CORAL SPRINGS, FL. An inspector visiting El Cubano Sandwich Shop on NW 99 Way on September 28 found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, meaning some of what was served to customers that day had bypassed every federal safety checkpoint designed to catch Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli before it reaches a plate.
That was one of eight high-severity violations documented in a single visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector also cited employees for not reporting symptoms of illness and for using improper handwashing technique. Those two violations together mean that sick workers may have been handling food, and that even when they attempted to wash their hands, pathogens could have remained.
The shop had no written employee health policy, which state records flag as a disease-transmission risk because there is no formal protocol to keep symptomatic workers off the food line.
Inspectors additionally found food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated, and documented inadequate shell stock identification records. Shellfish, including oysters and clams, carry particular risk when consumed raw or lightly cooked, and without proper tagging records, there is no way to trace the source if a customer becomes sick. The restaurant also lacked a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items, leaving customers with no way to make an informed choice about what they were ordering.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, a condition inspectors flag as a primary vehicle for bacterial transfer between ingredients. Equipment in poor repair rounded out the ten violations.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of unapproved food sources and absent shellfish traceability records is particularly serious. When food enters a kitchen through channels outside the USDA and FDA inspection system, there is no paper trail. If a customer develops a Listeria or Salmonella infection, investigators have nowhere to start. The traceability gap is not just a paperwork problem; it is what allows an outbreak to go unlinked to its source.
The illness-reporting failures compound that risk directly. Norovirus, the most common cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States, spreads most efficiently through an infected food worker who does not know, or does not disclose, that they are sick. A facility with no written health policy and employees not reporting symptoms has removed the two most basic barriers between a sick worker and a customer's meal.
Improper handwashing technique is a quieter violation but a persistent one. Studies show that most people, including trained food handlers, do not wash their hands effectively without explicit instruction and reinforcement. When technique is flagged by an inspector, it means the attempt was made but the execution was insufficient to remove pathogens.
The missing consumer advisory matters most for elderly customers, pregnant women, and anyone with a compromised immune system. Those groups face the highest risk from undercooked proteins and raw shellfish. Without a posted advisory, they have no way to know a risk exists.
The Longer Record
September 28 was not an anomaly. State records show El Cubano Sandwich Shop has been inspected 37 times and has accumulated 191 total violations across its history.
The most recent prior inspection, in January 2026, found three high-severity violations. The visit before that, in September 2025, found two. Going back to November 2024, inspectors cited five high-severity violations and one intermediate. Another inspection in July 2024 produced the same count: five high, one intermediate.
The worst single visit before this month was September 28, 2023, exactly three years before the current inspection, when inspectors documented 10 high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. The pattern across three years is consistent: high-severity violations in nearly every inspection cycle, with no sustained stretch of clean records.
The facility was emergency-closed once before, in March 2018, after inspectors found roach and rodent activity. It reopened three days later.
The inspection on February 22, 2024, showed zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. That is the only clean inspection in the data going back to 2023. Every other visit found high-severity citations.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when inspectors determine a facility poses an immediate public health threat serious enough to require shutting the doors on the spot. Eight high-severity violations at El Cubano Sandwich Shop on September 28, including food from unknown sources, unreported employee illness, and unsanitized food contact surfaces, did not meet that threshold.
The restaurant on NW 99 Way remained open that day.
