BOCA RATON, FL. A food worker at La Granja Chicken Steak and Seafood on Glades Road was not reporting illness symptoms to management, state inspectors documented on September 10, a violation that federal health data links directly to multi-victim outbreaks. The restaurant was not closed.
That single violation appeared alongside six other high-severity citations in the same inspection. State inspectors found no person in charge present or performing duties, improper handwashing technique, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, inadequate shellfish identification records, and time used improperly as a public health control. One intermediate violation, inadequate toilet facilities, rounded out the report.
Seven high-severity violations. No emergency closure order.
What Inspectors Found
The absence of a person in charge is not a paperwork problem. CDC data cited in the inspection record shows establishments without active managerial control accumulate three times as many critical violations as those with supervision in place. At La Granja on September 10, inspectors found no one filling that role.
The shellfish traceability violation adds a separate layer of concern. The restaurant serves seafood, and without proper shell stock identification records, there is no way to trace oysters, clams, or mussels back to their source if a customer becomes ill. That record is the only link between a sick diner and a contaminated harvest bed.
The consumer advisory violation compounds the shellfish problem directly. Customers who are elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised are at elevated risk from raw or undercooked seafood, and the advisory is the mechanism that warns them. On September 10, that warning was not posted.
What These Violations Mean
The illness-reporting violation is the one that most directly endangered anyone who ate at La Granja that day. Norovirus, Salmonella, and Hepatitis A are all transmissible through food handled by a symptomatic worker. The reporting requirement exists precisely because sick employees often continue working, and without a system that requires disclosure, managers have no way to remove them from food handling duties before customers are exposed.
Improper handwashing technique is a separate but related failure. Even when an employee makes an attempt to wash their hands, incorrect technique leaves pathogens on the skin. Combined with food contact surfaces that inspectors found not properly cleaned or sanitized, the conditions at La Granja on September 10 created multiple overlapping routes for bacterial transfer.
The time-control violation is less visible but equally serious. When a restaurant uses time rather than temperature to keep food safe, the protocol requires strict tracking of how long food sits in the temperature danger zone between 41 and 135 degrees. Inspectors found that protocol was not being followed properly, meaning food that should have been discarded at a set time may not have been.
The Longer Record
The September 10 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show 25 inspections on file for this location, with 88 total violations accumulated across that history.
The pattern of high-severity violations at this address is consistent. On February 17, 2025, inspectors cited six high-severity violations and one intermediate, a count that matches the severity of the September 10 visit almost exactly. Four days later, on February 25, 2025, four more high-severity violations were documented. The location has never been emergency-closed.
The August 21, 2024 inspection produced six high-severity violations and one intermediate. The following day, August 22, 2024, inspectors returned and found zero violations, a correction that held for roughly eleven months before the pattern resumed. By July 30, 2025, three high-severity violations were back on the books. By September 3, 2025, that number had climbed to three high and three intermediate.
The September 10, 2026 inspection is the highest single-day high-severity count in the available history for this location. A follow-up inspection on September 11, 2026, the day after, recorded one high-severity violation and zero intermediate, suggesting some corrections were made quickly. But the inspection history shows that rapid corrections at this address have not prevented the same categories of violations from reappearing months later.
Still Open
State inspectors documented seven high-severity violations at La Granja Chicken Steak and Seafood on September 10, 2026, including a worker not reporting illness symptoms and no manager present to catch any of it.
The restaurant served customers that day, and the day after.
