Brandon sushi restaurant reopens after emergency closure

10 News couldn't find any remaining violations after Tokai Japanese Restaurant allowed our camera inside.

BRANDON, Florida — For over 20 years Tokai Japanese Restaurant has been serving up traditional Japanese food as one of the very first sushi restaurants in all of Brandon.

And while plenty of customers give Tokai 5-star reviews for their food and service it was the restaurant's March 3rd health inspection report that caught the attention of 10 News. The restaurant was shut down as an emergency closure with 38 violations, issues like roach activity in the kitchen, mold in found in the teriyaki sauce, temperature violations on potentially hazardous food and even a wild cat spotted by the inspector in an equipment storage room by the outside walk-in cooler.

"We don't have customers complain about the food," said owner Janice Jiang. "We've been here a long time, since 1994."

But customers might not have known about all the roaches. We found at least one complaint from a customer posted online. The restaurant now faces a potential fine from the state for allowing the problem to continue.

"It's not surprising because once you have one, if you don't kill them right away, they build a nest and then they hatch," said Jiang of how a roach issue can quickly grow out of control.

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She blames the building's age and insists the roach issue is now taken care of. In fact, she invited 10 News into the kitchen to take a look around where we were pleased to find no more roaches.

In fact, we couldn't find any violations.

There was soap and paper towels at every sink, food was covered up and properly stored in the refrigeration units, they were even replacing the floor with new tiles making it easier to clean.

The only potential problem we found was a bucket of soy sauce stored on the floor in the walk-in cooler, a bucket that turned out to be empty.

Jiang says while this time, her restaurant had a young and very eager health inspector, she appreciates the thorough inspection and is always looking for recommendations for how to improve.

"To me, I learned something," said Jiang

The restaurant was cleared to reopen March 4th.

10 news can only hope customers express their happiness about this restaurant's willingness to allow a camera into the kitchen to show what conditions are really like.

"We have confidence our food is always good and always very healthy for customer," said Jiang.

As always, 10 News will keep an eye on this establishments future inspections but based on what was seen Tokai management has done an excellent job cleaning up its kitchen.

We give the restaurant the A-OK, issuing the all clear for this week's Restaurant Red Alert.
View Tokai Japanese Restaurant's entire inspection history here.