ORLANDO, FL. State inspectors walked into Knights Curry Express at 11565 University Blvd. on September 3, 2026, and found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers being served to customers, with no way to trace where it came from or whether it had ever been inspected by federal food safety authorities.
That was one of nine high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The inspection record lists nine high-severity violations and three intermediate ones, a total of twelve citations from a single visit. The violations span nearly every critical category in food safety: sourcing, cooking, employee hygiene, chemical storage, and sanitation.
Inspectors cited the restaurant twice for handwashing failures, once for inadequate handwashing by food employees and again for improper hand and arm washing technique. Those are two separate documented breakdowns in the same basic procedure.
Parasite destruction procedures were not followed. That violation applies when fish, pork, or wild game is served without the freezing or cooking protocols required to kill parasites including Anisakis in fish and Trichinella in pork. Food was also found not cooked to the required minimum temperature, meaning pathogens that proper cooking would have destroyed were left viable.
Toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled somewhere in the facility. Inspectors also found improper sewage or wastewater disposal, a violation that creates the risk of fecal contamination spreading through the kitchen. Single-use items were being reused.
No person in charge was present or performing duties at the time of the inspection.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved sources is among the most serious violations a food service establishment can receive, because it severs the traceability chain entirely. If a customer gets sick, investigators cannot identify the supplier, pull distribution records, or determine whether other restaurants received the same product. The food bypasses USDA and FDA inspections that screen for Listeria, Salmonella, and other pathogens.
The parasite destruction citation compounds that risk. When the origin of fish or meat is unknown and the required kill-step protocols are not followed, there is no layer of protection between a live parasite and the customer's plate.
Employees not reporting illness symptoms is the violation most directly linked to multi-victim outbreaks. Norovirus, in particular, spreads rapidly when an infected worker continues handling food. The handwashing citations documented here mean that even if an employee recognized symptoms, the physical barrier against transmission was not functioning properly.
Improperly stored or labeled chemicals near food can cause acute poisoning without any warning to the person eating. Unlike bacterial illness, which typically has a delay of hours or days, chemical contamination can produce immediate symptoms. The sewage disposal violation adds a separate fecal contamination pathway to an already compromised kitchen environment.
The Longer Record
The September 3 inspection was not an anomaly. Records show 19 inspections on file for Knights Curry Express, with 136 total violations documented across that history.
The two most recent inspections before September's visit tell a specific story. On June 16, 2026, inspectors cited the restaurant for 12 high-severity violations and 5 intermediate ones. Two days later, on June 18, a follow-up found 4 high-severity violations and 2 intermediate violations still present. The September inspection came roughly ten weeks after that sequence, with 9 high-severity violations.
The facility has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history. A clean inspection in December 2025, with zero high-severity violations, shows the restaurant is capable of meeting standards. That makes the June and September 2026 findings harder to explain as a facilities problem alone.
Going further back, inspectors found 5 high-severity violations in March 2021 and 2 more in July of that year. The pattern of elevated violation counts recurring across multiple years, separated by periods of compliance, has now produced 136 total violations across 19 inspections.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when inspectors determine that conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. The September 3 inspection at Knights Curry Express documented food from unknown sources, undercooked food, employees not reporting illness, two handwashing failures, improperly stored chemicals, and sewage disposal problems.
The restaurant was not closed.
Customers who ate at Knights Curry Express on or after September 3, 2026, had no way of knowing that inspectors had documented those conditions during their most recent visit. The orange closure sticker was never posted on the door.
