DORAL, FL. State inspectors visited El Churrascaso Grill at 7761 NW 107 Avenue on September 24, 2026, and left with a citation sheet listing 11 high-severity violations, including food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, failure to follow parasite destruction procedures for fish, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled near food. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The food sourcing violation is the one that reaches farthest. When a restaurant cannot document where its food came from, there is no chain of traceability if a customer gets sick. USDA and FDA inspections exist precisely to catch contamination before product reaches a kitchen. Food that bypasses that system carries no such assurance.
Parasite destruction procedures were also flagged as inadequate. For a grill that serves fish, this is not a technicality. Parasites including Anisakis and tapeworm survive in fish tissue unless the product has been commercially frozen to specific temperatures for specific durations before service. The violation indicates those steps were not being followed.
Two separate chemical storage violations appeared on the same inspection report. Inspectors cited both improperly stored or labeled toxic chemicals and improperly identified or used toxic substances. Those are distinct citations, logged separately, on the same day.
Inspectors also found that food was not being cooked to required minimum temperatures, that food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and that employees were not washing their hands adequately. A no-consumer-advisory citation rounded out the list, meaning customers ordering raw or undercooked items, including anyone elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised, were given no written warning about the risks.
What These Violations Mean
The food-from-unapproved-sources citation is one of the most consequential a restaurant can receive, not because it guarantees contamination, but because it eliminates the ability to trace an illness back to its origin. If a customer develops Listeria or Salmonella symptoms in the days after eating here, investigators would have no supplier record to pull.
The parasite destruction failure compounds that risk for anyone who ordered fish. Anisakis larvae, which live in the muscle tissue of many saltwater fish, cause severe gastrointestinal illness and can require surgical removal in serious cases. The freezing protocols that kill them are precise, and the citation indicates El Churrascaso Grill was not following them.
Two chemical violations in a single inspection is notable on its own. Mislabeled or improperly stored chemicals near food prep areas create a direct pathway to acute poisoning, not a theoretical one. Cleaning agents and sanitizers stored near or above food surfaces can contaminate ingredients or prepared dishes without any visible sign.
The inadequate handwashing citation cuts across every other violation on the list. Hands are the transfer point for nearly every pathogen documented in foodborne illness outbreaks. When employees are not washing hands properly, every other safety control in the kitchen becomes less effective.
The Longer Record
El Churrascaso Grill: Inspection History
The September 2026 inspection is the worst single visit in the restaurant's documented history, but it did not arrive without warning. State records show 18 inspections on file, with 145 total violations accumulated across those visits.
High-severity violations have appeared in seven of the eight most recent inspections for which data is available. The one exception, August 12, 2025, came between two inspections that each produced multiple high-severity citations. A clean visit followed by a return to high-severity findings is a pattern that appears more than once in this record.
The September 20, 2023 inspection produced eight high-severity violations. The restaurant was not emergency-closed then either. Three years later, the count has climbed to eleven.
El Churrascaso Grill has never been issued an emergency closure order in its inspection history. After the September 24, 2026 visit, with 11 high-severity violations on the books, including unapproved food sourcing, parasite procedure failures, two chemical storage citations, and inadequate handwashing, it remained open for business.
