CASSELBERRY, FL. Inspectors visiting City Buffet on Live Oaks Boulevard on June 18 found food not cooked to required minimum temperatures at a restaurant where customers serve themselves from shared trays, a violation that puts every person in line directly in the path of a pathogen that proper cooking would have killed.
That was one of eight high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooking violation stood alongside a separate citation for parasite destruction procedures not being followed. That combination matters at a buffet that serves fish and meat. Proper freezing or cooking is the only barrier between a customer and parasites including Anisakis and Trichinella. Neither barrier was confirmed in place.
Inspectors also cited inadequate shell stock identification records. Shellfish, including oysters, clams, and mussels, require traceable documentation precisely because they are consumed raw or lightly cooked. Without those records, there is no way to trace an illness back to a specific harvest lot if customers get sick.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Inspectors also found that the sanitizing solution in use was improper, a separate intermediate citation that compounds the surface contamination risk. Surfaces that look clean but carry inadequate sanitizer concentrations can transfer bacteria directly onto the next plate of food.
The restaurant had no written employee health policy. There was no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. Employees were observed using improper handwashing technique. Single-use items were being reused.
No person in charge was present or performing duties.
What These Violations Mean
The cooking temperature and parasite destruction violations are the most acutely dangerous combination on this inspection report. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Parasites in fish and pork survive without confirmed freezing or adequate heat. At a buffet where dozens of customers cycle through the same trays over hours, a single undercooked item can expose a large number of people before anyone falls ill.
The absence of an employee health policy creates a direct transmission route for Norovirus. Norovirus causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and it spreads efficiently when sick food workers handle food without a policy that would require them to stay home or be removed from food contact duties. Without a written policy, there is no documented standard, and no way to enforce it.
The shellfish traceability failure is a separate but serious concern. When someone becomes ill after eating shellfish, health investigators need to identify the harvest source to determine whether other people are at risk from the same lot. Without shell stock records, that investigation stops before it starts.
Inadequate cooling and cold holding equipment, cited as an intermediate violation, means the physical infrastructure for keeping food out of the temperature danger zone, between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit, was not functioning as required. That is a structural problem, not a procedural one, and it cannot be corrected by changing behavior alone.
The Longer Record
City Buffet: Recent Inspection Pattern
The June 18 inspection was the 80th on record for City Buffet. Across those 80 inspections, the facility has accumulated 888 total violations. That is an average of more than 11 violations per visit over the life of the record.
The spring of 2026 tells its own story. On March 17, inspectors documented 12 high-severity violations and 8 intermediate ones at a single visit. A follow-up the next day still showed 6 high-severity violations. The restaurant logged 5 high-severity violations on March 26, then 4 on April 3. A May 20 inspection showed no high-severity violations. Then June 18 arrived with 8.
The facility has been emergency-closed twice. In March 2023, inspectors shut it down for roach and rodent activity; it reopened the following day. In April 2025, it was closed again for roach activity and reopened four days later.
The June 18 inspection found no person in charge present. It found food not cooked to temperature, parasites potentially surviving in fish and meat, shellfish with no traceable records, and surfaces that were not properly sanitized. City Buffet was open for business when inspectors left.