ST. PETERSBURG, FL. Inspectors visiting Lemon Grass Sushi Thai Tapas Inc on Central Avenue on May 4 found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, meaning if a customer got sick, state investigators would have no chain of custody to trace. That violation alone can end a food service license. It was one of nine high-severity citations issued that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooking violation is the second item that demands attention at a sushi and Thai tapas restaurant. Food not cooked to required minimum temperatures means pathogens survive on the plate. At a restaurant serving both raw fish and cooked poultry dishes, that citation covers two entirely different biological hazards simultaneously.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled near food. That is not a paperwork problem. A mislabeled chemical container near a prep surface is a direct route to acute poisoning.
Inspectors also documented that no consumer advisory was posted for raw or undercooked items. A sushi restaurant without that notice leaves customers who are elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised with no warning that what they are ordering carries an elevated risk.
The person in charge was either absent or not performing duties. No written employee health policy existed. Employees were observed using improper handwashing technique. Food contact surfaces had not been properly cleaned or sanitized. Required procedures for specialized processes, which at a sushi operation include raw fish handling and any reduced-oxygen packaging, were not being followed. Inspectors also cited multi-use utensils for failing to meet cleaning standards.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved sources is the violation that makes every other problem harder to fix. When a restaurant sources ingredients outside the licensed supply chain, there is no inspection record, no lot number, and no way to trace an outbreak back to its origin. If a customer became ill after eating at Lemon Grass on or around May 4, investigators would have no starting point.
The undercooking citation compounds that risk directly. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. At a restaurant already receiving food from sources that bypassed federal inspection, serving that food undercooked removes the last safety margin between the supplier and the customer's plate.
The absence of an employee health policy is not a technicality. Without a written policy requiring sick workers to stay home, a single employee with Norovirus can transmit the illness to every plate that leaves the kitchen. Norovirus accounts for roughly 20 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States each year, and improper handwashing is one of its primary transmission routes. Both violations were cited here on the same day.
Improperly stored or unlabeled toxic chemicals near food require no chain of events to cause harm. They require only proximity and a mistake.
The Longer Record
The May 4 inspection was the 51st on record for Lemon Grass Sushi Thai Tapas. Across those 51 inspections, the facility has accumulated 536 total violations. It has been emergency-closed three times.
The most recent closure came on February 24, 2026, when inspectors found rodent and fly activity serious enough to pull the license. The restaurant reopened the following day. Two follow-up inspections on February 25 documented a combined nine high-severity violations and seven intermediate violations across the two visits.
The restaurant was also emergency-closed in December 2020 for roach and rodent activity, and again in August 2020 for rodent activity. Both times it reopened within 24 hours.
The pattern in the high-severity violation counts is consistent and long. The November 2024 inspection produced nine high-severity citations, identical to the May 2026 count. The February 2024 inspection produced nine high-severity citations as well. The November 2025 inspection produced six. There is no inspection in the recent history that shows a sustained reduction.
The May 4 inspection was not a bad day. It was the 51st entry in a record that has looked largely the same for years.
Still Open
State rules allow inspectors to leave a facility operating after a high-severity inspection if violations are corrected on-site or if the specific findings do not meet the threshold for an emergency order. The data does not indicate whether any violations were corrected during the May 4 visit.
What the data does show is that Lemon Grass Sushi Thai Tapas received nine high-severity violations on May 4, 2026, including food from an unknown source, undercooking, and improperly stored toxic chemicals.
It remained open.