MIAMI, FL. A Margate restaurant racked up 12 high-severity violations in a single inspection last week, including employees not reporting illness symptoms, food from unapproved sources, and inspectors finding no evidence that workers were washing their hands correctly. That inspection, at Delicias de la Abuela on West Atlantic Boulevard, was the worst single finding in a week when state inspectors flagged 15 South Florida restaurants across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties for a combined 117 high-severity violations.
The Worst of the Week
Delicias de la Abuela drew citations for two separate handwashing failures in a single visit. Inspectors cited both inadequate handwashing by food employees and improper hand and arm washing technique, meaning workers were either skipping the sink or not washing long enough and thoroughly enough to remove pathogens when they did stop.
The facility also had no person in charge present or performing duties during the inspection, a finding that state data consistently links to higher rates of critical violations across the board.
Miami-Dade: Nine Facilities, A Pattern of Sourcing and Sanitation Failures
Miami-Dade produced nine of the week's 15 flagged restaurants, with four of them drawing double-digit high-severity violation counts.
El Churrascaso Grill on NW 107th Avenue in Doral collected 11 high-severity violations, including food from an unapproved or unknown source, parasite destruction procedures not followed, and food not cooked to the required minimum temperature. The combination of sourcing violations and undercooking in a single inspection at a grill restaurant is notable: if the origin of the meat is unknown and it is not cooked to temperature, there is no safety net at either end of the process.
China Lee Restaurant on SW 8th Street in Miami also reached 11 high-severity violations. Inspectors found food contaminated by chemical, physical, or biological hazards, inadequate shell stock identification, food from unapproved sources, and food not cooked to required temperature, alongside two separate handwashing failures.
Huang's China Buffet on West 18th Avenue in Hialeah drew 10 high-severity violations, including food in poor condition or adulterated, time as a public health control not properly used, and food not cooked to required temperature. A buffet operating with time-as-control violations is a specific concern: that method requires precise documentation of when food left temperature control, and without it, there is no way to know how long food has been sitting in the bacterial growth zone.
Pacifico on West 29th Street in Hialeah was cited for six high-severity violations, including toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled near food, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items, and no employee health policy. Inspectors also noted single-use items being reused.
Las Tejas Restaurant on SW 26th Street in Miami drew three high-severity violations, including food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized and required procedures for specialized processes not followed. The specialized process violation covers techniques such as smoking, curing, reduced-oxygen packaging, and fermenting, all of which carry elevated pathogen risk if the precise temperature and time controls required are not documented and followed.
Rio Grande Churrascaria, also on SW 26th Street in Miami, was cited for five high-severity violations including employees not reporting illness symptoms, food from unapproved sources, food not cooked to required temperature, and improper sewage or wastewater disposal at the intermediate level.
El Meson del Paraiso Restaurant on SW 120th Street in Miami drew two high-severity violations: inadequate handwashing by food employees and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used.
Las Vegas Cuban Cuisine on NW 53rd Street in Doral was cited for eight high-severity violations, including food not cooked to required temperature, time as a public health control not properly used, toxic substances improperly identified or used, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
Broward and Palm Beach: Illness Reporting and Sourcing Failures
Broward County produced two flagged facilities this week, led by Delicias de la Abuela in Margate. The second Broward citation went to Chow Time Grill and Buffet on West Commercial Boulevard in Tamarac, which drew four high-severity violations including employees not reporting illness symptoms, toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, and food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized. Inspectors also documented improper sewage or wastewater disposal, single-use items improperly reused, and inadequate cooling equipment at the intermediate level.
Palm Beach County contributed four facilities. Palm Diner on South Military Trail in Boynton Beach reached 11 high-severity violations, the highest count in the county this week. Inspectors found no person in charge present, employees not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing facilities, improper handwashing technique, food from unapproved sources, inadequate shell stock identification, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, and food not cooked to required temperature.
Sticky Rice and Sushi on Lake Worth Road in Greenacres drew 10 high-severity violations, including food from unapproved sources, inadequate shell stock identification, food not cooked to required temperature, time as a public health control not properly used, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. A sushi restaurant without a consumer advisory for raw fish means customers ordering raw preparations have no written notice of the risk.
Sushi Kyu on Yamato Road in Boca Raton drew two high-severity violations: food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
Pirate's Well on Alt A1A in Lake Park was cited for two high-severity violations, including toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. Inspectors also documented improper sewage or wastewater disposal and improper waste disposal at the intermediate level.
Piccola Pizzeria Pinecrest on South Dixie Highway drew seven high-severity violations, the highest count at any Broward-adjacent Miami-Dade facility this week. Inspectors cited food from an unapproved or unknown source, parasite destruction procedures not followed, toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, toxic substances improperly identified or used, and improper sewage or wastewater disposal at the intermediate level.
What These Violations Mean
The single most direct disease transmission risk documented this week involves the illness-reporting failures at Delicias de la Abuela, Rio Grande Churrascaria, Palm Diner, Huang's China Buffet, Chow Time Grill and Buffet, Pacifico, China Lee Restaurant, and Sticky Rice and Sushi. When food workers with Norovirus, Salmonella, or Hepatitis A continue working without reporting symptoms, they become a direct contamination route for every dish they touch. Norovirus requires fewer than 20 viral particles to cause illness in a healthy adult.
The food from unapproved sources citations at El Churrascaso Grill, Delicias de la Abuela, China Lee Restaurant, Palm Diner, Rio Grande Churrascaria, Sticky Rice and Sushi, and Las Vegas Cuban Cuisine represent a traceability failure. If a customer becomes ill after eating at one of these restaurants, inspectors cannot trace the food back through the supply chain to identify the contamination source, because the source was never documented in the first place.
The no-consumer-advisory violations at Piccola Pizzeria Pinecrest, El Churrascaso Grill, Rio Grande Churrascaria, Pacifico, Huang's China Buffet, Sticky Rice and Sushi, Las Vegas Cuban Cuisine, Sushi Kyu, and Pirate's Well carry specific risk for elderly customers, pregnant women, and anyone with a compromised immune system. These are the populations for whom raw or undercooked seafood and meat can cause severe illness or death. Without the advisory posted, those customers have no information to make an informed choice.
The chemical storage violations at Piccola Pizzeria Pinecrest, Pacifico, Chow Time Grill and Buffet, and Las Vegas Cuban Cuisine are worth flagging separately. Improperly stored cleaning chemicals near food preparation areas create acute poisoning risk, not gradual illness. Contamination from a mislabeled chemical container can cause injury before anyone realizes what happened.
The Longer Record
The data does not include prior inspection counts for the facilities in this week's roundup, which limits the ability to compare this week's findings against each facility's full history. What the violation totals alone show is that several restaurants accumulated high-severity citation counts in a single visit that would be alarming at any point in an inspection record.
Delicias de la Abuela's 12 high-severity violations in one inspection, including the absence of a responsible person in charge, a complete breakdown in handwashing compliance, and food of unknown origin, represent the kind of cascading failure that state data consistently links to facilities where management oversight has deteriorated over time rather than facilities making a single isolated error.
El Churrascaso Grill and Palm Diner each reached 11 high-severity violations. Both had food from unapproved sources, shell stock traceability failures, and food not cooked to required temperature. Those three violations appearing together suggest systemic sourcing and cooking control failures, not one-time lapses.
China Lee Restaurant on SW 8th Street drew a citation for food contaminated by chemical, physical, or biological hazards, a violation that sits at a different severity level from procedural failures. A contaminated food finding means inspectors documented an actual hazard in food that customers could have been served.
