ORLANDO, FL. Inspectors visiting El Palacio Buffet at 7403 S Orange Blossom Trail on May 26 found food from unapproved or unknown sources being served to customers at a restaurant that has now accumulated 774 violations across 57 inspections and been emergency-closed three separate times in the past fourteen months.
The restaurant was not closed after the May 26 inspection.
What Inspectors Found
The six high-severity violations covered nearly every critical pathway by which a restaurant can sicken its customers. Inspectors cited inadequate handwashing, improper handwashing technique, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, no written employee health policy, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, and food from unapproved or unknown sources.
The intermediate violations added to the picture. Inspectors documented improper sewage or wastewater disposal, single-use items being reused, and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
That is nine violations across two severity tiers, found at a buffet-style restaurant where food moves continuously from kitchen to open serving lines and customers serve themselves.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved or unknown sources is among the most serious findings an inspector can document. When a restaurant cannot account for where its food came from, there is no traceability if a customer gets sick. Unapproved sources bypass USDA and FDA safety inspections, meaning the food may harbor Listeria, Salmonella, or other pathogens before it ever reaches the kitchen. At a buffet, where a single contaminated item can be served to dozens of customers in an hour, that risk is compounded.
The handwashing violations work differently but land in the same place. Inspectors cited both inadequate handwashing by food employees and improper technique. That is two separate failures: employees not washing their hands when they should, and employees who do wash their hands doing it wrong. Studies consistently show that hands are the primary transfer route for Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States annually.
The absence of a written employee health policy means there is no documented procedure requiring sick workers to stay out of the kitchen. Combined with improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, which can transfer bacteria from one food to the next across a full prep shift, the conditions documented on May 26 represent multiple simultaneous contamination pathways operating at once.
Improper sewage or wastewater disposal carries its own category of risk. Raw sewage contains fecal coliform bacteria and can contaminate surfaces, equipment, and food throughout a facility. At a restaurant already cited for inadequate handwashing, a sewage disposal problem is not an isolated issue.
The Longer Record
El Palacio Buffet: Recent Inspection Pattern
Fifty-seven inspections. Seven hundred and seventy-four total violations on record. Three emergency closures, all for pest activity, within a four-month window between April and July of 2025.
After the third closure in July 2025, inspectors returned four consecutive days, July 22 through July 25, and found between two and three high-severity violations each visit. The restaurant was allowed to reopen on July 25. By September 22, 2025, it was back to six high-severity violations in a single inspection.
The spring 2026 record is its own sequence. On March 30, inspectors found nine high-severity violations. On April 6, eight. On April 9, seven. On May 26, six. The numbers are declining slightly, but they have not dropped below the threshold that triggered emergency closures in 2025.
The violations documented in May 2026 are not new categories for this restaurant. The food sourcing violation, the handwashing failures, the unsanitary contact surfaces — these appear against a backdrop of 774 prior violations at the same address.
Still Open
State inspectors left El Palacio Buffet on May 26 after documenting six high-severity violations, including food from an unknown source and multiple handwashing failures at a restaurant serving customers from open buffet lines.
The restaurant remained open.