Okay, I'm really tired of the "bare hands" issue. Clean hands are clean hands. Gloves in a kitchen are impractical and wasteful. 14 years in kitchens...always a clean bill from the health department.

There wasn't room in the story to explain that the bare-hands violations related to not having a written hand-washing plan in place. So the city is not saying that bare hands are bad, just that restaurants need to show that their employees are aware of when to wash their hands. Jane Friedmann.

I enjoy cooking at home these days. I save lots of money and know what's in my food and how its prepared. I reported a neighbor 12 years ago whose family was cooking the soups in her apartment and hauling it off to their "restaurant." She was 17 and the family co-signed the lease for this reason, alone.

does anyone see a trend here? just asking.

THERE definitely is a pattern of restaurants to this story. Hmm!!!

I like reading these, and know which restaurants to stay away from. I'm a little more worried about "black mold" than I am about someone using bare hands....as long as those hands are clean. But really, "sink sprayer too low"?!

I find it odd that the health department doesn't require every person preparing food for the public to attend a servesafe class and be state certified to serve food. As long as 1 person on staff is certified and the certificate is posted the health department is fine with that, whether the certified person is physically there or not.

Guess I'll skip Kikugawa after my next workout at the YWCA across the street.

What's the pattern you earlier posters refer to, that they're all ethnic restaurants? As opposed to the thriving "American" restaurant scene in Minneapolis? In the city, new, independently owned restaurants are overwhelmingly ethnic ones, so not surprising that they would be most often cited. Those who are attempting to make a statement about the "pattern" would likely never venture into Mpls to dine anyway, and should stick to the Olive Garden in their suburban enclaves.

my family twice were throwing up a day after eating kikugawa two or three years ago -- don't know why but twice was enough to tell me don't go back there.