NORTH MIAMI BEACH, FL. Food at Le Genie Restaurant on NE 167th Street was not being cooked to the required minimum temperature when a state inspector arrived on September 30, a violation that means pathogens like Salmonella in poultry can survive and reach a customer's plate.
That was one of seven high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector also cited employees for not reporting symptoms of illness, a violation that state records flag as the leading cause of multi-victim outbreaks. Norovirus, in particular, spreads rapidly when a symptomatic worker handles food.
Two separate handwashing violations were documented on the same visit: employees were not washing their hands adequately, and those who did wash were using improper technique. Both were marked high severity.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. No allergen awareness was demonstrated by staff, a violation that carries direct consequences for the 32 million Americans with food allergies. No person in charge was present or performing supervisory duties when the inspector arrived.
The two intermediate violations involved inadequate cooling and cold-holding equipment, and toilet facilities that were inadequate or improperly maintained.
What These Violations Mean
Undercooking is not a procedural technicality. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and a single serving of undercooked chicken is enough to cause serious illness. At Le Genie, that violation was documented on a day when no person in charge was present to catch it, and when the equipment used to hold cold food was itself cited as inadequate.
The two handwashing violations compound each other in a specific way. Inspectors cited both a failure to wash hands at all and a failure to wash them correctly. That means even employees who went through the motions of handwashing may have left the sink with pathogens still on their hands, then handled food or food-contact surfaces that were themselves not properly sanitized.
The illness-reporting violation is the one that most directly connects a single employee to a potential outbreak. When a worker with norovirus or hepatitis A does not report symptoms and continues preparing food, the exposure is not limited to one dish or one table. CDC data links this failure to the majority of restaurant-associated multi-victim outbreaks.
The allergen awareness violation means staff could not reliably identify which menu items contained common allergens. For a customer with a severe allergy, that gap is not a minor lapse. It is a direct and documented pathway to an emergency room visit.
The Longer Record
September 30 was not an anomaly. State records show Le Genie has accumulated 536 total violations across 37 inspections on record, and has been emergency-closed three times.
The most recent closure came on July 29, 2026, when inspectors documented rodent and fly activity. That same date produced two separate inspection reports: one showing 4 high-severity violations, and a second showing 12 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate. The restaurant was ordered shut and did not reopen until July 31.
The closure before that was September 2, 2025, for fly activity. The restaurant reopened the following day. Before that, February 26, 2024, for rodent activity, with a two-day closure.
The pattern across the eight most recent inspections is consistent. Every single one included high-severity violations. The counts ranged from 1 to 12, but there was no inspection in that stretch that came back clean. The November 2025 inspections, conducted across two consecutive days, showed 6 high-severity violations on November 3 and 4 high-severity violations on November 4.
Still Open
State inspectors documented all seven high-severity violations on September 30 and left Le Genie operating.
Three emergency closures in less than three years, 536 violations across 37 inspections, and a September 30 report that cited undercooked food, unsanitized food-contact surfaces, no allergen knowledge, and no manager on duty.
The restaurant remained open.
