NORTH MIAMI BEACH, FL. Inspectors visiting Crafty Crab Cajun Seafood Restaurant on Biscayne Boulevard on April 21 found seafood coming from an unapproved or unknown source, meaning the restaurant was serving food that had bypassed federal safety inspections entirely, with no way to trace it if someone got sick.
That was one of 11 high-severity violations documented in a single visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The inspection record lists two separate chemical-related citations: toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. Both are high-severity violations. At a restaurant that handles raw shellfish, improperly stored chemicals near food create a direct contamination pathway.
The handwashing violations are cited twice as well. One citation covers inadequate handwashing by food employees. A second covers improper technique, meaning employees were attempting to wash their hands but not doing it correctly. Together, they describe a kitchen where contamination could travel from employee hands to food on every shift.
There was also no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. At a Cajun seafood restaurant where shellfish is a primary menu item, customers with compromised immune systems, elderly diners, and pregnant women had no way to know the risk.
The person in charge was cited for not being present or not performing duties. That single violation, inspectors note, correlates with a higher rate of critical violations across the board.
What These Violations Mean
The food-from-unapproved-source violation is particularly serious at a seafood restaurant. Shellfish harvested from uncertified waters can carry Vibrio bacteria, Norovirus, or hepatitis A. A separate citation for inadequate shell stock identification means inspectors could not verify where the shellfish came from or when it was harvested. Without those tags, there is no way to trace an illness back to a specific source if a customer becomes sick.
The absence of any employee health policy compounds that risk. Without a written policy requiring employees to report illness symptoms, a worker with Norovirus has no institutional reason to stay home. Norovirus is responsible for roughly 20 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States each year, and a single sick food worker can infect dozens of customers during one shift.
The two handwashing violations matter because they are not the same problem. Inadequate handwashing means employees are skipping it. Improper technique means that even when they wash, they are not eliminating pathogens effectively. Both violations were documented on the same day, in the same kitchen.
Improperly stored chemicals near food can cause acute poisoning without any obvious sign that food has been contaminated. Mislabeled containers make the problem worse, because employees may not recognize the hazard before using a substance near food or on food-contact surfaces.
The Longer Record
The April 21 inspection is not the beginning of this story. State records show 21 inspections on file for this location, with 256 total violations accumulated over that history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The most recent pattern is striking. On April 20, the day before the inspection that generated this report, inspectors visited twice. The first visit produced 10 high-severity and 2 intermediate violations. A second visit the same day produced 11 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations, the same totals documented again on April 21. Three inspections across two consecutive days, each with double-digit high-severity violations.
Before that stretch, the facility drew 10 high-severity violations in September 2025. It drew 7 high-severity violations in May 2024. The three-violation inspections in early 2025 and mid-2024 now look like the exception, not the norm.
The violations in the food sourcing and shellfish traceability categories are not new to this location. A seafood restaurant with inadequate shell stock records and food from unapproved sources, cited repeatedly across multiple inspection cycles, raises a question the records do not answer: where is the seafood coming from.
Still Open
State inspectors documented 11 high-severity violations on April 21 at Crafty Crab on Biscayne Boulevard. They documented the same count the day before, and 10 the visit before that. The facility has accumulated 256 violations across 21 inspections.
It has never been emergency-closed.
As of the April 21 inspection, Crafty Crab remained open for business.