FLORIDA. A Tampa sushi restaurant logged 13 high-severity violations in a single inspection during the week of August 3, the highest count among 10 Florida restaurants that state inspectors flagged for serious food safety failures between August 3 and August 9, 2026.
The Week's Worst
Shogun Sushi on North Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa drew the week's highest tally: 13 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate. Inspectors documented that the restaurant had no employee health policy, that employees were not reporting illness symptoms, that handwashing facilities were inadequate, and that handwashing technique itself was improper. Those four failures together describe a kitchen where the basic infrastructure for preventing a Norovirus or Salmonella outbreak was absent.
The most serious finding at Shogun Sushi was food from an unapproved or unknown source. The restaurant also had inadequate shell stock identification records, meaning inspectors could not trace the origin of shellfish being served. Food was also documented as being in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized.
Spicy Girl on International Drive in Orlando recorded 12 high-severity violations and 6 intermediate, the week's highest combined total. The person in charge was either not present or not performing required duties. Inspectors also found no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, and improper handwashing technique. Like Shogun Sushi, Spicy Girl had food from an unapproved source and inadequate shell stock records. Time as a public health control was not being properly used, meaning food sat in the temperature danger zone without the documentation required when refrigeration is not the control method.
Thai Spice Kitchen on Bowden Road in Jacksonville matched the 12 high-severity count with a violation profile that included both handwashing failures and food sourcing failures. Inspectors cited inadequate handwashing by food employees and improper technique. Food from an unapproved source was documented, along with food in poor condition or adulterated. Parasite destruction procedures were not followed, a finding that matters acutely at a restaurant serving fish or pork dishes.
China Buffet on East Fowler Avenue in Tampa also reached 12 high-severity violations. The person in charge was not present or not performing duties. The restaurant had no employee health policy and employees were not reporting symptoms. Inspectors found food from an unapproved source, inadequate shell stock records, and food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Both handwashing categories were cited: inadequate handwashing by employees and improper technique.
Samira's Cafe on Bartram Oaks Walk in Saint Johns also drew 12 high-severity violations. The person in charge was not present or not performing required duties. Inspectors documented no employee health policy, employees not reporting symptoms, and improper handwashing technique. Food from an unapproved source was cited, along with inadequate shell stock records and food contact surfaces not properly cleaned. Food was not cooked to the required minimum temperature.
Josie's Pizza and Wings on South Highway 27 in Clermont recorded 11 high-severity violations and 5 intermediate. The person in charge was not present or not performing duties. Inspectors found no employee health policy, employees not reporting symptoms, and improper handwashing technique. Food was in poor condition or adulterated. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned. Food was not cooked to the required minimum temperature, a finding that carries particular weight at a restaurant whose primary products are poultry-based.
Shells of St. Pete Beach on Gulf Boulevard drew 7 high-severity violations. Inspectors found the person in charge not present or not performing duties and no employee health policy. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned. Food was not cooked to the required minimum temperature, and there was no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items. Two separate chemical violations were cited: toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. That double chemical citation at a beachside seafood restaurant is among the more specific alarming findings of the week.
Tropical Cafeteria on East 9th Street in Hialeah recorded 6 high-severity violations. Inspectors cited inadequate handwashing by food employees and food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized. Food was not cooked to the required minimum temperature. Parasite destruction procedures were not followed, and toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled. The restaurant also had no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
Angelo's on 1st Avenue North in St. Petersburg drew 6 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate. Inspectors found no employee health policy and inadequate handwashing by food employees. Inadequate shell stock identification records were cited, along with improper use of time as a public health control. The restaurant had no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. Notably, Angelo's was also cited for no allergen awareness demonstrated, a violation that carries legal exposure beyond the food safety code.
Crafty Crab Restaurant on Northeast 8th Street in Homestead had the lowest violation count of the ten, with 4 high-severity citations and 1 intermediate. Inspectors found improper handwashing technique and inadequate shell stock identification records. Toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled. The restaurant was also cited for no allergen awareness demonstrated, a finding that warrants attention at a seafood-focused concept where shellfish allergies are among the most severe and rapid-onset reactions a customer can experience.
What These Violations Mean
The most repeated finding across this week's ten inspections was the combination of no employee health policy and employees not reporting illness symptoms. Those two violations are documented together at Shogun Sushi, Spicy Girl, Thai Spice Kitchen, China Buffet, Samira's Cafe, Josie's Pizza and Wings, and Shells of St. Pete Beach. A written health policy is the mechanism that tells workers they cannot come in while vomiting or experiencing diarrhea. Without it, a single sick employee can contaminate hundreds of servings before anyone acts.
Food from unapproved or unknown sources was cited at Shogun Sushi, Spicy Girl, Thai Spice Kitchen, China Buffet, and Samira's Cafe. When food bypasses USDA and FDA inspection channels, there is no chain of records connecting it to a licensed facility. If a customer becomes ill, investigators have no documentation to trace the product back to its origin. That traceability gap is not a paperwork problem. It is the reason outbreak investigations stall.
Parasite destruction procedures were not followed at both Tropical Cafeteria in Hialeah and Thai Spice Kitchen in Jacksonville. Restaurants that serve raw or undercooked fish are required to freeze product at specific temperatures for specific durations to kill parasites including Anisakis, which causes severe gastrointestinal illness. Skipping that step at a sushi or fish-serving concept is not a minor administrative lapse.
The allergen citations at Angelo's in St. Petersburg and Crafty Crab in Homestead represent a category of risk that sits outside the traditional foodborne illness framework. Shellfish and other common allergens can trigger anaphylaxis within minutes. A restaurant that cannot demonstrate staff allergen awareness has no reliable mechanism to warn a customer before a life-threatening reaction begins.
The Longer Record
The data provided for this week does not include prior inspection counts for each facility, so direct historical comparisons are not available. What the violation profiles alone reveal is that several of this week's worst performers share a structural pattern: the person in charge was absent, no health policy existed, and sourcing records were missing. Those three failures do not appear spontaneously in an otherwise well-run kitchen. They reflect the baseline operating conditions of the facility.
Spicy Girl on International Drive is worth particular attention on that point. It recorded the week's highest combined violation total, 18 across high-severity and intermediate categories, and its violations span every layer of kitchen management: oversight, worker health, technique, sourcing, surface sanitation, and time control. A facility that fails across all six categories simultaneously is not dealing with isolated lapses.
China Buffet on East Fowler Avenue in Tampa presents a similar picture. Eight distinct high-severity violation categories were cited in a single visit at a buffet-format restaurant, where food sits in open trays accessible to the public for extended periods. The combination of no person in charge, no health policy, unapproved food sourcing, and unclean food contact surfaces at a buffet operation compounds the exposure risk that any one of those violations would create alone.
Shells of St. Pete Beach stands out for its chemical violations. Two separate citations covering chemical storage, labeling, identification, and use at a single inspection suggest that cleaning products or sanitizers were present in proximity to food or food-contact areas in ways that created acute contamination risk. That finding, alongside the absence of a person in charge and undercooked food, was not resolved in the inspection record available for this week.
