HIALEAH, FL. Inspectors who walked into Chico's Restaurant on West 12th Avenue on September 1 found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, toxic chemicals stored improperly near food, and not a single written policy requiring sick employees to report their symptoms before handling meals. They cited ten high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. Then they left the restaurant open.
The facility has 603 violations across 37 inspections on record. It has been emergency-closed before. It was not closed this time.
What Inspectors Found
The food sourcing violation is among the most serious an inspector can document. When a restaurant obtains food from suppliers outside the regulated supply chain, that food has bypassed USDA and FDA safety inspections. If a customer gets sick, there is no tag, no lot number, no distributor record to trace back.
Inspectors also found that toxic chemicals were stored or labeled improperly near food. That is not a paperwork violation. Improperly stored chemicals near food preparation areas create a direct route for contamination, and mislabeled containers mean employees cannot identify what they are handling.
The employee illness findings compound each one. There was no written health policy requiring workers to report symptoms. And inspectors observed that employees were, in fact, not reporting symptoms. That combination removes the primary safeguard against an infected worker transmitting Norovirus or another pathogen directly through food. The CDC attributes Norovirus to 20 million cases of illness in the United States annually, with sick food handlers among the leading causes of multi-victim outbreaks.
No person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties during the inspection. CDC data links the absence of active managerial control to three times more critical violations at food service establishments.
What These Violations Mean
The handwashing violations documented at Chico's on September 1 are worth reading carefully together. Inspectors cited both inadequate handwashing facilities and improper technique. The first means the physical infrastructure for proper hygiene was not in place. The second means that even when employees attempted to wash their hands, they were not doing it correctly. Studies show that even a sincere handwashing attempt using improper technique leaves pathogens on the hands.
The shellfish records violation adds another layer of traceability failure. Shellfish, including oysters, clams, and mussels, are high-risk foods often consumed raw or lightly cooked. Without proper identification tags and receiving records, there is no way to determine where the shellfish came from if a customer becomes ill. That gap is the difference between a contained outbreak and one that cannot be sourced.
The sewage disposal violation, listed as intermediate, is not minor in context. Improper sewage or wastewater disposal creates a fecal contamination pathway throughout a facility. In a kitchen already cited for unsanitized food contact surfaces and improper handwashing, that is not an isolated problem.
The Longer Record
Chico's Restaurant: Recent Inspection History
The September 1 inspection was not an anomaly. In November 2024, inspectors cited 12 high-severity violations and 7 intermediate ones. In August 2024, a separate visit produced 12 high-severity violations and 6 intermediate ones. Two visits in the same month, each with a dozen critical findings.
Across 37 inspections, the facility has accumulated 603 total violations on record. That averages more than 16 violations per inspection visit.
In July 2020, the restaurant was emergency-closed after inspectors found roach activity. It reopened the following day. The closure did not produce a sustained period of clean inspections. March 2025 brought 6 high-severity violations. March 2026 brought 5 more. September 2026 brought 10.
The pattern across eight years of records is not one of a facility that stumbled into a bad stretch. It is a facility that has been cited for serious violations in nearly every inspection cycle, including two separate visits with 12 high-severity violations each, and that has now reached its highest single-visit high-severity count since those 2024 inspections.
After the September 1 inspection, Chico's Restaurant on West 12th Avenue in Hialeah remained open for business.
