CLERMONT, FL. A state inspector walked into Hibachi Express at 260 Citrus Tower Blvd on May 28 and found food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, toxic chemicals stored improperly near food, and no written employee health policy — seven high-severity violations in a single visit. The restaurant was not closed.
That inspection came one day after a separate visit on May 27 that produced ten high-severity violations and three intermediate ones. Two inspections in two consecutive days. Seventeen high-severity violations combined.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooking violation is the one that most directly threatened anyone who ate there that day. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. At a hibachi restaurant where grilled chicken is a core menu item, an inspector documenting food not reaching required minimum temperatures is documenting a direct pathway to serious illness.
The chemical storage violation adds a different kind of risk. Toxic chemicals stored near or improperly labeled in a food prep environment can contaminate food through proximity, spills, or mislabeled containers mistaken for food-safe products. That is not a paperwork problem.
Food contact surfaces cited as improperly cleaned or sanitized compound both risks. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and cooking equipment that carry residue from prior use become transfer points for whatever bacteria or contamination was present before.
The restaurant also had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. For a hibachi concept where customers may order items cooked to their preference, that absence means elderly diners, pregnant women, and anyone with a compromised immune system had no notice of the risk they were accepting.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of undercooking and improperly cleaned food contact surfaces is how foodborne illness outbreaks begin. Bacteria survive on a surface from one preparation. They transfer to the next item. That item is not cooked to a temperature that kills them. A customer eats it. The chain from inspection report to emergency room can be short.
The absence of an employee health policy at Hibachi Express means there was no documented system requiring sick workers to stay home or report symptoms. Norovirus, the most common cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, spreads through exactly this gap. A worker with symptoms who has no policy instructing them otherwise continues handling food.
Improper handwashing technique is distinct from not washing hands at all. An employee who goes through the motion of handwashing but uses incorrect technique, skipping steps or not scrubbing long enough, leaves pathogens on their hands. The attempt provides no protection if the execution fails. Combined with no health policy and improperly sanitized surfaces, the picture at Hibachi Express on May 28 is one of compounding failures at the most basic points of food safety.
Inadequate cold-holding equipment, cited as an intermediate violation, ties directly to the temperature risk. If the equipment cannot maintain required temperatures, food that should be held safely cold enters what regulators call the danger zone, between 41 and 135 degrees Fahrenheit, where bacterial growth accelerates.
The Longer Record
Hibachi Express: Inspection Pattern, Selected Visits
Hibachi Express has 25 inspections on record and 245 total violations. That is not the profile of a restaurant with an off week.
Four of the eight most recent inspections on record produced ten high-severity violations or seven high-severity violations. The January 22, 2025 inspection found ten high-severity and four intermediate violations. The May 9, 2023 inspection found ten high-severity and three intermediate. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The May 2026 back-to-back inspections are the most recent entries in a pattern that stretches back at least three years. High-severity violation counts at this location have not trended downward. They have held at the same elevated range across multiple inspection cycles, across multiple years.
State records show no emergency closure in the facility's history despite that accumulated record.
On May 28, 2026, after an inspector documented seven high-severity violations including undercooked food and toxic chemicals stored improperly, Hibachi Express in Clermont remained open for business.