Dirty Dining: Pho Quyen Vietnamese Cuisine shut down for roach activity again

TAMPA - A local Vietnamese restaurant was shut down by the state in October for roach activity and just a couple weeks ago, inspectors closed their doors again after finding 40 live and dead roaches in various parts of the kitchen and storage room.

Susan Johnson says she has not had a positive experience eating at Pho Quyen Vietnamese Cuisine on East Fowler Avenue in Tampa.

"I've been there. That's why I left out of there one day cause of the roaches on the table," Johnson said.

"You actually saw them on the table?" asked ABC Action News anchor Wendy Ryan. "Yes," Johnson answered.

And Johnson was not shocked to hear that on March 14, 2011 inspectors shut down Pho Quyen for 24 hours, documenting in their report they found around 25 live roaches in various stages of life on the cook's line, under the prep sink, and 3 compartment sink and 15 dead roaches in the storage room.

"So you're not surprised to hear?" asked Ryan.

"They closed down again? No," Johnson answered.

But this isn't the first time the restaurant had a problem with roaches.

Just a few months back in October of 2010, a dirty dining investigation revealed inspectors closed Pho Quyen's doors for 2 days after finding 43 live and dead roaches throughout the kitchen. And in October of 2009 inspectors also found live roaches under the cookline.

During the latest inspection on March 14, inspectors also found the back door not closed, allowing the outside elements to be exposed to the kitchen. The same violation we saw during our visit.

Last year, the manager told us a new owner was turning things around. So we went back to find out what happened.

"Is there someone else I can speak with? Is the owner here?" Ryan asked a Pho Quyen employee. But he said both managers were on vacation and no one was in charge.

Johnson feels after inspectors documented roaches during three different visits in the last year and a half, the new owner needs to clean things up.

"They need to buckle down, saddle up, get someone in there who's strong minded to handle the situation," Johnson said.