FLORIDA. State inspectors cited 13 restaurants across Florida for high-priority temperature and chemical safety violations during the week of September 18 through September 24, 2026, including seven facilities where food was not cooked to the minimum temperatures required to kill pathogens and four where toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled near food.
The citations stretch from an airport concourse in Miami to a highway restaurant in Islamorada, and they include a national fast food chain, a Coral Gables country club, and a chain bakery-cafe with millions of regular customers.
Cooking Failures Across Miami and the Keys
Anacapri Italian Rest on S Dixie Hwy was among the first facilities cited, inspectors documenting that food was not cooked to the required minimum temperature. The violation places the restaurant in the same category as six other Miami-area facilities cited for the same failure during the same seven-day window.
Panera Bread #1177 on SW 72 Court received a high-priority citation for food not cooked to the required minimum temperature. The chain location serves a customer base that includes office workers, families, and students in a dense southwest Miami corridor.
Las Tejas Restaurant on SW 26th Street was cited for the same cooking temperature violation. The restaurant sits in a strip-mall suite in a heavily trafficked southwest Miami commercial zone.
China Buffet on SW 67th Avenue drew a high-priority cooking temperature citation. Buffet-style service is particularly sensitive to temperature violations because food sits in open warming trays for extended periods before it reaches a customer's plate.
Corona Beach House at 4200 NW 21st Street, a concourse dining outlet at Miami International Airport, was also cited for food not cooked to minimum temperature. Airport restaurants operate at high volume and high speed, conditions that can pressure kitchen staff to pull food before it reaches a safe internal temperature.
Meat Eatery and Taproom on Overseas Highway in Islamorada received the same high-priority cooking violation. The Keys location is the only facility in this week's group outside Miami-Dade County.
Banquet Kitchen at 1155 Blue Road in Coral Gables was cited for food not cooked to the required minimum temperature. The address is shared with the Riviera Country Club of Coral Gables, meaning two separate food operations at the same location each drew high-priority violations during the same inspection period.
Chemical Violations: A Country Club, a Burger King, and an Airport Concourse
The chemical violations this week are concentrated in Miami-Dade but span very different types of operations, from a private country club to a national fast food franchise to a Chinese restaurant.
Riviera Country Club of Coral Gables on Blue Road was cited for toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. The violation at a private club, where food service is typically upscale and clientele expect a higher standard of oversight, is notable.
Burger King 5 on NW 27th Avenue in Miami was cited for toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled. The franchise location is part of a chain with standardized operating procedures that are supposed to prevent exactly this type of violation.
El Meson del Paraiso Restaurant on SW 120th Street received a citation for toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. The southwest Miami restaurant joins the country club and the Burger King as facilities where chemical controls broke down in the same week.
China Garden on SW 152nd Street was cited for toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, as was La Carreta MIA C-26-A at 4200 NW 21st Street, another airport concourse operation. Two separate airport concourse restaurants, La Carreta and Corona Beach House, appear in this week's data, one for a chemical violation and one for a cooking temperature failure.
The most serious chemical citation of the week went to China Lee Restaurant on SW 8th Street. Inspectors cited the facility not merely for improper storage but for food actually contaminated by chemical, physical, or biological hazards. That distinction matters: the other chemical violations involve the risk of contamination, while China Lee's citation indicates the contamination had already occurred.
What These Violations Mean
Temperature violations are not a paperwork problem. When poultry, ground meat, or other high-risk proteins are not cooked to the minimum internal temperatures required by state code, pathogens including Salmonella and E. coli survive and reach the customer's plate. Salmonella in poultry is killed at 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Below that threshold, even briefly, the bacteria can remain viable in sufficient numbers to cause illness. The seven facilities cited this week for cooking temperature failures, including Panera Bread, Anacapri Italian Rest, China Buffet, Las Tejas, Corona Beach House, the Banquet Kitchen, and Meat Eatery and Taproom, each had an inspector observe food that did not reach that threshold.
Buffet operations face a compounding risk. At China Buffet, food that is undercooked at the start of service then sits in open warming trays where it may never fully reach a safe temperature before being served. The violation at the start of the cooking process can cascade through an entire service period.
Chemical violations carry a different and more immediate danger. When cleaning agents, sanitizers, pesticides, or other toxic substances are stored near food or in unlabeled containers, the route to contamination is short. A bottle of sanitizer stored above a prep surface can drip. An unlabeled container can be mistaken for an ingredient. The citation at China Lee Restaurant goes one step further: inspectors documented food that had already been contaminated by a chemical, physical, or biological hazard, not a risk of contamination but a documented fact of it. That is the most acute finding in this week's data.
At La Carreta MIA and Corona Beach House, both operating inside Miami International Airport, the stakes are amplified. Airport restaurants serve travelers from dozens of countries, many of whom will be in a pressurized cabin at altitude within hours of eating. Foodborne illness that begins on the ground can present symptoms mid-flight, far from medical care.
The Longer Record
Several facilities in this week's data carry substantial inspection histories that place these violations in a longer context. The Banquet Kitchen at the Coral Gables address has prior inspections on record, as does the Riviera Country Club operating out of the same building. Two high-priority violations at the same address in the same week, one for cooking temperature and one for chemical storage, suggest the food safety challenges at 1155 Blue Road are not isolated.
China Lee Restaurant on SW 8th Street, which received the most serious citation of the week for actual food contamination rather than the risk of it, operates in a dense commercial corridor that has seen repeated inspection activity. The contamination finding is the type of violation that typically triggers mandatory corrective action on the spot.
La Carreta MIA, operating on a concourse at Miami International Airport, is subject to both state and airport authority oversight. The chemical storage citation raises questions about whether the dual oversight structure is catching violations before they become contamination events rather than after.
China Lee Restaurant closed out this week with a citation for food already contaminated by a hazard. Whether that food reached a customer before the inspector arrived is not recorded in the state data.
