PEMBROKE PINES, FL. Employees at a Pembroke Pines restaurant were not reporting illness symptoms to management, the person in charge was either absent or not doing their job, and the facility had no adequate employee health policy, according to a state inspection conducted July 15, 2026, at Barzola Restaurant II on Taft Street. Inspectors cited six high-severity violations and two intermediate violations. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
Three of the six high-severity violations were directly tied to employee illness and oversight failures. Inspectors found no written employee health policy, documented that employees were not reporting illness symptoms, and noted the person in charge was either not present or not fulfilling supervisory responsibilities.
The handwashing violation compounded that picture. Inspectors found employees were using improper hand and arm washing technique, meaning that even when workers attempted to wash their hands, they were doing it wrong.
Two additional high-severity violations involved the food itself. Inspectors cited food found to be in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated. They also cited a failure to follow parasite destruction procedures, a requirement that applies to raw or undercooked fish, pork, and wild game served to customers.
On the intermediate side, multi-use utensils were found to be improperly cleaned, and toilet facilities were documented as inadequate or improperly maintained.
What These Violations Mean
The illness-reporting and health policy violations are among the most direct routes to a multi-victim outbreak. When food workers do not report symptoms and no written policy requires them to, sick employees continue handling food. Norovirus, which accounts for roughly 20 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States each year, spreads this way. A single infected worker touching shared surfaces or utensils can expose dozens of customers in a single shift.
The handwashing violation at Barzola Restaurant II makes that risk harder to contain, not easier. Improper technique leaves pathogens on hands even when a worker believes they have washed. Without a supervising manager enforcing both the health policy and correct handwashing, there is no functional check on either failure.
The parasite destruction violation is a separate category of risk. Restaurants that serve raw or undercooked fish are required to freeze it at specific temperatures for specific durations to kill parasites including Anisakis and tapeworm. When those procedures are skipped, customers consuming those dishes have no protection. The food-in-poor-condition citation adds to that concern, though the inspection record does not specify what food was affected or how it was adulterated.
Improperly cleaned multi-use utensils are not a minor housekeeping issue. Bacterial biofilms, which are colonies of pathogens that adhere to surfaces and resist standard cleaning, can develop on utensils within 24 hours of inadequate sanitation. Those biofilms transfer bacteria directly to food.
The Longer Record
The July 15 inspection did not represent a new low for Barzola Restaurant II. It was the 34th inspection on record for the facility, which has accumulated 228 total violations across its history.
The pattern is consistent and recent. On August 13, 2025, inspectors found five high-severity and three intermediate violations. On December 31, 2025, another five high-severity violations were documented. The November 2024 inspection produced eight high-severity violations and two intermediate, the worst single-inspection count in the recent record. The April 2024 inspection logged seven high-severity and four intermediate violations.
The facility has never been emergency-closed despite that accumulation. A follow-up inspection conducted the day after the July 15 visit, on July 16, 2026, found zero high-severity violations and one intermediate, suggesting the immediate violations were corrected. But the same violations, particularly those tied to employee illness policy and managerial oversight, have appeared across multiple inspection cycles.
Still Open
State inspectors documented six high-severity violations at Barzola Restaurant II on July 15, including failures that public health officials identify as the primary drivers of multi-victim foodborne illness outbreaks. The facility was not ordered closed.
The follow-up inspection the next morning showed the immediate citations had been cleared. What the record cannot show is what happened in the hours between the July 15 inspection and the July 16 callback, when a restaurant with no documented employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, and a supervisor not performing oversight duties continued to serve customers.
Barzola Restaurant II on Taft Street in Pembroke Pines remained open throughout.
