MIAMI, FL. State inspectors visiting La Bodega Restaurant at 13774 SW 88 St. on April 27 found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, a violation that means every ingredient moving through that kitchen could have bypassed federal safety inspections entirely.
That was one of eleven high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The April 27 inspection produced a violation list that cuts across nearly every layer of food safety. Inspectors cited the restaurant for food in poor condition, mislabeled or adulterated. They found required procedures for specialized processes were not being followed. The person in charge was either absent or not performing duties.
Handwashing failures appeared twice in the same report. Inspectors cited both inadequate handwashing facilities and improper hand and arm washing technique, meaning the infrastructure to wash hands properly was lacking and, even where it existed, workers were not using it correctly.
The intermediate violations added sewage and sanitation concerns to the list. Inspectors documented improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, single-use items being reused, and inadequate ventilation and lighting. That is fifteen violations total across two severity tiers.
What These Violations Mean
Food from an unapproved or unknown source is not a paperwork problem. It means that if a customer becomes sick, investigators have no supplier records to trace, no lot numbers to pull, no chain of custody to follow. USDA and FDA safety inspections exist precisely to intercept Listeria, Salmonella and E. coli before food reaches a kitchen. When those inspections are bypassed, there is no safety net.
The shellfish traceability violation compounds that risk. Oysters, clams and mussels are frequently consumed raw or lightly cooked, and shellfish are among the most common vehicles for norovirus and Vibrio infections. Without proper shell stock identification records, there is no way to connect a sick diner to a specific harvest lot or growing area if an outbreak occurs.
The illness-reporting failures are a separate and direct transmission threat. When employees do not report symptoms and no written health policy exists to require them to do so, a worker with norovirus or hepatitis A can handle food across an entire shift. CDC data attributes the majority of multi-victim foodborne outbreaks to sick food workers who continued working. La Bodega had no policy requiring otherwise, and inspectors found workers were not reporting symptoms regardless.
Improper sewage disposal in a food preparation environment means fecal bacteria can reach surfaces, utensils and food. Combined with food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized, the contamination pathway from sewage to plate becomes very short.
The Longer Record
La Bodega Restaurant: Inspection History
La Bodega has 49 inspections on record and 567 total violations. It has been emergency-closed six times, including twice in the twelve months preceding this inspection.
The February 2026 closure was for roach and fly activity. Inspectors documented 18 high-severity violations on the day of that closure, February 25. The restaurant was allowed to reopen two days later, on February 27, after a follow-up inspection still found 5 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate ones. The April 27 inspection, two months after that reopening, produced 11 high-severity violations.
The October 2024 emergency closure was for a sewage backup. That inspection also produced 11 high-severity violations. The intermediate violation for improper sewage or wastewater disposal documented on April 27, 2026 means sewage-related concerns have now appeared in inspections tied to two separate closure events at this address.
There is one clean inspection in the recent record. On March 13, 2024, inspectors found zero high-severity violations and zero intermediate ones. Every inspection since has produced high-severity citations, and the counts have climbed: 2 high in October 2024 on a follow-up, 11 high on the closure day that same month, 6 high in March 2025, 9 high in October 2025, 18 high on the February 2026 closure, and 11 high on April 27.
Still Open
State inspectors left La Bodega Restaurant open on April 27 despite the eleven high-severity violations, the intermediate sewage finding, and the facility's history of six emergency closures and 567 documented violations across 49 inspections.
The restaurant had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. Anyone who ate there that day, or in the days that followed, had no written notice that the food they were ordering carried elevated risk.