MIAMI, FL. A poke restaurant where inspectors found fish served without any parasite destruction procedures, food sourced from unapproved suppliers, and no consumer advisory warning customers they were eating raw seafood collected 12 high-severity violations on a single October inspection day and remained open for business.
State records show inspectors visited Crazy Poke at 312 NW 24th Street on October 5, 2026, and documented 17 total violations, 12 of them high-severity. The facility was not emergency-closed.
What Inspectors Found
The parasite destruction citation is the one that cuts closest to what customers were eating. Poke bowls are built around raw fish, typically tuna and salmon, served cold and uncooked. State and federal rules require that fish served raw be frozen at specific temperatures long enough to kill parasites, including Anisakis, a roundworm capable of embedding in the stomach lining. Inspectors found those procedures were not being followed.
At the same time, there was no consumer advisory posted to alert customers that they were consuming raw or undercooked seafood. Customers who are pregnant, elderly, or immunocompromised are at elevated risk from raw fish and are specifically the population that advisory notices are designed to warn.
The food sourcing violation compounds those concerns. Fish arriving from unapproved or unknown suppliers has not passed USDA or FDA safety inspections. If a customer were to become sick, there would be no supplier record to trace back.
Inspectors also cited inadequate shell stock identification records, a separate traceability requirement for shellfish like oysters and clams. Without those records, a norovirus or Vibrio outbreak linked to a specific shellfish harvest lot cannot be tracked to its origin.
A Handwashing Problem on Multiple Levels
The October inspection documented not one but three separate handwashing failures: employees not washing hands adequately, employees using improper technique when they did wash, and the physical handwashing facilities themselves deemed inadequate.
That combination is notable. Each violation addresses a different layer of the same problem. Inadequate facilities mean proper handwashing is structurally impossible regardless of employee intention. Inadequate technique means that even when employees try, pathogens remain on their hands. Inadequate frequency means the attempt is not being made consistently.
The person in charge was cited as not present or not performing duties. That single violation, according to CDC data cited in the inspection records, is associated with three times more critical violations at affected establishments.
Employees were also cited for not reporting symptoms of illness, a violation inspectors classify as an outbreak enabler. Food workers who continue working while sick are the leading cause of multi-victim norovirus and hepatitis A outbreaks.
What These Violations Mean
For anyone who ate at Crazy Poke on or around October 5, the combination of violations represents multiple simultaneous failure points in the food safety chain.
The parasite destruction failure means raw fish may have been served without the freezing protocols that kill Anisakis roundworms and tapeworm larvae. The unapproved sourcing violation means that fish arrived without government inspection. The food contact surface citation means cutting boards, prep surfaces, and any equipment that touched that fish may not have been properly cleaned between uses.
The allergen awareness violation is a separate and acute risk. Poke restaurants typically handle a wide range of ingredients, including soy, sesame, shellfish, and fish, all of which are among the most common severe allergens. Inspectors found no demonstrated allergen awareness among staff. Food allergies send 30,000 people to emergency rooms annually, according to the health risk data attached to that citation.
The sanitizer failure documented in the intermediate violations means that even surfaces that were wiped down may not have had pathogens killed. Improperly concentrated sanitizer, whether too weak or too strong, leaves bacteria alive on prep surfaces.
The Longer Record
The October 5 inspection was not an anomaly. It was the worst single inspection in a record that stretches back across 26 documented visits and 200 total violations on file.
The eight most recent prior inspections, dating to January 2025, show high-severity violations in every single one. The two inspections conducted on December 2, 2025, recorded 7 and 8 high-severity violations respectively. The July 2025 inspection recorded 8 high. The September 2025 visits each recorded 7 high.
The October 5 inspection, with 12 high-severity violations, was the worst count in that run. Three days later, on October 8, a follow-up inspection still found 4 high-severity violations and 1 intermediate.
Crazy Poke has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history.
The restaurant was open when inspectors arrived on October 5, 2026, and it remained open after they left.
