KEY BISCAYNE, FL. State inspectors visited Casa Silva at 260 Crandon Blvd on September 4, 2026, and documented that the restaurant had no adequate procedures in place to destroy parasites in fish, a failure that leaves customers eating whatever organisms survived the kitchen.
That violation alone carries a specific risk: Anisakis roundworms and tapeworm larvae can survive in raw or undercooked fish when freezing protocols are skipped or improperly followed. Casa Silva serves seafood. The parasite destruction procedures, inspectors found, were not being followed.
The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The September inspection produced six high-severity violations and one intermediate, a total of seven citations from a single visit. The high-severity findings covered nearly every critical control point in the kitchen: how employees wash their hands, whether food-contact surfaces are sanitized, whether specialized cooking processes are documented and followed, and whether shellfish can be traced back to their source if someone gets sick.
The shell stock identification failure is particularly pointed for a seafood-forward restaurant. Shellfish, including oysters, clams, and mussels, are consumed raw or lightly cooked and are among the highest-risk foods served in any dining room. Without proper identification tags and records, there is no way to trace a batch back to its harvest location if a customer reports illness.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for failing to follow required procedures for specialized processes. That category covers techniques like reduced-oxygen packaging, curing, and smoking, all of which require precise controls because they create conditions where dangerous bacteria can thrive if steps are missed or shortcuts are taken.
Food-contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Cutting boards, prep tables, and similar surfaces that touch food directly are a primary transfer route for bacteria, and the violation was logged on the same visit as the handwashing technique failure, meaning two of the most basic contamination barriers in the kitchen were both compromised on the same day.
What These Violations Mean
The parasite destruction citation is not a paperwork problem. When a restaurant serves fish that has not been frozen to the required temperature for the required duration, or cooked to a temperature sufficient to kill parasites, customers ingest whatever is living in that fish. Anisakis, a roundworm found in marine fish including salmon, herring, and cod, causes severe abdominal pain and can require surgical removal in serious cases. The violation at Casa Silva means those procedures were not in place or not being followed on September 4.
The employee health policy violation compounds the risk. Without a written policy, there is no formal mechanism to keep a sick worker out of the kitchen. Norovirus, which causes the majority of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States, spreads through exactly this route: an infected food handler who does not know they are required to stay home, or is not told. The improper handwashing technique citation makes that risk worse. Studies have shown that incorrect technique, such as insufficient duration or skipping certain surfaces of the hand, leaves active pathogens on hands even after a washing attempt.
The multi-use utensil violation, listed as intermediate, is not minor in this context. Improperly cleaned utensils develop bacterial biofilms within 24 hours. Those biofilms are resistant to standard cleaning and can continuously re-contaminate food that touches the surface.
The Longer Record
Casa Silva: Recent Inspection History
The September inspection is not an outlier. State records show Casa Silva has been inspected 26 times and has accumulated 220 total violations over its history. It has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern in recent years is consistent. The February 2026 inspection produced five high-severity violations. Inspectors returned on June 12, 2026, found three high-severity violations, then returned again the same day and found five more. The September visit, with six high-severity citations, is the worst single-inspection result in the recent record.
The one exception is April 1, 2025, when inspectors found zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. That inspection stands alone in the recent history. Every other visit in the surrounding years produced multiple high-severity citations.
The restaurant has never been ordered closed despite that accumulation. As of September 4, 2026, Casa Silva remained open for business.
