WEST PALM BEACH, FL. State inspectors ordered Los Catrachos Restaurant at 4654 Gun Club Road shut down on April 27 after documenting both roach and rodent activity inside the kitchen, the third time in roughly two years that health officials have closed this location to protect the public.
The closure order required the restaurant to vacate by April 28. It reopened the same day, at 8:21 a.m., after a follow-up inspection found zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations remaining.
What Inspectors Found
Los Catrachos: Recent Inspection Severity
The April 27 inspection produced four high-severity violations and two intermediate violations before inspectors pulled the plug. The closure reason was specific: roach activity and rodent activity, documented simultaneously inside the restaurant.
That combination matters. Roaches and rodents found together in a food service environment signal a pest infestation that has progressed well beyond a single point of entry. Each pest type requires its own harborage, its own food source, its own access route into the building.
The follow-up inspection on April 28 cleared all high-severity findings. But the speed of that clearance, less than 24 hours after a dual-pest closure, is worth noting on its own.
What This Means
Roach and rodent activity in a restaurant kitchen are among the most direct pathways to foodborne illness that health inspectors document. Both pests carry pathogens on their bodies and in their waste, including Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria, and deposit those pathogens on food-contact surfaces, prep equipment, and stored ingredients.
Rodent droppings and urine are particularly dangerous because they can contaminate food without any visible sign that the food has been touched. A customer eating a dish prepared on a surface where a rodent has traveled has no way of knowing the exposure occurred.
Roaches present a similar problem. They move between drains, garbage, and food prep areas, and their activity overnight, when kitchens are unoccupied, is rarely visible to staff arriving the next morning. An infestation significant enough to trigger an emergency closure is, by definition, not a single stray insect.
Florida's emergency closure authority exists precisely for situations like this. When a condition poses an immediate threat to public health, inspectors do not schedule a follow-up and wait. They close the restaurant on the spot.
The Pattern
The April 27 closure was not the first time roach activity has shut down this location. On January 17, 2024, state inspectors closed Los Catrachos for the same reason, roach activity, and the restaurant reopened the following day after passing a follow-up inspection.
That prior closure is the detail that changes the context of this week's shutdown. A roach-related closure in 2024, followed by a roach-and-rodent closure in 2026, is not a coincidence. It is a recurring failure to maintain conditions that prevent pest access and harborage.
The March 30, 2026 inspection, less than a month before the closure, produced the highest single-visit severity count in the recent record: six high-severity violations and two intermediate violations. That inspection did not result in a closure. Four weeks later, inspectors returned and found conditions serious enough to shut the restaurant down.
The Longer Record
Los Catrachos has been inspected 37 times and has accumulated 274 total violations across its inspection history at this address. That is an average of more than seven violations per inspection visit over the life of the record.
The recent inspection pattern shows persistent high-severity findings. In seven of the eight most recent inspections before the April 28 clearance, inspectors documented at least one high-severity violation. The lone exception was a November 2024 visit that found zero violations at any level, a result that did not hold through the following year.
Two emergency closures in 15 months, both roach-related, and a March inspection with six high-severity violations in the weeks immediately before the third closure: the record at this address is not a story of isolated incidents.
The restaurant passed its April 28 follow-up and was permitted to reopen. Whether the conditions that produced 274 violations and three emergency closures over the life of this location have been durably corrected is a question the inspection record alone cannot yet answer.