Chicken & Burger spot busted with roaches, invites cameras to 'come back again'

EDCOUCH, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Sometimes a surprise visit from the Food Patrol, is a wake-up call to businesses who don't see the reality of their ways.

Here’s what que rico and what’s que asco in this week’s Food 4 Thought.

First, we’re following up with a Top Performer who closed for renovations the same week it received its sticker.

We checked out the new decor at Ramses Tacos and Tequila at 2230 South 77 Sunshine Strip in Harlingen.

The Food Patrol surprised the team back in August with a Top Performer sticker for having a clean inspection report.

The business was closing that week for a major renovation project, so we held off putting a sticker on its front door. On Nov. 21, Ramses reopened with a bang.

General manager Araceli Chavez was beaming with pride over the restaurant's new look.

“A lot of people like it," Chavez said. "A lot of people are really excited about it.”

Nobody is more excited than the owners, Benito and Anna Garcia. They hope to give couples a new date spot in Harlingen.

"A lot of these places that you go to in the upper Valley or the lower Valley, they're also very high-end and so I told him I want to do something just as nice just as beautiful, but that kind of esthetic also, very affordable," Anna said.

That’s que rico! But it's que asco time!

The Food Patrol is headed to Lee Roy's Chicken & Burgers located at 413 W Santa Rosa Ave in Edcouch.

It had a 36 score on its Hidalgo County health inspection report from Oct 11.

Violations included:

• No beard guard
• Potential cross-contamination due to food being uncovered and exposed
• Rust
• Improper food labels
• Roaches

Their permit coulod not be renewed until further inspection. We showed up a month later to see if they had cleaned up.

We contacted the owner and left a voicemail.
We were able to get ahold of the manager who made her way to the restaurant to speak with us.

She showed us the pest control receipt to clear up the roaches on the inspection report, but we still had questions about the exposed food and improper labeling.

The manager spotted salsa that was supposed to be labeled daily with a 25-day-old label on it. The staff says the lable kept falling off.

We had two serious questions to ask her about her: If she believed her employees were telling the truth, and if they would fail another inspection.

She did believe her employees but said they would have failed if they had been inspected that day.

The manager invited us back and promised that they would clean it up.

And that's Food 4 Thought.

You’re part of the Food Patrol! When you see dirty habits, please send us photos/videos and a copy of the complaint you filed to your local health department to News@KVEO.COM