MIAMI, FL. State inspectors walked into Disco Fish & Grill Restaurant & Fish Market on SW 67th Avenue on August 13, 2026, and found fish and other food items that could not be traced to any approved or known source, a violation that means the seafood on the menu that day may never have been inspected by any federal or state food safety authority.
That was one of nine high-severity violations documented during the visit. None of them were intermediate. All nine were the most serious category inspectors assign. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector also cited two separate violations involving toxic chemicals and substances, both categorized as high-severity. One flagged chemicals that were improperly stored or labeled, the other cited toxic substances that were improperly identified, stored, or used. At a fish market where product is handled and sold directly to customers, chemicals near food preparation surfaces are not an abstract concern.
No person in charge was present or performing duties during the inspection. Inspectors also found that handwashing facilities were inadequate, meaning the physical infrastructure required for employees to clean their hands between handling raw seafood and other food items was not sufficient.
Employees were not reporting symptoms of illness, according to the inspection record. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. And the restaurant was operating without a consumer advisory informing customers that some items on the menu are served raw or undercooked, a disclosure required specifically to protect elderly diners, pregnant women, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system.
What These Violations Mean
The unapproved food source violation is the one that reaches furthest. When seafood arrives at a restaurant without passing through a licensed, inspected supplier, there is no chain of custody. If a customer becomes sick, investigators have no records to trace, no lot numbers to pull, no farm or processor to contact. Listeria and Salmonella are the pathogens most commonly linked to uninspected seafood, and neither produces symptoms immediately, which makes the source harder to identify after the fact.
The two chemical violations, taken together, describe a kitchen where substances that can cause acute poisoning were not properly controlled. Mislabeled chemicals in a food preparation environment can be mistaken for cooking ingredients. Chemicals stored near food can contaminate surfaces, equipment, or the food itself without anyone noticing until someone is already sick.
The illness reporting violation is a direct outbreak pathway. Norovirus spreads person-to-person through food workers who handle product while symptomatic, and it spreads fast. A single sick employee at a fish market touching product that goes out to dozens of customers in a day is not a theoretical scenario.
The absence of adequate handwashing facilities compounds every other violation on the list. Proper hand hygiene is the single most effective barrier between contamination and a customer's plate. Without the infrastructure to support it, that barrier does not exist.
The Longer Record
The August 13 inspection did not come out of nowhere. State records show Disco Fish & Grill has been inspected 37 times and has accumulated 450 total violations across that history.
The pattern in recent months is consistent. Inspectors returned the very next day, on August 14, and found four more high-severity violations. The June 10, 2026 inspection produced three high-severity violations. The February 11, 2026 inspection was conducted twice in the same day, producing five high-severity and two intermediate violations in one visit and three high-severity and two intermediate in the other.
Going back further, the December 1, 2025 inspection logged five high-severity and two intermediate violations. September 9, 2025 produced seven high-severity violations in a single visit.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history, despite accumulating high-severity violations across repeated inspections in the same categories. The unapproved food source violation, the management absence, the chemical storage failures, these are not one-time lapses. They are findings that inspectors have returned to document again and again.
Still Open
After the August 13 inspection, with nine high-severity violations on record and no emergency closure ordered, Disco Fish & Grill remained open to the public.
The fish market portion of the operation means product documented as coming from an unknown or unapproved source is not only being served in the restaurant. It is also being sold directly to customers to take home and prepare themselves.
State records confirm the facility was still operating after the inspection concluded.
