KEY WEST, FL. Nine restaurants across the Florida Keys were cited for high-severity health violations during the week of September 25, inspectors found, with two establishments each drawing seven high-priority citations, and a sushi bar in Key Largo operating with no way to trace where its shellfish came from.
The findings stretch from Key Largo to Marathon and hit the kinds of waterfront, highway-side restaurants that tourists fill during fall travel season.
The Violations
Lazy Days South at 725 11th Street Ocean in Marathon and Sports Pub at 84500 Overseas Highway in Islamorada each drew seven high-severity citations, the most of any facility inspected this week. Both were cited for employees failing to report illness symptoms and for improper handwashing technique.
Lazy Days South had additional citations for having no person in charge present or performing duties, no employee health policy, food from an unapproved or unknown source, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
Sports Pub's seven citations included two that stand apart: toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. The bar was also cited for failing to follow parasite destruction procedures for fish and for improper sewage or wastewater disposal.
Sushi Sake at 103400 Overseas Highway in Key Largo matched the seven-violation count at the top of this week's list. Inspectors cited the restaurant for inadequate shell stock identification and records, meaning there was no documentation to trace where its oysters, clams, or mussels originated. The facility was also cited for food from an unapproved source, no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, improper use of time as a public health control, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
Mrs. Mac's Kitchen at 99336 Overseas Highway in Key Largo, one of the corridor's most recognized roadside institutions, drew six high-severity citations. Those included food from an unapproved source, no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
Lazy Days Restaurant at 79867 Overseas Highway in Islamorada was cited for five high-priority violations, including food not cooked to required minimum temperature and improper use of time as a public health control. The facility also drew an intermediate citation for inadequate cooling and cold holding equipment.
Key Thai Restaurant and Sushi Bar at 99611 Overseas Highway in Key Largo was cited for four high-severity violations, including no allergen awareness demonstrated by staff, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, employees not reporting illness symptoms, and improper handwashing.
Habanos Tapas and Bar at 73814 Overseas Highway in Islamorada drew four high-severity citations: no employee health policy, improper handwashing, food not cooked to required minimum temperature, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
Habanos Ocean Front at 73501 Overseas Highway in Islamorada, located less than a third of a mile from Habanos Tapas and Bar, was cited for three high-severity violations: improper handwashing, food from an unapproved source, and food contact surfaces not properly cleaned.
Three Waters Resort Marina's main kitchen, tiki bar, and Kokomos at 84001 Overseas Highway in Islamorada drew two high-severity citations: food from an unapproved source and parasite destruction procedures not followed. The resort's kitchen also had intermediate violations for multi-use utensils not properly cleaned and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
What These Violations Mean
The food-from-unapproved-source violation, cited at five facilities this week including Sushi Sake, Mrs. Mac's Kitchen, Sports Pub, Habanos Ocean Front, and Three Waters Resort Marina, means that if a diner gets sick, investigators have no supply chain to trace. Unapproved sources bypass USDA and FDA inspection systems, which exist specifically to catch contamination before it reaches a kitchen. For raw seafood in particular, that gap is acute.
The shellfish traceability citation at Sushi Sake is a sharper version of the same problem. Oysters, clams, and mussels are frequently consumed raw or barely cooked, and they filter enormous volumes of water, concentrating pathogens like Vibrio and hepatitis A. Without shell stock identification tags, there is no way to link a sick diner to a harvest location or a recall.
The parasite destruction citation at both Sports Pub and Three Waters Resort Marina points to a specific protocol: fish served raw or undercooked must be frozen to a temperature and for a duration sufficient to kill parasites including Anisakis and tapeworm. When that step is skipped, the risk lands directly on the customer eating the sashimi or the ceviche.
The combination of no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, and improper handwashing technique appeared together at multiple facilities this week, including Lazy Days South, Sushi Sake, Mrs. Mac's Kitchen, and Lazy Days Restaurant. That cluster matters because each violation reinforces the others: without a policy, workers have no guidance; without reporting, sick workers stay on the line; without proper handwashing, whatever they are carrying reaches the plate.
The Longer Record
The two Habanos locations in Islamorada share a name and a stretch of highway less than a third of a mile apart, and both turned up in this week's inspection data. Habanos Ocean Front's citation for food from an unapproved source is particularly notable for a waterfront restaurant in a fishing corridor where sourcing documentation should be routine.
Mrs. Mac's Kitchen is among the Keys' most established roadside names, and its six high-severity citations this week, including the food-from-unapproved-source violation, represent a significant inspection event for a location with the kind of long operating history that accumulates a substantial prior inspection record.
The two Lazy Days locations, one in Marathon and one in Islamorada, are separate operations that share branding and both appeared among the top five facilities by violation count this week. Lazy Days South in Marathon led all facilities with seven high-severity citations, including the absence of a person in charge, a violation that inspectors and CDC data associate with elevated rates of critical failures across all other categories.
Three Waters Resort Marina serves guests across multiple food service points, its main kitchen, a tiki bar, and Kokomos, all under one inspection license. The parasite destruction failure there affects any fish served raw or undercooked at any of those outlets. Inspectors found that gap in the same week the resort's kitchen also lacked proper ventilation and was using utensils that had not been adequately cleaned.
