ST. PETERSBURG, FL. State inspectors visiting K-Pot Korean BBQ & Hot Pot on 22nd Avenue on June 17 found food being served from unapproved or unknown sources, meaning ingredients on customers' grills that day had bypassed federal safety inspections entirely, with no way to trace them if someone got sick.
That was one of six high-severity violations inspectors documented at the restaurant. The facility was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The full list of violations reads as a breakdown across nearly every layer of food safety. Inspectors cited improper handwashing technique, meaning employees were washing their hands but not correctly, leaving pathogens on their skin. Food contact surfaces, the grills, prep boards, and utensils that touch what customers eat, were not properly cleaned or sanitized.
There was no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. At a Korean BBQ restaurant where diners cook raw meat tableside, that omission is particularly pointed: elderly customers, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems have no way of knowing the elevated risk they face.
Inspectors also cited improper sewage or wastewater disposal, an intermediate violation that carries its own acute risk. Sewage exposure anywhere in a food-service facility creates the possibility of fecal contamination reaching food preparation areas.
What These Violations Mean
The food-from-unapproved-sources violation is one of the most serious a restaurant can receive, not because it guarantees contaminated food, but because it eliminates the ability to find out. When meat or produce enters a facility through unapproved channels, it has not passed USDA or FDA inspection. If a customer gets sick, investigators have no supply chain to trace.
The absence of an employee health policy compounds that risk directly. Without a written policy, there is no mechanism requiring sick workers to stay home or report symptoms like vomiting or diarrhea to management. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, spreads readily from food workers to customers through exactly this gap.
The person-in-charge violation ties the other five together. CDC data shows that establishments without active managerial control on the floor accumulate critical violations at three times the rate of those with engaged supervision. At K-Pot on June 17, inspectors found no one performing that function, and the record of what went unchecked reflects it.
Improperly used wiping cloths, cited as an intermediate violation, are a subtler but persistent contamination vehicle. A cloth used to wipe a raw-protein surface and then used again on a prep area or table transfers bacteria with each pass. Combined with food contact surfaces that were not properly sanitized, the cross-contamination pathways at this facility on that day were multiple.
The Longer Record
The June 17 inspection was the tenth on record for K-Pot Korean BBQ & Hot Pot. Across those ten inspections, the facility has accumulated 68 total violations. It has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern in the prior inspection history is not one of occasional lapses. In December 2024, inspectors found eight high-severity violations. Three months later, in March 2025, they found nine. The December 2024 and March 2025 inspections together account for 17 high-severity violations across two visits, the worst back-to-back stretch in the facility's record until now.
The only clean inspection on record was May 20, 2024, when inspectors found zero violations at any severity level. One week earlier, on May 13, they had found five high-severity violations and one intermediate. One week later, the slate was clear. That kind of swing suggests a facility capable of meeting standards but not consistently maintaining them between visits.
The June 2026 inspection, with six high-severity and four intermediate violations, is the highest combined total in the restaurant's history. It arrived six months after the December 2025 inspection, which itself found four high-severity violations. There is no inspection on record in which the facility went two consecutive visits without at least three high-severity citations.
Still Open
State inspectors documented ten violations at K-Pot Korean BBQ & Hot Pot on June 17, six of them high-severity, including food from an unknown source, no mechanism for keeping sick workers off the floor, and handwashing that was being performed incorrectly. They noted sewage disposal problems and food contact surfaces that were not properly sanitized.
When the inspection was complete, the restaurant remained open.