TAMPA, FL. Live roach activity inside Minano Ramen at 11909 Sheldon Road triggered an emergency closure order on July 7, 2026, the second time in the restaurant's history that state inspectors have moved to shut it down for public health reasons.
The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation ordered the restaurant vacated by July 8. Inspectors returned that same day, conducting two follow-up visits before clearing the facility to reopen at 2:55 p.m.
What Inspectors Found
Minano Ramen: Recent Inspection Pattern
The closure-triggering inspection on July 7 documented three high-severity violations and two intermediate violations. State records do not itemize every violation from that visit in the data provided, but roach activity was listed as the direct cause of the emergency order.
The two follow-up inspections on July 8 showed rapid improvement. The first visit found one high-severity violation and no intermediate violations. The second found one high-severity violation and one intermediate violation, after which inspectors cleared the restaurant to reopen.
That final high-severity violation on record from the July 8 reopening inspection: no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. The intermediate violation: single-use items being improperly reused.
What These Violations Mean
Roach activity inside a food preparation environment is one of the conditions Florida law treats as an immediate threat to public health, and for direct reasons. Cockroaches carry bacteria including Salmonella and E. coli on their bodies and in their waste, and they move freely between sewage, garbage, and food contact surfaces. A ramen kitchen, with its warm, humid environment and open broth containers, is a particularly hospitable setting for an infestation to go undetected until it reaches the scale that triggers a state closure order.
The consumer advisory violation found during the July 8 reopening inspection carries a different but specific risk. Minano Ramen serves dishes that include raw or undercooked ingredients, and without a clearly posted advisory, customers who are pregnant, elderly, immunocompromised, or very young have no way of knowing they are ordering something that poses a heightened health risk to them specifically. State rules require the advisory to be visible and explicit.
The intermediate violation, single-use items being improperly reused, compounds contamination risk. Gloves, utensils, and containers designed for one use are not constructed to be sanitized effectively between uses. Reusing them transfers bacteria from one food preparation task to the next, or from a contaminated surface to food directly.
The Longer Record
The July 7 closure was not the first time state inspectors have moved to shut down Minano Ramen. The restaurant has one prior emergency closure on record, meaning this week's action is its second.
Across 11 inspections on record, the facility has accumulated 53 total violations. That volume, spread across a relatively short inspection history, reflects a facility that has rarely gone through a routine inspection without inspectors finding something serious. The single clean inspection in the records, zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations, was January 17, 2025. It came eight days after a January 9, 2025 inspection that produced six high-severity violations and one intermediate violation, the worst single visit in the facility's history.
The months leading into the July closure showed no sustained improvement. The May 7, 2026 inspection produced five high-severity violations and three intermediate violations. A follow-up on May 18 still found two high-severity violations. The January 2026 inspection found two high-severity violations as well.
The pattern across 2025 and 2026 is a facility that clears inspections when pressed, then accumulates serious violations again between visits. The July 7 closure, the restaurant's second emergency shutdown, arrived after the most sustained run of high-severity findings in its recorded history.
Where It Stands
Minano Ramen reopened at 2:55 p.m. on July 8, less than 24 hours after inspectors ordered it vacated. The consumer advisory violation documented during the final reopening inspection, the warning that customers eating raw or undercooked items deserve to see before they order, remained on record at the time inspectors cleared the restaurant to resume service.
