SOUTH DAYTONA, FL. State inspectors walked into Lan Lamoon Authentic Thai Bistro at 2900 S Nova Road on September 25 and documented food contaminated by chemical, physical, or biological hazards — one of 11 high-severity violations cited that afternoon. The restaurant was not closed.
The inspection also turned up food described as being in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated. Toxic chemicals were improperly stored or labeled. Inspectors cited inadequate shell stock identification records, meaning shellfish on the menu could not be traced to its source if a customer got sick.
What Inspectors Found
The handwashing violations compounded each other. Inspectors cited both inadequate handwashing facilities and improper hand and arm washing technique in the same visit, meaning even employees who tried to wash their hands were doing it wrong, and the infrastructure to do it correctly was not in place.
No employee health policy was on record, and employees were not reporting illness symptoms. That combination is the documented precondition for multi-victim outbreaks.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Multi-use utensils were not properly cleaned. The inspector also noted no consumer advisory was posted for raw or undercooked foods, which means customers ordering dishes that carry raw-protein risk had no written notice.
No allergen awareness was demonstrated by staff. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans, and allergic reactions send 30,000 people to emergency rooms each year. A kitchen where no one can account for allergens in a dish is a kitchen where a customer with a peanut or shellfish allergy is eating on trust alone.
What These Violations Mean
The contaminated food and toxic chemical storage violations are the most immediately dangerous findings in this inspection. Cleaners, sanitizers, and pesticides stored near or above food can enter a dish without any visible sign, and a customer would have no way to know. Mislabeled chemicals accelerate that risk.
The shellfish traceability failure means that if a customer became ill from oysters, clams, or mussels served at Lan Lamoon after this inspection, health investigators would have no records to trace the shellfish back to its harvest source or distribution point. That gap can extend an outbreak by days.
The employee illness violations are not paperwork problems. Norovirus, the most common cause of foodborne illness in the United States, spreads primarily through food workers who are symptomatic and continue working. Without a written policy requiring employees to report symptoms, and without evidence that employees are actually doing so, a sick worker in this kitchen has no formal barrier between their illness and a customer's plate.
Improper handwashing technique is not corrected by telling someone to wash their hands. Studies show that even trained food workers using improper technique leave enough pathogens on their hands to transfer illness to food surfaces. Inadequate handwashing facilities make the problem structural, not individual.
The Longer Record
The September 25 inspection was not an aberration. State records show Lan Lamoon has been inspected 39 times and has accumulated 315 total violations across that history.
A follow-up inspection on October 2, just one week after the September visit, found 8 high-severity violations and 1 intermediate. The pattern before that visit mirrors what inspectors found in September: 6 high and 2 intermediate violations in March 2026, 8 high and 3 intermediate in a March 2026 follow-up, and 8 high and 2 intermediate in September 2025.
The restaurant was emergency-closed twice for roach activity. The first closure came on October 31, 2017, and the restaurant reopened the same day. The second came on November 13, 2024, and the restaurant reopened the following day. Both closures were resolved within 24 hours.
The November 2024 roach closure was followed by inspections on November 15 and November 21 of that year, which found 4 high-severity violations and 3 high-severity violations respectively. By January 2025, inspectors were back twice within two days, finding 5 high violations on January 14 and 3 high violations on January 15.
In eight of the most recent documented inspections before September 25, the facility logged high-severity violations every single time. The September 25 inspection, with 11 high-severity citations, was the worst of those visits by count. The restaurant remained open.
