PEMBROKE PINES, FL. A state inspector walked into Hook & Reel on Pines Boulevard on July 13 and found food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, employees failing to report illness symptoms, and handwashing so inadequate it was cited twice, once for not doing it and once for doing it wrong. The restaurant was not closed.
The inspection logged seven high-severity violations and six intermediate violations, a total of 13 citations from a single visit. It was not the worst inspection this location has ever had. It was not even close.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooking violation is the most direct threat to anyone who ate there that day. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and pathogens in seafood and other proteins survive undercooking at lower thresholds. A restaurant serving undercooked food without disclosing that risk to customers, which is what the missing consumer advisory violation captures, leaves diners with no warning and no choice.
The handwashing citations compounded that risk. Two separate violations, one for employees not washing hands and one for employees using improper technique, mean the inspector observed both a failure to wash and a failure to wash correctly. Those are not the same problem cited twice. They are two distinct contamination pathways documented in a single visit.
The person-in-charge violation ties it together. When no manager is actively overseeing operations, the other violations become easier to understand.
What These Violations Mean
The illness-reporting violation is the one that most directly implicates customers who had no way to protect themselves. Food workers who do not report symptoms of illness, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and jaundice, are the leading cause of multi-victim outbreaks. Norovirus spreads through exactly this pathway, a sick employee who continues working and handles food or surfaces that reach customers. The violation does not mean a sick employee was present. It means the system that would catch and stop a sick employee was not functioning.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, cited here as a high-severity violation, create a secondary transfer route. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and utensil contact points that are not properly sanitized carry bacteria from one food item to the next. The intermediate violation for multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, and a separate citation for improper sanitizing solution, indicate the sanitation breakdown was not limited to one station.
Single-use items being reused, also cited as intermediate, adds another layer. Items designed for one use and discarded, including gloves, cups, and foil, accumulate contamination when reused. Combined with inadequate ventilation and improperly used wiping cloths, the July 13 inspection documented a kitchen where multiple sanitation systems had failed at the same time.
The Longer Record
Hook & Reel, Pines Blvd: Inspection History
Across 34 inspections on record, Hook & Reel has accumulated 223 total violations. The July 13 inspection was not an anomaly. It was consistent with a pattern that stretches back years.
The restaurant was emergency-closed in August 2023 for roach activity and was permitted to reopen the next day. In January 2025, inspectors cited eight high-severity violations. In December 2025, they cited eight high-severity violations again, then returned the following day and found three more. In August 2024, six high-severity violations. The February 2026 inspection, the one clean record in this stretch, showed zero high-severity violations. Four months later, the count was back to seven.
The follow-up inspection on July 14, the day after the July 13 visit, still found four high-severity violations.
Hook & Reel on Pines Boulevard was not closed after the July 13 inspection. It remained open.
