DAVIE, FL. A state inspector walked into A Taco by Divino / Ceviches by Divino at 15651 Sheridan St. on September 18 and found food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, a finding that sits at the top of the list of conditions that send people to the hospital after a restaurant meal. The facility was not closed.
By the end of that inspection, the state had documented seven high-severity violations and one intermediate violation. The restaurant continued serving customers.
What Inspectors Found
The food temperature violation is the most direct threat to anyone who ate there that day. State code requires poultry to reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit internally before it is served. Below that threshold, Salmonella survives. The restaurant's menu centers on tacos and ceviches, dishes built around proteins that carry exactly that risk if heat or acid treatment falls short.
The handwashing findings compounded that threat. Inspectors cited both inadequate handwashing facilities and improper technique by employees, meaning the physical infrastructure for hand hygiene was deficient and the employees using it were not doing so correctly. Those two violations together describe a kitchen where contamination can move from worker to plate without interruption.
No person in charge was present or performing duties during the inspection. That absence matters because managerial oversight is the mechanism that catches and corrects violations before an inspector arrives.
The Illness Risk Nobody Posted
The restaurant had no written employee health policy and employees were not reporting symptoms of illness. Those two violations describe the same gap from opposite directions: the policy that should require workers to report symptoms did not exist, and the reporting that should happen anyway was not happening.
There was also no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. Ceviches by Divino, as the name signals, serves raw and cured seafood. Customers who are pregnant, elderly, immunocompromised, or very young face elevated risk from raw fish and are entitled by state code to a written warning on the menu. None was there.
The intermediate violation, improperly maintained toilet facilities, rounds out a picture of a facility where basic infrastructure, handwashing stations, restrooms, management presence, was not functioning on September 18.
What These Violations Mean
Undercooked food is the violation that most directly puts a customer in a hospital bed. Salmonella, the pathogen that survives when poultry does not reach 165 degrees, causes an estimated 1.35 million infections in the United States each year. At a restaurant that also serves raw seafood without a consumer advisory, the cooking temperature violation and the missing disclosure together remove two of the primary protections that food safety code is built around.
The illness reporting failures are a different kind of danger. Norovirus, which spreads when sick food workers handle food, is responsible for roughly 20 million illnesses annually in the United States. A written health policy is the mechanism that tells an employee with vomiting or diarrhea to stay home. Without one, and without a culture of reporting symptoms, a single sick worker can expose dozens of customers before anyone intervenes.
The handwashing failures at A Taco by Divino compound both risks. Improper technique means pathogens remain on hands even when a worker makes the attempt. Inadequate facilities mean the attempt itself is harder to make. Together, those violations describe a kitchen where the most basic barrier between contamination and the customer's plate was compromised.
The absence of a person in charge is not a paperwork violation. CDC data shows establishments without active managerial control accumulate critical violations at three times the rate of those with engaged management on the floor. Every other violation found on September 18 is partly a consequence of that one.
The Longer Record
The September 18 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show 32 inspections on file for this location, with 187 total violations documented across that history. The facility was emergency-closed once before, in June 2023, for fly activity. It reopened the following day.
The pattern since then has been one of recurring high-severity violations. In November 2024, inspectors cited seven high-severity violations, the same count as September 18. In May 2026, the facility drew six high-severity violations. The February 2025 visit produced four high-severity and three intermediate violations, followed by a follow-up inspection a day later that found conditions had not fully cleared.
The September 18 inspection itself was followed by a return visit on September 25 that found one remaining high-severity violation. That means at least one serious problem persisted into the following week.
Thirty-two inspections. One hundred eighty-seven violations. One prior emergency closure. Seven high-severity violations on September 18.
The restaurant remained open.
