MIAMI BEACH, FL. Food at Bey Bey on 18th Street was not being cooked to required minimum temperatures on August 18, 2026, according to state inspection records. That violation, which allows pathogens like Salmonella to survive in undercooked poultry, was one of six high-severity citations issued that day. The restaurant was not closed.
The August 18 inspection produced six high-severity violations and three intermediate violations, nine citations in total. Among the most serious: an employee had failed to report symptoms of illness, the restaurant had no written employee health policy, and toxic substances were improperly identified, stored, or used on the premises.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooking violation is the kind that produces hospitalizations. Salmonella survives in poultry cooked below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and a single improperly cooked piece of chicken reaching a customer's plate is enough to cause serious illness.
The toxic substance citation is equally direct. Improper storage or use of cleaning chemicals near food preparation areas creates a route for chemical contamination that can harm customers without any warning signs in the food itself.
Shellfish traceability records were also inadequate. Bey Bey serves items that, based on the inspection record, include shellfish consumed raw or lightly cooked. Without proper shell stock identification tags, there is no way to trace the origin of those shellfish if a customer becomes ill.
The restaurant had no consumer advisory posted to warn diners that raw or undercooked items carry elevated risk. That warning is specifically designed to protect elderly customers, pregnant women, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and an employee actively failing to report illness symptoms is one of the most direct routes to a multi-victim outbreak. Norovirus spreads through food handled by a symptomatic worker before anyone knows they are sick. A written health policy exists precisely to create a reporting structure that catches this before it reaches customers. At Bey Bey on August 18, neither safeguard was in place.
Improperly cleaned multi-use utensils compound the risk. Bacterial biofilms form on utensil surfaces within 24 hours of inadequate cleaning, and those biofilms are resistant to standard sanitizers once established. At a restaurant already failing to cook food to required temperatures, contaminated utensils add a second transmission route.
The reuse of single-use items, flagged as an intermediate violation, means items designed to contact food once were being used again. Combined with wiping cloths being used improperly, these three intermediate violations describe a kitchen where basic contamination barriers were not functioning on the day of the inspection.
The Longer Record
The August 18 inspection was not the first time Bey Bey accumulated serious violations in a single visit. Records show the restaurant has been inspected ten times in total, accumulating 45 violations across that history.
The June 2024 inspection produced seven high-severity violations and three intermediate violations, a higher single-inspection count than August 2026. Before that, a December 2022 inspection found five high-severity violations, and a February 2022 inspection found three high-severity violations alongside three intermediate citations.
The pattern is notable. Bey Bey has passed inspections cleanly, including two visits in December 2024 and one in August 2025 with no high-severity violations recorded. That makes the August 2026 findings harder to attribute to a facility that simply doesn't know the rules. The restaurant has demonstrated it can pass. It did not pass on August 18, 2026.
The facility has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history. A follow-up inspection on August 26, eight days after the egregious visit, found two high-severity violations remaining.
Still Open
State inspectors documented six high-severity violations at Bey Bey on August 18, including food cooked below required temperatures, an ill employee who had not reported symptoms, improperly handled toxic substances, and no mechanism for customers to know their food might be raw or undercooked.
The restaurant was not closed that day.
A follow-up visit eight days later found the facility still operating with two unresolved high-severity violations on record.
