Live turtles found in kitchen of Chinese buffet

SAN ANTONIO – The health department ranks restaurant scores by demerits with 31 or more considered a failing score. KSAT's' Behind the Kitchen Door visited a San Antonio restaurant with double that number.

China City Buffet is located on South New Braunfels. A health inspector recently gave them 65 demerits. It is the highest number of demerits KSAT's Behind the Kitchen Door could find in Metro Health's records. The long list of violations include:

• The staff had live turtles in the kitchen for good luck. The inspector says the turtles were immediately moved to this pond in the lobby.
  
• Their can opener had metal shavings and food debris on it. 
  
• There were no lids on any containers.
  
• Some raw chicken fell into some pepper sauce with the inspector standing right there.
  

The manager says things are already better because they received all the health regulations translated into Mandarin Chinese. She said by phone "We want to do things right." The health department tells Behind the Kitchen Door China City Buffet corrected everything within 24 hours.

Metro Health just handed perfect scores to the following eateries:

• City Cafe downtown on East Market.
  
• Jack in the Box in the 500 block of Fair Avenue.
  
• McDonald's on South General McMullen.
  
• Sea Star Market & Cafe at SeaWorld.
  
• Speedy's Chicken on Southwest Military.