MIAMI BEACH, FL. Inspectors visiting Havana Beach on Ocean Drive on May 26 found that the restaurant was serving food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, a violation that means no government agency had inspected that food for Listeria, Salmonella, or other pathogens before it reached customers' plates.
That was one of twelve high-severity violations documented in a single inspection. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The full list goes further. Inspectors also cited food in poor condition, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, inadequate handwashing facilities, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, toxic substances improperly identified or stored, and time as a public health control not properly used.
That last violation means food was left sitting in the temperature range where bacteria multiply rapidly, between 41 and 135 degrees, without the temperature monitoring required to make that practice safe.
No person in charge was present, or the person on duty was not performing supervisory duties. That single finding, paired with the length of the violation list, raises a question the inspection record itself cannot answer: how long had the kitchen been operating without oversight.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved sources is not a paperwork violation. When a restaurant bypasses licensed suppliers, the food it receives has not been inspected by the USDA or FDA. If that food is contaminated with Listeria or Salmonella, there is no traceability record to identify the source when customers get sick.
The absence of an employee health policy compounds that risk directly. Without a written policy requiring sick workers to stay home, a single employee with Norovirus can transmit the illness to dozens of customers. Norovirus accounts for roughly 20 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States each year, and food workers are a primary transmission route.
The cooking temperature violation is among the most acute on the list. Salmonella survives in poultry cooked below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. At Havana Beach, inspectors documented that food was not reaching the minimum temperatures required to kill those pathogens before being served.
The allergen awareness citation adds a separate layer of risk. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans, and allergic reactions send approximately 30,000 people to emergency rooms annually. When staff cannot identify allergens in the dishes they are serving, customers with severe allergies have no reliable way to protect themselves.
The Pattern
Havana Beach Inspection History, 2024-2026
The May 26 inspection was not an outlier. Two weeks earlier, on May 12, inspectors had visited the same restaurant and found 14 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate ones, a worse result than the inspection that followed it.
The restaurant has accumulated 369 total violations across 31 inspections on record. In the eight most recent inspections with documented results, only one, a November 2024 visit, produced zero high-severity or intermediate violations.
The Longer Record
The inspection on May 12, just fourteen days before the May 26 visit, logged 14 high-severity violations. The May 26 inspection found 12. The numbers dropped slightly. The category of violations, food sourcing, temperature control, management oversight, chemical storage, did not change in any meaningful way.
Havana Beach was emergency-closed once before, in May 2016, after inspectors found roach activity. It reopened the following day. A decade later, the facility has accumulated a record that includes double-digit high-severity violation counts in three of the last four inspections.
The April 2024 inspection found 7 high-severity violations. The September 2024 inspection found 2. The November 2024 inspection found none. Then the counts climbed again: 7 in March 2025, 5 in June 2025, 10 in October 2025, 14 in May 2026, 12 two weeks after that.
After the May 26 inspection, Havana Beach on Ocean Drive remained open.