MIAMI, FL. When a state inspector walked into Citadel on NE 2nd Avenue on June 5, the restaurant had no written employee health policy, no one performing the duties of a person in charge, and no documented procedures for destroying parasites in the fish and other proteins it was serving to customers. The inspection ended with 10 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate violations. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The parasite destruction violation is among the most direct physical risks documented. When a restaurant serves fish, pork, or wild game without following required freezing or cooking protocols, parasites including Anisakis and Trichinella can survive and reach the customer's plate. The violation was cited as a high-severity finding.
The absence of a written employee health policy compounds everything else. Without that policy, there is no mechanism requiring sick workers to report symptoms or stay home. The inspector also cited employees not reporting illness symptoms as a separate, standalone high-severity violation, meaning the failure was documented at both the policy level and the individual behavior level.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled, a high-severity violation that carries risk of acute poisoning if chemicals contaminate food surfaces or are mistaken for food-safe products.
The inspector also cited no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, no allergen awareness demonstrated by staff, inadequate handwashing facilities, and improper hand and arm washing technique. Four intermediate violations rounded out the inspection: improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, inadequate ventilation and lighting, and equipment in poor repair.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and employees not reporting symptoms is what public health officials describe as the conditions that precede outbreaks, not just violations. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses annually in the United States, spreads most efficiently through food prepared by a symptomatic worker who has no policy requiring them to report or stay home. At Citadel on June 5, both the policy and the behavioral safeguard were absent simultaneously.
The allergen awareness violation carries a different but equally serious weight. Food allergies affect an estimated 32 million Americans, and reactions send approximately 30,000 people to emergency rooms each year. When staff cannot demonstrate allergen awareness, customers with tree nut, shellfish, or other allergies are making ordering decisions based on information that staff cannot reliably provide.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, cited here as a high-severity violation, are a primary route for bacterial transfer between proteins, produce, and ready-to-eat foods. Combined with multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, the June 5 inspection documented two separate cross-contamination pathways operating in the same kitchen.
The sewage and wastewater disposal violation is not a paperwork issue. Improper sewage disposal introduces fecal contamination risk throughout a facility, and the violation was serious enough to be flagged as intermediate rather than basic.
The Longer Record
The June 2026 inspection is not an anomaly. State records show Citadel has accumulated 209 violations across 16 inspections, and the pattern of high-severity findings is consistent across multiple years.
The December 2025 inspection produced 13 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate violations, the highest single-visit count in the facility's record. The November 2023 inspection logged 9 high-severity violations. The March 2022 inspection also produced 9 high-severity violations. The June 2026 inspection, with 10 high-severity findings, sits in the middle of a range that has never come close to zero.
The January 2025 inspection showed only 4 high-severity violations, the lowest count in recent years. That number rose back to 13 by December 2025, then to 10 by June 2026.
Citadel has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history on record.
Still Open
State inspectors documented 10 high-severity violations at Citadel on June 5, including the absence of any mechanism to keep sick workers from handling food, parasite destruction procedures not followed, toxic chemicals improperly stored, and no allergen awareness demonstrated by staff.
The restaurant was not closed.
The 209 violations across 16 inspections represent an average of more than 13 violations per visit. The December 2025 inspection produced the highest single-visit count on record. Six months later, the facility logged 10 more high-severity findings.
It remained open after all of them.