TAMPA, FL. Inspectors ordered Rincon Guatemalteco on MLK Boulevard closed on April 23 after documenting both roach and rodent activity inside the restaurant, triggering an emergency shutdown that required the facility to vacate by April 25.
The closure was not the restaurant's first. It was its third.
What Inspectors Found
Rincon Guatemalteco: Recent Inspection Severity
The April 23 inspection produced five high-severity violations and two intermediate violations. Among the high-severity findings: no written employee health policy, improper hand and arm washing technique, and no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods.
The roach and rodent activity was severe enough that state officials did not simply issue a warning. They ordered the restaurant cleared and closed.
Follow-up inspectors returned on April 24 and found three high-severity violations and one intermediate violation still on the books. On April 25, a third inspection documented three high-severity violations with no intermediate violations remaining. The restaurant reopened at 8:34 a.m. that day.
What These Violations Mean
Roach and rodent activity in a food preparation environment is one of the few conditions that triggers an immediate emergency closure under Florida law, and for direct reasons. Both cockroaches and rodents carry pathogens on their bodies and in their waste, including Salmonella and E. coli, and they contaminate food surfaces, utensils, and stored ingredients by contact alone. Customers eating food prepared in an actively infested kitchen have no way of knowing what those surfaces touched before the meal was plated.
The additional high-severity violations documented on April 23 compounded that risk. The absence of a written employee health policy means there is no formal mechanism to keep sick workers out of the kitchen. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States, spreads most efficiently when an infected food handler prepares meals without restriction. A policy on paper is a basic, low-cost safeguard. Its absence here was cited as a high-severity finding.
Improper handwashing technique is a violation that catches some readers off guard, because it implies someone did wash their hands. The problem is that an incomplete technique, skipping steps, cutting the duration short, or missing parts of the hand and wrist, leaves pathogens in place even after the attempt. Inspectors cite it as high-severity because it provides a false sense of protection while the contamination risk remains.
The missing consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods matters most for the most vulnerable diners. Elderly customers, pregnant women, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system face elevated risk from undercooked proteins. Without a posted advisory, those customers cannot make an informed choice about what they order.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 closure did not arrive without warning. State records show 24 inspections at this location over the facility's history, with 134 total violations on record.
The five inspections conducted between April 2024 and November 2025 each produced five or six high-severity violations. Not one of those visits resulted in zero high-severity findings. That is a run of six consecutive inspections, covering nearly two full years, in which inspectors consistently flagged the most serious category of violations at this address.
The pattern with pest activity specifically goes back a decade. Roach activity triggered an emergency closure on March 31, 2016. That closure lasted one day, with the restaurant cleared to reopen on April 1, 2016. The April 2026 closure for roach and rodent activity is now the third emergency shutdown at 708 MLK Boulevard.
The September 2023 inspection stands out as an outlier in the recent record: only one high-severity violation, no intermediate violations. Every inspection before and after that visit produced substantially worse results. Whether that single cleaner inspection reflected a genuine improvement or a moment of better timing, the record that followed it did not sustain the trend.
The Reopening
Inspectors confirmed the restaurant met state standards by the morning of April 25, clearing it to reopen at 8:34 a.m. after two days of closure. Three high-severity violations were still on record at that final inspection, meaning the facility was deemed compliant with reopening requirements while those citations remained outstanding.
The two prior emergency closures at this address, in 2016 and now in 2026, were both roach-related. The 134 violations accumulated across 24 inspections place this restaurant among the more heavily cited permanent food service facilities in Hillsborough County's recent records.
Whether the conditions that produced the third closure have been fully resolved, or whether the pattern of five-plus high-severity findings per visit resumes at the next routine inspection, the record at 708 MLK Boulevard will show the answer.