NEW PORT RICHEY, FL. State inspectors visiting Kawa Japanese Steak House and Sushi at 8631 Little Road on June 5 found food coming from unapproved or unknown sources, meaning some of what the kitchen was serving that day had bypassed every federal safety inspection that exists to catch Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli before it reaches a plate.
That was one of six high-severity violations documented at the restaurant. The facility was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The person in charge was not present or not performing duties during the June 5 visit. CDC data links the absence of active managerial control to three times as many critical violations, and the rest of the inspection record here illustrates why.
Inspectors also found that employees were not reporting symptoms of illness, that handwashing facilities were inadequate, and that the handwashing technique being used was improper. Those three violations, stacked together, describe a kitchen where pathogens can move from a sick worker's hands to a cutting board to a customer's food with nothing stopping them at any step.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Multi-use utensils were improperly cleaned, a condition that allows bacterial biofilms to develop within 24 hours on surfaces that appear visually clean. Inspectors also cited improper sewage or wastewater disposal, a violation that introduces fecal contamination risk throughout the facility.
What These Violations Mean
The food sourcing violation is the one with the longest reach. When food enters a kitchen from an unapproved or unknown source, there is no chain of custody, no USDA or FDA inspection record, and no way to trace it if customers get sick. In a sushi restaurant, where raw fish is served directly to customers, that gap is not abstract.
The illness-reporting and handwashing violations are interconnected in a specific and dangerous way. Norovirus, the most common cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, spreads primarily through food workers who are sick and either do not report symptoms or do not wash their hands properly before handling food. Finding both violations on the same inspection means neither safeguard was functioning.
Improper sewage disposal puts fecal bacteria into the environment of a kitchen. That contamination does not stay contained to a drain or a pipe. It can reach prep surfaces, utensils, and food.
The absence of a person in charge is not a paperwork violation. It is the condition that allows every other violation to persist. A restaurant with no active managerial oversight is one where no one is watching whether sick employees stay off the line, whether handwashing is happening, or whether food came in through a legitimate supplier.
The Longer Record
The June 5 inspection was not an anomaly. Kawa has 47 inspections on record and 463 total violations documented across that history.
The three months before this inspection tell a concentrated story. On March 18, 2026, inspectors found 6 high-severity and 2 intermediate violations, an identical severity profile to the June 5 visit. On May 5, 2025, the count was 6 high and 1 intermediate. On March 3, 2025, the restaurant was emergency-closed for rodent activity and reopened the following day, only to be inspected again on March 4 with 3 high-severity violations, then again the same day with 2 more high-severity violations.
The restaurant has been emergency-closed four times in its inspection history. Three of those closures, in December 2024, February 2025, and March 2025, were all for rodent activity. The February 2025 closure and reopening happened on the same day. The December 2024 closure was followed the next day by a clean inspection with zero high-severity violations, which makes the pattern that followed in the next three months more difficult to explain.
A facility accumulates 463 violations across 47 inspections by averaging nearly 10 violations per visit over its entire documented history. The June 5 findings are not a departure from that record. They are consistent with it.
The Restaurant Remained Open
State inspectors documented six high-severity violations at Kawa on June 5, 2026, including food from an unapproved source, no functioning illness-reporting system, inadequate handwashing infrastructure, improper handwashing technique, unsanitized food contact surfaces, and no person in charge.
The restaurant was not closed.