TAMPA, FL. State inspectors ordered Westin Tampa Bay Aqua at 7627 Courtney Campbell Causeway shut down on May 7, 2026, after finding the restaurant had no warewashing facilities, a condition that makes it impossible to safely clean and sanitize dishes, utensils, and equipment between uses.
The closure was ordered the same day inspectors arrived. The restaurant reopened at 12:38 p.m. after the immediate issue was resolved, but the warewashing finding was not the only problem documented that morning.
What Inspectors Found
The six high-severity violations documented during the closure inspection span nearly every category inspectors treat as immediate threats to customer health. Inspectors cited food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, food found in poor condition or mislabeled, and food not cooked to required minimum temperatures.
Two violations involved fish preparation specifically. Parasite destruction procedures were not being followed, and no consumer advisory was posted to warn customers about raw or undercooked items on the menu. Inspectors also cited employees for not reporting symptoms of illness, a finding that sits at the top of the state's risk hierarchy.
The follow-up inspection the same day recorded two additional high-severity violations and one intermediate, before the restaurant was cleared to reopen.
What These Violations Mean
The closure trigger, no warewashing facilities, is straightforward in its implication. Without functioning equipment to wash, rinse, and sanitize dishes and utensils, every plate and every piece of cookware used in service carries whatever bacteria or residue came before it. Combined with improperly cleaned multi-use utensils and improper sanitizing procedures, the May 7 inspection documented a kitchen where contamination had no reliable barrier at multiple points.
The food sourcing violation compounds that picture. Food from unapproved or unknown suppliers has not passed USDA or FDA inspection. If a product is contaminated with Listeria or Salmonella and no one knows where it came from, tracing an outbreak back to its origin becomes nearly impossible after people get sick.
The parasite destruction citation is specific to fish. Proper freezing protocols are required to kill parasites like Anisakis before fish is served raw or undercooked. Without those protocols, and without a consumer advisory telling customers that raw preparations carry risk, diners with no way of knowing they are eating undertreated fish cannot make an informed choice about what they are ordering.
The employee illness reporting violation is, in some ways, the most acute of all. A food worker who does not report symptoms of norovirus or another gastrointestinal illness continues handling food throughout a shift. Norovirus is transmitted in quantities as small as 18 viral particles. One symptomatic worker can expose an entire dining room.
The Longer Record
The May 7 closure was not the first time the state ordered this restaurant shut down. Records show one prior emergency closure on file, meaning the Westin Tampa Bay Aqua has now been emergency-closed twice across its 32 inspections on record.
Those 32 inspections have produced 274 total violations. That averages more than eight violations per visit across the facility's documented history.
The pattern in the recent inspection record is difficult to dismiss. In April 2024, inspectors cited 10 high-severity violations in a single visit, the highest single-inspection count in the recent history. Seven months later, in November 2023, they found seven high-severity violations. The facility has not had a single inspection in the past three years that produced fewer than two high-severity findings.
The most recent inspection before the closure, in October 2025, produced four high-severity violations. The one before that, in April 2025, produced two. Neither appears to have interrupted the pattern that led to the May 7 shutdown.
The restaurant reopened the same afternoon inspectors arrived. Whether the underlying conditions that produced six high-severity violations alongside the warewashing failure were fully resolved before that reopening is not reflected in the records available.