COCONUT CREEK, FL. Back in April 2026, state inspectors walked into Hook's Catch Seafood and Wings on North State Road 7 and found that the restaurant could not demonstrate it was following proper parasite destruction procedures for the fish it was serving customers.
That violation alone would concern most diners. But it was one of six high-severity findings documented during the April 10 inspection. The restaurant was not emergency-closed.
What Inspectors Found
The parasite destruction finding is the most direct food safety threat to customers. Fish served raw or undercooked, including certain preparations common at seafood restaurants, must either be frozen to specific temperatures for specific durations or cooked to kill parasites such as Anisakis and tapeworm. Inspectors found the restaurant was not following those procedures.
The shell stock violation compounds the risk. Shellfish, including oysters, clams and mussels, are high-risk foods that are frequently consumed raw or lightly cooked. State rules require restaurants to maintain identification tags for every batch received, so that if customers get sick, the source can be traced. Inspectors found those records were inadequate.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Cutting boards, prep tables and similar surfaces that touch raw seafood are a primary vehicle for bacterial transfer if not cleaned correctly between uses.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for not following required procedures for specialized food processes, for having no adequate employee health policy, and for employees using improper handwashing technique. The intermediate violation involved multi-use utensils that had not been properly cleaned.
What These Violations Mean
The parasite destruction and shell stock violations are particularly serious at a seafood restaurant because they go to the core of what makes raw or lightly cooked seafood safe to eat. Parasites like Anisakis can cause severe abdominal pain, vomiting and intestinal damage in humans. The only safeguards are proper freezing, which must reach specific temperatures for specific time periods, or thorough cooking. When a restaurant cannot demonstrate those procedures are being followed, there is no way to confirm the fish on the plate is safe.
The shell stock traceability failure creates a separate problem. If a customer at Hook's Catch became ill from oysters or clams in April, investigators would have had no reliable paper trail to identify which harvest area or supplier the shellfish came from. That gap can prevent health authorities from pulling contaminated product before more people are exposed.
The employee health policy and handwashing violations work together in a dangerous way. Without a written health policy, workers who are sick have no formal instruction to stay home or report symptoms. And if those workers are also using improper handwashing technique, pathogens including Norovirus have a direct route from an infected employee's hands onto food and surfaces. Norovirus is responsible for roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and food workers are among the most common transmission vectors.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and multi-use utensils extend that contamination risk across every dish prepared in the kitchen.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Hook's Catch has accumulated 209 violations across 36 inspections on record, and has been emergency-closed twice before.
The most recent prior closure came in February 2022, when inspectors shut the restaurant for roach and fly activity. Before that, in November 2021, inspectors closed it again for rodent and fly activity. Both closures involved pest findings that inspectors had to act on immediately.
The inspection pattern since those closures shows high-severity violations have continued at nearly every visit. In September 2025, inspectors found six high-severity violations and two intermediate ones, a tally that mirrors the April 2026 inspection almost exactly. In August 2024, there were three high-severity violations. In December 2023, three more high-severity violations and an intermediate. The two inspections in early 2022 and January 2026 each produced two high-severity violations.
The September 2023 and March 2022 inspections are the only recent visits on record that produced zero high-severity violations. Every other inspection in that span found at least two.
Open for Business
After the April 10 inspection, with six high-severity violations documented including failures in parasite destruction, shellfish traceability, surface sanitation and employee health practices, state inspectors did not issue an emergency closure order.
Hook's Catch Seafood and Wings remained open.