ORLANDO, FL. An inspector visiting Bulgogi House III at 1400 W Oak Ridge Road on May 11, 2026 found that the restaurant was serving food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, a violation that means any contaminated ingredient could not be traced back to its origin if a customer became sick.
That was one of seven high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The inspection also found that no person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties. State data consistently links absent managerial oversight to higher rates of critical violations throughout a facility.
Inspectors additionally cited employees for not reporting symptoms of illness and documented inadequate handwashing practices. Those two violations together describe a direct route for foodborne pathogens to move from a sick worker to a customer's plate.
Shell stock records were also inadequate, meaning shellfish served at the restaurant, such as oysters, clams, or mussels, could not be traced to a certified harvester if a customer fell ill. The restaurant was also cited for misusing time as a public health control, meaning food was held in the temperature danger zone, between 41 and 135 degrees, without proper documentation to justify it.
On the intermediate level, inspectors found improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, inadequate cooling and cold-holding equipment, and single-use items being reused.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved sources is not a paperwork problem. If an ingredient enters the kitchen without passing through USDA or FDA-regulated supply chains, there is no mechanism to identify it as the source of an outbreak. Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli have all been linked to uninspected food supply chains. At Bulgogi House III, that violation sat alongside inadequate shell stock records, compounding the traceability gap specifically for shellfish, a category of food that carries elevated raw-consumption risk.
The illness-reporting and handwashing violations are acutely dangerous in combination. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million infections in the United States each year, spreads primarily through food workers who are sick but continue working. Without a written employee health policy, there is no formal mechanism requiring a worker to stay home or report symptoms. Without proper handwashing, whatever a sick worker carries reaches food directly.
The sewage violation at Bulgogi House III adds a separate contamination vector entirely. Improperly disposed wastewater carries fecal bacteria that can spread to food contact surfaces and preparation areas throughout the kitchen.
Improperly cleaned multi-use utensils develop bacterial biofilms within 24 hours, layers of bacteria that standard washing does not remove. Combined with single-use items being reused and cooling equipment that cannot maintain required temperatures, the intermediate violations at this inspection describe a kitchen where multiple contamination pathways were active at the same time.
The Longer Record
The May 2026 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Bulgogi House III has been inspected 34 times and has accumulated 474 total violations across its history.
The most recent seven inspections before May 2026 each produced high-severity violations. In September 2021, inspectors documented 7 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations, an exact match for the severity profile of this month's inspection. In October 2022, the tally was 6 high-severity violations. In April 2023, it was 5 high. The pattern has not resolved in the years since.
The restaurant was emergency-closed once before, in December 2016, after inspectors found roach activity. It reopened three days later, on December 30, 2016.
The May 2025 inspection, one year before the current one, found 4 high-severity and 2 intermediate violations. The trajectory from that inspection to this one moved in the wrong direction.
Open for Business
Seven high-severity violations, four intermediate violations, 474 total violations across 34 inspections, one prior emergency closure, and a pattern of high-severity citations stretching back years.
After the May 11, 2026 inspection, Bulgogi House III remained open.