NORTH MIAMI BEACH, FL. State inspectors walked into La Granja Parrilla on 167th Street on May 5 and found food from an unapproved or unknown source being used in the kitchen, a violation that means inspectors could not verify where that food came from or whether it had passed any federal safety inspection.
The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The six high-severity violations cited on May 5 covered nearly every layer of a functioning kitchen: leadership, hygiene infrastructure, technique, sourcing, traceability, and sanitation. The person in charge was either absent or not performing their duties, a finding that inspectors documented at the top of the report.
That absence matters. It sets the conditions for everything else on the list.
Inspectors also cited inadequate handwashing facilities and, separately, improper handwashing technique by staff. Both violations appeared on the same inspection report, meaning the kitchen lacked the infrastructure for proper hygiene and employees were not performing it correctly even when they tried.
Food contact surfaces, the cutting boards, prep surfaces, and equipment that touch the food customers eat, were found not properly cleaned or sanitized. That violation appeared alongside the unapproved food source citation, a combination that means inspectors could not confirm the origin of the food or the cleanliness of the surfaces it touched.
The shellfish citation added another layer. La Granja Parrilla serves a menu that includes shellfish, and inspectors found inadequate shell stock identification or records. Shellfish traceability records are required precisely because oysters, clams, and mussels are frequently consumed raw or lightly cooked, and without a tag or record, there is no way to trace an illness back to a specific harvest lot.
What These Violations Mean
Food from an unapproved source means the supply chain is broken at the most fundamental point. USDA and FDA inspections exist to catch contamination, Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli, before food reaches a kitchen. When a restaurant sources food outside that system, there is no inspection record, no lot number, and no way to trace an illness if someone gets sick after eating there.
The shellfish records violation compounds that risk. Shellfish are among the highest-risk foods in a restaurant setting because they are filter feeders that concentrate bacteria and viruses from the water they live in. The state requires shell stock tags to remain on file so that if a customer reports illness, public health officials can identify the harvest location and pull product from other restaurants. Without those records, that chain of investigation breaks.
The handwashing violations, both the inadequate facilities and the improper technique, mean that even if the food had been sourced correctly, the people handling it were not cleaning their hands in a way that removes pathogens. Studies consistently show that improper technique, insufficient time, skipping soap, failing to reach all surfaces, leaves enough bacterial load on hands to contaminate food during prep. Finding both violations at the same facility on the same day means the problem was systemic, not incidental.
The absence of a person in charge is not a paperwork violation. CDC data shows that establishments without active managerial control document three times as many critical violations as those with engaged management on the floor. Every other violation on this list is consistent with a kitchen operating without supervision.
The Longer Record
La Granja Parrilla on 167th: Recent Inspection History
The May 5 inspection was the 29th on record for this location. Across those 29 inspections, state records show 277 total violations. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
Six high-severity violations in a single inspection is not new territory for this restaurant. Inspectors cited the same count, six high-severity violations, on three separate occasions in 2024: March, April, and July. The February 2026 inspection produced five high-severity violations. The pattern across the past two years shows the restaurant cycling between heavy violation counts and passing scores without sustaining improvement.
The August 2025 data is telling. Inspectors found three high-severity violations on August 13, then returned August 14 and found none. That kind of rapid correction, violations one day and a clean bill the next, can reflect genuine overnight remediation. It can also reflect the difference between what a kitchen looks like when it knows an inspector is returning versus what it looks like on a routine visit.
The restaurant remained open after the May 5 inspection, serving customers at 105 NE 167th Street in North Miami Beach, with six high-severity violations on record and food on the line from a source inspectors could not verify.