WESTON, FL. A state inspector visiting Acquolina on Weston Road on June 15 found that the restaurant had no written employee health policy in place, meaning any food worker who came in sick had no formal obligation to report symptoms before handling your meal.
That was one of six high-severity violations the inspector cited that afternoon. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The six violations form a cluster that inspectors and public health researchers associate with the conditions that precede foodborne illness outbreaks. No health policy. An employee failing to report illness symptoms. Improper handwashing technique. Food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized.
Each violation on its own is serious. Together, they describe a kitchen where the basic barriers between a sick worker and a customer's plate were not functioning on the day of the inspection.
The inspector also cited the absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. Acquolina is a seafood restaurant. Customers ordering dishes with raw or undercooked fish, shellfish, or meat have a legal right to know the risk before they order, particularly if they are elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised.
Rounding out the list: the person in charge was either not present or not performing their duties. State inspectors treat that finding as a root cause, not a footnote. A kitchen without active managerial oversight is a kitchen where other violations go unnoticed and uncorrected.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and an employee failing to report illness symptoms is the documented setup for multi-victim outbreaks. Norovirus, which causes the majority of foodborne illness in the United States, spreads efficiently through food handled by a sick worker. The virus requires an extremely small dose to infect, and it survives on surfaces for days. Without a written policy requiring workers to report symptoms, a restaurant has no mechanism to pull a sick employee off the line before customers are exposed.
Improper handwashing technique compounds that risk directly. Studies show that even when workers make an attempt to wash their hands, incorrect technique leaves enough pathogen load on the skin to contaminate food. At Acquolina on June 15, inspectors found both the policy failure and the technique failure present at the same time.
Food contact surfaces that are not properly cleaned and sanitized add a third transmission route. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and utensils that carry residual bacteria or viral particles from one food item to the next are a primary vehicle for cross-contamination. At a seafood restaurant, that means raw fish residue on a surface used later for a ready-to-eat dish.
The missing consumer advisory affects the most vulnerable diners specifically. Pregnant women, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems face a substantially higher risk from raw or undercooked seafood. The advisory requirement exists precisely so those customers can make an informed choice. Without it, they cannot.
The Longer Record
Acquolina Inspection History, Selected Dates
June 15, 2026 was not an anomaly. State records show Acquolina has accumulated 224 violations across 29 inspections on record, and has been emergency-closed once before. That closure came on June 15, 2023, exactly three years before this inspection, when an inspector ordered the restaurant shut for fly activity. It reopened the next day.
The inspection pattern since that closure does not show a facility that corrected course. The visit on August 16, 2023 produced 6 high-severity violations and 1 intermediate. March 13, 2025 brought 5 high-severity violations and 2 intermediate. January 26, 2026 added 5 more high-severity violations and 2 intermediate.
High-severity violations have appeared in seven of the eight most recent inspections on record. The lone exception was March 14, 2024, which recorded zero high or intermediate violations. One week earlier, on March 6, 2024, the same inspector had cited 3 high-severity violations and 1 intermediate.
The June 15, 2026 inspection tied the restaurant's highest single-day high-severity count, matching the August 2023 visit. It was also the first inspection in the current record with six high-severity violations and zero intermediate violations, meaning every single citation that day was at the most serious level the state assigns.
Acquolina was not closed after the June 15 inspection. It remained open.