JACKSONVILLE, FL. State inspectors visiting Fancy Sushi on Collins Road in September found the restaurant was serving food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, a violation that means customers had no way of knowing whether what they ordered had ever passed a federal safety inspection.
That was one of seven high-severity violations documented during the September 16 inspection. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
Inspectors also cited employees for not reporting symptoms of illness and for using improper handwashing technique. Both violations were flagged as high severity.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Multi-use utensils were not properly cleaned. The restaurant also lacked a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, which is required at any establishment serving sushi or other items customers might order raw.
No person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties during the visit. Inspectors also noted food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated, and documented inadequate cooling and cold-holding equipment.
That is ten violations total. The restaurant remained open after the inspection.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved or unknown sources is among the most serious violations a restaurant can receive, particularly at a sushi establishment. When a supplier bypasses USDA or FDA inspection, there is no traceability if a customer becomes ill. If a batch of fish carries Listeria or Salmonella, inspectors cannot trace it back to the source or pull it from other restaurants.
The employee illness reporting violation compounds that risk directly. Food workers who do not report symptoms are the leading cause of multi-victim outbreaks, according to CDC data. Norovirus, in particular, spreads efficiently from an asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic food handler to dozens of customers within a single service shift. At Fancy Sushi, that risk was present alongside an improper handwashing citation, meaning that even when employees did wash their hands, the technique used was insufficient to remove pathogens.
The absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods is a specific concern at a sushi restaurant. Pregnant women, elderly customers, and anyone with a compromised immune system face elevated risk from raw fish and are entitled by state code to a written warning. No such warning was posted or provided.
Inadequate cold-holding equipment is not a paperwork violation. It means the physical infrastructure of the kitchen cannot reliably keep food below 41 degrees Fahrenheit, the threshold above which bacterial growth accelerates rapidly. At a restaurant serving raw fish, that gap between safe and unsafe can be measured in hours.
The Longer Record
The September inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Fancy Sushi has accumulated 201 violations across 25 inspections on record, and the most recent six inspections have each produced multiple high-severity citations.
The April 2026 inspection logged 8 high-severity and 2 intermediate violations. The October 2025 inspection found 5 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations. The April 2025 inspection produced 9 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations, the highest single-visit high-severity count in the recent record.
The restaurant was emergency-closed once, in November 2023, after inspectors documented roach activity. It passed follow-up inspections on November 4 and November 6 of that year and was allowed to reopen. The violations that followed, across five subsequent inspections spanning nearly three years, have been entirely different in character: management failures, sourcing problems, illness reporting gaps, sanitation breakdowns.
The Pattern
Only one inspection in the recent record, the November 6, 2023 follow-up visit after the roach closure, produced zero high-severity violations. Every other inspection since has found between three and nine.
That consistency is its own data point. A facility that closes for roaches, passes its reinspection, and then accumulates 34 additional high-severity violations across the next five routine inspections is not experiencing isolated lapses. The categories repeat: management presence, food sourcing, employee health, surface sanitation.
On September 16, 2026, inspectors documented all of those categories again, in a single visit, at a restaurant serving raw fish to the public.
Fancy Sushi on Collins Road remained open.
