Le Lai Eastern in McAllen earns top performer sticker

MCALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — In this week’s Food 4 Thought, we have pupusas and antojitos with a side of cucarachas y chanclas all caught on the que asco cam.

But before we take you there, a Chinese restaurant is earning a Top Performer sticker.

We surprised the team by serving up big portions of Chinese food at Le Lai Eastern Restaurant at 2901 North 10th St. in McAllen.

They earned a perfect score on their Aug. 30 inspection report, making them this week’s Top Performer.

“That’s very cool cause we know not everyone gets it so we feel very special,” said server Priscilla Martinez.

A special moment for Martinez who has been serving up Le Lai’s signature dishes like pad thai, general tso with fried rice and tofu.

The food is saucy, steamy, and made to order. However, the Food Patrol isn’t here for taste, no matter how delicious the food appears. We’re here for cleanliness and putting the public’s safety is the most important item not on the menu.

That’s que rico, but it’s que asco time!

The Food Patrol is heading to Pupusas Antojitos located at 174 W. Robertson St. in San Benito.

On Aug. 27 they had 35 violations out of 65, that’s half of everything inspected.

Some notes left included:

• Handwashing sink full of dirty dishes
• Bare hand contact with food items
• Kitchen counters full of unnecessary items

The health department gave them 48 hours to correct all violations, which they kind of did.

They had two violations out of 98.

The Food Patrol showed up on Sept. 12 to ask owner Zoila Reyes if she was confident in the cleanup for us to look around.

She agreed and said that’s no problem.

We found expired deserts, nuts, drinks, and half-eaten pastries that weren’t on the menu and were eaten by staff.

We also found roaches right next to the fruits.

Reyes seemed unbothered when we showed her and said she would call the pest control guy again.

We kept looking and found dead bugs caked on the wall.

The inspector noted the service station was full of unnecessary items, this time we found a pill bottle on top of utensils, clutter in the cabinets, and sandals stuck together.

The restaurant didn’t have any disposable gloves. All they had were dishwashing gloves, which was a violation they were hit on weeks ago.

We had seen enough.

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