind that any inspection report is a 'snapshot' of the day and time of the inspection. On any given day, a restaurant could have fewer or more violations than noted in the report. An inspection conducted on any given day may not be representative of the overall, long term cleanliness of an establishment."

Full reports can be accessed on the health department's website.

There are three main types of violations, according to the health department:

• A core item "usually relates to general sanitation, operational controls, sanitation standard operating procedures (SSOPs), facilities or structures, equipment design, or general maintenance."
• A priority item is "a provision in this Code whose application contributes directly to the elimination, prevention or reduction to an acceptable level, hazards associated with foodborne illness or injury and there is no other provision that more directly controls the hazard," and "includes items with a quantifiable measure to show control of hazards such as cooking, reheating, cooling, handwashing."
• A priority foundation item "includes an item that requires the purposeful incorporation of specific actions, equipment or procedures by industry management to attain control of risk factors that contribute to foodborne illness or injury such as personnel training, infrastructure or necessary equipment, HACCP plans, documentation or record keeping, and labeling."

These are the most recent inspection reports available from the health department.

Alexandria Head Start (Jefferson Houston), 1501 Cameron St., April 29

No violations found during inspection. See the full report here.

Saint Coletta of Greater Washington, 207 S. Peyton St., April 29

No violations found during inspection. Read the full report here.

Cafe Old Town, 2111 Eisenhower Ave., Ste. 10, April 24

No violations found during inspection. See the full report here.

Royal Thai Restaurant, 801 N. Fairfax St., Ste. 108, April 24

One core item, one priority item, two priority foundation items, three items corrected during inspection. See the full report here.