North-side Japanese restaurant closed by Health Department

Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffet closed indefinitely this month after the Springfield-Greene County Health Department found repeat critical violations and imminent health hazards.

The eatery - opened by Aaron Wu and Cindy Yeng at 1950 E. Kearney St. in May 2012 - closed July 10. According to Health Department spokeswoman Kathryn Wall, the owners must reapply for a permit.

During the July 10 inspection, Health Department workers found 14 critical violations, including:

• live cockroaches found in various areas of the restaurant, such as under the buffet bar and in the meat prep room;
• the inability of the person in charge to demonstrate sufficient knowledge about food safety, such as time control policies, the correlation between potentially hazardous foods and temperature, what constitutes a potentially hazardous food, proper cooling techniques and knowledge of food-borne illnesses;
• a food employee not washing their hands after bringing a dirty dish cart back from the eatery's dish room to the sushi room and then proceeding to make sushi;
• knives and utensils found unclean in clean storage on knife racks; and
• a dish washing machine with at least six feet of standing gray water.

Wall said via email the eatery has had eight total inspections and an additional nine reinspections to follow up on violations noted. According to the Health Department's website, food establishments are typically inspected one to three times per year.

The Health Department issued a 24-hour closure of Hibachi Grill in January 2013, the restaurant closed for 24 hours voluntarily in March 2013, and the Health Department issued another temporary closure in June 2013, Wall said.

A call to the restaurant this morning went unanswered.

The former home of a Ryan's buffet, Hibachi Grill opened in 12,000 square feet with 256 seats, 12 buffet tables and a hibachi grill station, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.[[In-content Ad]]