MIAMI, FL. Inspectors walked into China Lee Restaurant at 559 SW 8th Street on September 25 and found food that had not been cooked to the required minimum temperature, a violation that means live pathogens may have reached customers' plates. They also found improperly stored toxic chemicals, food contact surfaces that had not been properly cleaned or sanitized, and staff who could not demonstrate any allergen awareness. Six violations were classified high-severity. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooked food violation is among the most direct threats to customer safety on the list. Inspectors documented that food was not reaching the required minimum internal temperature, which means any Salmonella present in poultry, for example, would survive and be served to customers.
Alongside that, inspectors found toxic chemicals stored or labeled improperly in the kitchen environment. Chemicals near food preparation areas can contaminate food through mislabeling or physical proximity, and the consequences of ingesting cleaning agents or pesticides are acute.
Food contact surfaces, the cutting boards, prep tables, and utensils that touch food directly, were not properly cleaned or sanitized. That finding compounds the undercooked food violation: bacteria that survive undercooking can also spread across surfaces to foods that are never cooked at all.
Staff demonstrated no allergen awareness. The inspector also cited the restaurant for failing to post a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, meaning customers with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, elderly diners, and young children had no way of knowing the risks on the menu. The seventh violation, inadequate ventilation and lighting, was classified intermediate.
What These Violations Mean
The undercooked food citation is not a paperwork problem. When food, particularly poultry, does not reach its required internal temperature, bacteria like Salmonella remain viable and are served directly to the customer. A single meal can be enough to cause serious illness, and in vulnerable populations, that illness can require hospitalization.
The allergen awareness failure is a separate and compounding danger. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans, and allergic reactions send roughly 30,000 people to emergency rooms each year. When staff cannot identify allergens in the dishes they are serving, a customer with a severe allergy to peanuts or shellfish has no reliable protection. The absence of a consumer advisory for undercooked foods removes the last line of defense for customers who might otherwise choose differently.
The improperly cleaned food contact surfaces create a transfer mechanism that links every other violation together. Pathogens from undercooked food can move to surfaces, and from surfaces to foods that are served raw or at room temperature. Combined with the improper handwashing technique citation, the inspection describes a kitchen where contamination had multiple active pathways to the plate.
Improperly stored or labeled chemicals near food preparation areas represent an entirely separate category of risk. Mislabeled containers can lead kitchen staff to apply a cleaning chemical where a food-safe product is required, or to use a pesticide in a way that introduces it into food.
The Longer Record
The September 25 inspection does not represent a new low for China Lee Restaurant. It represents a pattern that state records have been documenting for years.
China Lee Restaurant: Recent Inspection History
The restaurant has 29 inspections on record and 450 total violations across that history. It was emergency-closed once, in December 2021, after inspectors found roach and rodent activity. It reopened the next day.
What followed that closure is the more telling part of the record. In October 2025, inspectors cited 12 high-severity violations in a single visit, the highest count in the recent history. Two months later, in January 2026, there were 7 high-severity violations. By March 2026, two inspections within three weeks produced 9 and 1 high-severity violations respectively. The September 23 inspection, two days before the inspection that is the focus of this report, found 11 high-severity violations.
The categories recur. Food safety fundamentals, including cooking temperatures, surface sanitation, and handwashing, appear across multiple inspection dates. The October 2 follow-up inspection, a week after September 25, showed 1 high-severity violation, a number that has appeared before in this facility's record only to be followed by another significant cluster.
China Lee Restaurant had six high-severity violations documented on September 25, 2026. It remained open that day, and the day after, and the week after.
