ORLANDO, FL. State inspectors walked into Blue Martini at 9101 International Drive on June 3 and found that the restaurant had no functioning system to keep sick employees away from food, no documentation that fish served to customers had been treated to kill parasites, and toxic chemicals stored improperly near food prep areas. They cited seven high-severity violations and four intermediate ones. Then they let the restaurant stay open.
What Inspectors Found
The two violations that stand out most involve sick employees. Inspectors cited Blue Martini both for having no adequate written employee health policy and for employees failing to report illness symptoms. These are separate citations that together describe the same gap: there was no system to catch a sick worker before they handled food, and workers were not reporting when they were ill.
Food was not being cooked to required minimum temperatures, and food contact surfaces were not being properly cleaned or sanitized between uses. Inspectors also found that parasite destruction procedures were not being followed for fish on the menu, meaning customers received fish that had not been frozen or cooked according to the protocols designed to kill parasites. The menu offered no consumer advisory disclosing that some items were raw or undercooked.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled near food. Among the intermediate violations, inspectors cited improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils that were not properly cleaned, inadequate ventilation and lighting, and wiping cloths being used improperly.
What These Violations Mean
The two employee illness violations are the ones epidemiologists point to first when tracing outbreak sources. A food worker with Norovirus who has no obligation to report symptoms, and works in a facility with no written health policy to enforce that obligation, can contaminate surfaces, utensils, and food directly. Norovirus is highly contagious and spreads through even trace amounts of fecal matter. The combination of both violations at Blue Martini means there was no written rule requiring disclosure and no evidence employees were following one in practice.
The parasite destruction citation is specific to how fish is handled before it reaches a plate. Certain fish carry parasites including Anisakis and tapeworm larvae that survive if the fish is served raw, lightly cured, or undercooked. Proper freezing at regulated temperatures for a set duration kills those organisms before service. Without documentation that Blue Martini followed those procedures, customers who ordered fish dishes had no assurance that step had been taken.
The food contact surface violation compounds both of those concerns. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and equipment that are not properly sanitized between uses become transfer points for whatever bacteria or contamination was present in the prior use. Combined with undercooked food and improperly cleaned utensils, the inspection describes a kitchen where multiple contamination pathways were open at the same time.
Improperly stored toxic chemicals near food are a separate category of risk entirely. Mislabeled or unsecured chemicals can contaminate food directly through spills or cross-contact, and in acute cases cause poisoning without any of the warning signs associated with bacterial illness.
The Longer Record
The June 3 inspection was not an aberration. State records show Blue Martini has been inspected 29 times and has accumulated 295 total violations across that history, with zero emergency closures.
The pattern in recent years is consistent. Inspectors found 7 high-severity violations in December 2025, 5 high-severity violations in May 2025, and 6 high-severity in August 2024. A three-day span in August 2024 produced back-to-back inspections with 8 high-severity violations on August 23 and 6 on August 26. Going further back: 7 high-severity violations in September 2023, 7 in May 2023, and 6 in December 2022.
The employee illness violations cited on June 3 are not new territory for this location. A facility that has cycled through high-severity violation counts in the 5-to-8 range across eight consecutive documented inspection periods, without a single emergency closure, is not experiencing a rough stretch. It is operating within a sustained pattern.
The June 3 inspection documented seven high-severity violations, four intermediate violations, and a kitchen where sick workers had no formal obligation to stay off the line. Blue Martini remained open.