Hidden Dragon Chinese restaurant in Antioch voluntarily closes after second shut down for dead rodents Dec. 9th
By Allen D. Payton
According to the Contra Costa Health Department’s Environmental Health Division, Hidden Dragon Chinese restaurant in Antioch was shut down last April for violations including insects, rodents referred to as rats and mice, birds or animals present. It was shut down again on Dec. 9th for some of the same problems. Both times the owners were instructed to, “Cease and Desist all food activities.”
Located at 4106 Lone Tree Way in the same shopping center at Dallas Ranch Road as the former Rite Aid and now closed Sherwin-Williams Paint Store, the restaurant reopened Dec. 12th following a re-inspection. Then, the owners voluntarily and permanently closed the restaurant in January. An Environmental Health inspector did not learn of that until attempting a re-inspection, yesterday, Monday, March 2, 2026.
The Food Facility Routine Inspection Report dated April 23, 2025, showed a Minor Violation for not having “6. Adequate hand-washing facilities: supplied and accessible. Minor Observations: A) Soap dispenser in employee restroom observed inoperative. B) No paper towels in wall-mounted dispenser in employee restroom. – Ensure all handwashing stations are accessible and stocked with soap and paper towels in mounted dispensers at all times. Corrective Action: Adequate facilities shall be provided for hand washing with soap & towels or drying device provided in dispensers; dispensers shall be maintained in good repair (113953, 113953.1, 113953.2).”
The Major Violation was listed as “22. No insects, rodents, birds or animals present.”
The Dec. 9th Inspection Report showed two major violations. It read:
13. Food in good condition, safe and unadulterated Corrected On Site
Observations: Observed 1 bag of adulterated walnuts (rodent chew marks on bag) on shelf in dry-storage room.
– Discard all adulterated food products.
– Inspect facility for adulterated food (e.g. with rodent chew marks) and immediately discard.
– Protect food from contamination.
*Corrected on site: Operator discarded adulterated bag of walnuts.
Corrective Action: Any food is adulterated if it bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious substance that may render it impure or injurious to health (113967, 113976, 113980, 113988, 113990, 114035, 114254.3).
22. No insects, rodents, birds or animals present
In addition, the report included details of the violations, including:
“A) Observed 1 dead rat on glue board on floor underneath shelving in dry storage area.
B) Observed 1 dead rat on glue board on floor underneath wooden cabinet behind front counter.
C) Observed 5 german cockroaches, and rodent fir on glue board placed on bottom shelf of prep table at cook line.
D) Observed 2 baited (and set off) wooden rat snap traps on drain board near high-temperature dish machine.
E) Observed rodent fur on wire shelving in dry-storage room.
F) Observed rat droppings”
The restaurant was again instructed to, “Cease and Desist all food activities.
– Remove dead rodents, dead cockroaches, and all rodent droppings from facility.
– Thoroughly clean and sanitize all affected areas (including but not limited to floors, shelves, dishes).
– Remove glue boards and snap traps from shelving and from dish-machine drain board. Do NOT place snap traps and glue boards on shelving or on drainboard for dishes.
– Obtain professional pest-control service. Email pest-control report to Daniel.Chavez@cchealth.org. Maintain copies of pest-control reports on site, available for review during inspections.”
County Health Staff Provide Details
When asked about the closure, Karl Fischer, Communications Coordinator for Contra Costa Health asked if there was a red placard in the window. When informed there was just a handwritten sign he said, “It sounds like they might have closed themselves. When we shut down a restaurant, we usually require them to post a red placard in the window.”
“Restaurants are required to close down if they don’t have water or if they have insects,” Fischer continued. “They might be shutting down because they know they have a problem and shouldn’t be serving food, right now.”
Contra Costa County uses a color-coded Placard Program for Permanent and Mobile Retail Food Facilities to publicly report the results of food safety inspections, which includes green, yellow and red placards. Colors are determined based upon inspection findings with green meaning Pass, yellow meaning Conditional Pass and Red meaning Closed. A white placard stands for Placard Pending.
“As soon as they take care of it, they’re back in business. After a day or two, they’ll call us for a reinspection,” he added.
When informed of the report in April 2025 Fischer said, “The restaurant also got shut down on Dec. 9th for rodents.”
According to Kristian Lucas, the County’s Director of Environmental Health, “We regularly encourage all food facilities to self-close when there are any major issues that may affect public health and their food service as a result. Therefore, it may very well be that this facility chose to close on their own volition if Env Health did not officially close the facility.”
In an email, Tim Kraus, Supervising Environmental Health Specialist for Contra Costa Health then shared, “We did not close them permanently. It appears Inspector Daniel Chavez attempted an inspection yesterday and found the same sign mentioned below. His report indicates he communicated with the former owner via text message, who indicated they closed permanently in January of their own volition. I’ve attached a copy of the report from yesterday since it doesn’t appear to have worked its way through to the website yet. I’ve also attached the 12/9 routine inspection that resulted in a closure and the 12/12 reinspection where they were re-opened.”
“The last activity prior to yesterday’s inspection attempt that I see in our system was the re-opening inspection on 12/12/25,” he added.
The restaurant was incorporated as Sweet Rice Union, LLC. But the owners’ names are not listed on the Bizapedia page.
the attachments to this post:
Hidden Dragon Restaurant Routine Inspection report – 12-09-2025 segment
Hidden Dragon & sign 3-2-26
