OAKLAND PARK, FL. Back in April 2026, state inspectors walked into Bombay Cafe at 1672 E Oakland Park Blvd and left with nine high-severity violations documented, including food sourced from an unapproved or unknown supplier, food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, and toxic chemicals stored improperly near food. The restaurant was not emergency-closed.

That finding, that a facility with three prior emergency closures and 224 violations across 28 inspections accumulated nine high-severity citations in a single visit and kept its doors open, is the central fact of the April 6 inspection record.

What Inspectors Found

1HIGHFood from unapproved or unknown sourceHigh severity
2HIGHFood not cooked to required minimum temperatureHigh severity
3HIGHToxic chemicals improperly stored or labeledHigh severity
4HIGHNo employee health policyHigh severity
5HIGHEmployee not reporting illness symptomsHigh severity
6HIGHFood in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulteratedHigh severity
7HIGHInadequate shell stock identification / recordsHigh severity
8HIGHNo consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foodsHigh severity
9HIGHPerson in charge not present or not performing dutiesHigh severity
10INTInadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilitiesIntermediate

The violation that most directly put customers at risk was the sourcing citation. Inspectors documented that food at the facility came from an unapproved or unknown supplier, meaning it had bypassed USDA and FDA safety inspections entirely.

That finding appeared alongside a separate citation for food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated, and another for food not cooked to required minimum temperatures. Three violations, each one capable of causing a foodborne illness outbreak on its own, all documented in the same visit.

Inspectors also cited inadequate shell stock identification records. Shellfish such as oysters, clams, and mussels require strict tagging and traceability precisely because they are often eaten raw or lightly cooked, and without those records, there is no way to trace a contaminated batch if customers fall ill.

Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled near food. That citation sits in the same inspection record as the food-quality and sourcing violations.

The person in charge was either not present or not performing required supervisory duties during the inspection.

What These Violations Mean

Food from an unapproved source is not a paperwork problem. It means that whatever arrived at that kitchen had no government safety check standing between the supplier and the customer's plate. If that food carried Listeria, Salmonella, or E. coli, there would be no inspection record to trace it back to its origin if someone got sick.

The illness-policy violations compound the sourcing risk. Bombay Cafe had no written employee health policy and, separately, employees were not reporting illness symptoms as required. CDC data links food workers who show up sick without reporting symptoms to the majority of multi-victim norovirus outbreaks. Norovirus alone accounts for an estimated 20 million illnesses in the United States each year. Without a health policy in writing, there is no mechanism to keep a sick employee away from food.

Undercooking is a direct pathogen-survival issue. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. A facility simultaneously sourcing food from unknown suppliers and not cooking it to required temperatures creates a compounding hazard. The absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items means customers who were immunocompromised, elderly, pregnant, or very young had no warning that the food carried additional risk.

The broken or inadequate toilet facilities matter in this context because they affect whether employees can maintain the basic hygiene that keeps pathogens out of food. That violation, listed as intermediate, sits at the end of an inspection sheet already carrying nine high-severity citations.

The Longer Record

Bombay Cafe: Inspection Pattern, 2015 to 2026

2015-04-23 / Emergency ClosureRodent activity. Reopened same day.
2020-03-10 / Emergency ClosureRodent activity. Reopened March 13, 2020.
2020-10-26 / Emergency ClosureRodent activity. Reopened October 27, 2020.
2022-11-286 high-severity violations.
2023-05-156 high-severity violations.
2023-09-114 high-severity violations.
2024-08-055 high-severity violations, 1 intermediate.
2026-04-069 high-severity violations, 1 intermediate. Not closed.

The April 2026 inspection was not an outlier. Across 28 inspections on record, Bombay Cafe has accumulated 224 total violations. The facility has been emergency-closed three separate times, all for rodent activity, in 2015, in March 2020, and again in October 2020.

Every inspection going back to November 2022 produced at least four high-severity violations. The January 2025 inspection found four high-severity citations. The August 2024 inspection found five. The April 2026 visit, with nine, was the highest single-visit high-severity count in the recent record.

The categories have also shifted. The emergency closures in 2020 were for rodents. The April 2026 violations were about food sourcing, cooking temperatures, employee illness policy, and chemical storage. These are not the same problems under different names. They are a different set of failures stacked on top of an already extensive record.

After nine high-severity violations documented in a single inspection in April 2026, Bombay Cafe remained open.