RIVERVIEW, FL. Back in April 2026, state inspectors walked into Little Habana on Lincoln Road and found toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled near food, no manager present or performing duties, and food contact surfaces that had not been properly cleaned or sanitized. They cited seven high-severity violations. They did not close the restaurant.
Not one of the seven violations fell below the highest severity threshold the state uses.
What Inspectors Found
The two chemical violations are worth reading together. Inspectors cited both improper storage or labeling of toxic chemicals and a separate violation for toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. That is not a single careless oversight. That is a kitchen where chemicals were neither correctly marked nor correctly kept away from food preparation areas, creating a direct route for chemical contamination of food before it reached a customer's plate.
The food contact surface violation compounds that picture. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and any equipment that touches food directly are the primary vehicle for transferring bacteria from one food to another. When those surfaces are not properly cleaned and sanitized, every meal prepared on them carries whatever was left behind from the last one.
The handwashing findings made things worse. Inspectors cited both the physical infrastructure, the sinks, soap, and supplies needed to wash hands properly, and the technique employees were using. A facility can have functioning sinks and still leave pathogens on hands if the washing method is wrong. Here, inspectors found both problems at once.
No person in charge was present or performing duties. That single violation, according to CDC data cited in the inspection record, correlates with three times as many critical violations at a facility. It is also the condition that makes every other violation on this list more likely to persist.
What These Violations Mean
The chemical storage violations are the kind that can cause acute harm without any warning. When cleaning agents or sanitizers are stored near food or mislabeled, a cook reaching for one product can grab another. The result is chemical contamination of food that a customer cannot detect by smell, taste, or appearance. The risk is not theoretical. It is a direct function of proximity and mislabeling.
The handwashing violations, taken together, describe a facility where proper hand hygiene was not achievable. Without adequate infrastructure, employees physically cannot wash their hands correctly between tasks. Without correct technique, even an attempt at handwashing leaves bacteria on skin. Any employee who handled raw protein and then touched ready-to-eat food carried whatever was on their hands directly to the customer.
The absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods is a specific danger for a specific population. Elderly diners, pregnant women, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system rely on that disclosure to make an informed choice about what they order. Without it, they have no way of knowing a dish poses elevated risk.
No manager present means no one was watching any of it.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection was not an anomaly. Little Habana has 22 inspections on record and 155 total violations documented across that history. The pattern in the prior inspection data is consistent and specific.
In October 2023, inspectors found nine high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. In September 2022, another nine high-severity violations, four intermediate. In February 2024, seven high-severity violations, zero intermediate, which is an exact match for the violation count in April 2026. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The most recent inspections before April showed some lower counts: two high violations in December 2025, one high in May 2025. The April 2026 inspection reversed that trajectory sharply, returning to the seven-violation high-severity totals that have appeared multiple times in the record going back to 2022.
What the history shows is not a restaurant that had one bad day. It shows a facility that has been cited for serious violations across at least eight of the inspections on record, never closed, and returned in April 2026 with the same total violation count it logged in February 2024.
Still Open
State inspectors classified all seven violations as high-severity. None were intermediate. None were basic.
The inspection record notes no emergency closure order. Little Habana remained open to customers on April 17, 2026, with toxic chemicals improperly stored near food, no manager on duty, unsanitary food contact surfaces, and handwashing infrastructure and technique both failing at the same time.
That is the documented record.