KEY BISCAYNE, FL. A restaurant that serves raw and lightly cooked seafood as its core product was found in May to have no documentation that its fish had ever been treated to destroy parasites, with food sourced from unapproved suppliers and no shellfish identification records on hand, and state inspectors left the doors open.
Ceviche Bar on Crandon Boulevard was inspected on May 14, 2026, and cited for 10 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate violations. The restaurant was not emergency-closed.
What Inspectors Found
The parasite destruction violation is the one that cuts closest to the menu. Ceviche is typically prepared by marinating raw fish in citrus juice, a process that does not reliably kill parasites. Proper parasite destruction requires freezing fish to specific temperatures for specific periods before it is served. Without documentation that this step occurred, there is no way to confirm it happened.
The food sourcing violation compounds that risk. Food from unapproved suppliers has not been inspected by USDA or FDA. If a customer gets sick, investigators cannot trace the product back through the supply chain.
The shellfish violation adds a third layer. Shellfish, including oysters, clams, and mussels, must be accompanied by identification tags that track the harvest location and date. Without those records, a contaminated batch cannot be recalled or traced.
Two separate violations involved toxic chemicals, one for improper storage or labeling and one for improper identification and use. Both were cited on the same inspection day, at a restaurant where food preparation is happening in the same physical space.
The remaining high-severity violations pointed to a kitchen operating without basic safeguards. No written employee health policy existed, meaning workers had no formal guidance about when to stay home sick. An employee was found not reporting illness symptoms. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. And the person in charge was either absent or not performing supervisory duties.
What These Violations Mean
For anyone who ate at Ceviche Bar around the time of this inspection, the parasite destruction failure is the most direct concern. Anisakis, a parasitic roundworm found in raw fish, causes severe abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting and requires medical treatment. Tapeworm infection is also a documented risk from improperly handled raw fish. The standard protection is a documented freezing protocol. Inspectors found no evidence that protocol was being followed.
The employee illness violations describe a different but equally direct transmission route. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, spreads efficiently from infected food workers to customers through food handling. A written health policy is the mechanism that keeps a symptomatic worker out of the kitchen. Without one, and without employees reporting symptoms, the kitchen has no functional barrier against that transmission.
The time-as-public-health-control violation matters because some foods at Ceviche Bar are likely held at room temperature as part of service, not refrigerated. When a restaurant uses time rather than temperature to manage food safety, it must track when food was removed from temperature control and discard it within four hours. If that tracking is not happening, food can remain in the bacterial growth zone, between 41 and 135 degrees, indefinitely.
The two chemical violations, taken together, describe a kitchen where substances capable of causing acute poisoning were not properly separated, labeled, or managed, in the same space where food was being prepared and plated.
The Longer Record
The May 2026 inspection was not a departure from this restaurant's history. It was the continuation of one.
Ceviche Bar has 24 inspections on record, with 193 total violations documented across those visits. The January 2026 inspection, four months before this one, produced 8 high-severity violations and 2 intermediate violations. The August 2024 inspection produced 11 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate, the single highest count in the facility's recent history.
Going back further, the pattern holds. Six high-severity violations in February 2025. Four high-severity violations in February 2024. Seven high-severity violations in March 2022. The only inspection in the past four years that produced zero high-severity violations was September 2022.
The facility has never been emergency-closed, despite this accumulation. The May 2026 inspection brought the total to 10 high-severity violations in a single visit, at a restaurant whose entire concept is built around raw and minimally processed seafood, and inspectors cleared the premises without ordering a closure.
Still Open
The May 14 inspection report documented a restaurant with no verified parasite destruction records for the raw fish it was serving, food obtained from suppliers outside the regulated supply chain, shellfish with no traceability documentation, chemicals stored improperly near food, no employee illness policy, and no functioning manager on duty.
Ceviche Bar remained open.