SUMMERFIELD, FL. Back in April 2026, a state inspector walked into Bombay Bistro Indian Cuisine on SE 109th Avenue and documented food coming from unapproved or unknown sources — meaning no USDA or FDA inspection trail, no way to trace it if a customer got sick.
That was one of nine high-severity violations recorded on April 17. The restaurant stayed open.
What Inspectors Found
The nine high-severity violations covered nearly every critical control point in the building. Employees were not reporting illness symptoms, and the restaurant had no written health policy requiring them to do so.
Inspectors also cited improper hand and arm washing technique. That distinction matters: employees were making a handwashing attempt, but doing it incorrectly, meaning pathogens remained on their hands when they returned to food preparation.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. The inspector also found food in poor condition, and food that was mislabeled or adulterated. Toxic chemicals were stored or labeled improperly, creating a contamination risk near food.
No consumer advisory was posted for raw or undercooked menu items, and no allergen awareness was demonstrated by staff.
The five intermediate violations added to the picture. Sewage or wastewater was not being disposed of properly. Multi-use utensils were not properly cleaned, single-use items were being reused, ventilation and lighting were inadequate, and toilet facilities were inadequate or improperly maintained.
What These Violations Mean
The food-sourcing violation is one of the most consequential on the list. When food arrives from an unapproved or unknown source, it has bypassed the federal inspection chain entirely. If a customer becomes ill, there is no supplier record to pull, no lot number to trace, no recall mechanism to trigger. Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli are among the pathogens that federal inspection is specifically designed to catch before food reaches a kitchen.
The allergen violation carries a different but equally direct risk. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans, and allergic reactions send 30,000 people to emergency rooms each year. A staff that cannot demonstrate allergen awareness cannot reliably tell a customer whether a dish contains tree nuts, shellfish, or dairy. For someone with a severe allergy, that gap is not a technicality.
The illness-reporting violations compound each other in a specific way. Without a written health policy, there is no formal requirement for an employee to stay home when sick. Without active symptom reporting, a worker with Norovirus can spend an entire shift in contact with food and surfaces. Norovirus is the leading cause of multi-victim foodborne outbreaks in restaurant settings, and it spreads through exactly this pathway.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and multi-use utensils that are not properly washed create bacterial biofilms within 24 hours. Those biofilms protect bacteria from standard cleaning agents, meaning contamination can persist even after a surface appears clean.
The Longer Record
The April 17 inspection was not the first time Bombay Bistro accumulated a high violation count in a single visit. State records show the restaurant has been inspected 16 times and has logged 90 total violations across its history, with zero emergency closures.
The pattern is uneven but notable. A January 2024 inspection produced 9 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations, a total that mirrors almost exactly what inspectors found in April 2026. A July 2023 inspection produced 5 high-severity violations. November 2025 produced 5 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate ones.
Bombay Bistro: Inspection Severity Over Time
The restaurant did pass two consecutive inspections in early 2025, with zero high-severity or intermediate violations recorded in both March and April of that year. That stretch makes the November 2025 and April 2026 findings harder to attribute to a new ownership or a new location getting started.
What the record shows is a facility capable of passing inspections and a facility capable of accumulating nine high-severity violations in a single visit, sometimes within months of each other.
A follow-up inspection on April 22, five days after the April 17 visit, found 1 high-severity and 1 intermediate violation, a sharp drop from the week before. The April 17 violations were not resolved before that follow-up, but the count fell.
The restaurant was open for business throughout.