HALLANDALE BEACH, FL. State inspectors visiting Lychee Garden at 20 N Federal Highway on August 31, 2026 documented that the restaurant had not followed parasite destruction procedures for fish and other proteins, a failure that can leave live parasites including Anisakis and tapeworm in food served to customers.
That was one of seven high-severity violations cited that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The seven violations covered nearly every major category of food safety failure. Inspectors cited undercooking, finding that food had not been brought to required minimum temperatures. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and undercooking is among the most direct causes of foodborne illness outbreaks.
Food contact surfaces, including cutting boards and prep equipment, were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Those surfaces are a primary transfer point for bacteria moving from raw protein to ready-to-eat food.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled near food. Mislabeled or misplaced chemicals are a documented cause of acute poisoning when they contaminate food or are mistaken for food-safe products.
Inspectors also found that employees were using improper handwashing technique. Flawed technique, even when a handwashing attempt is made, leaves pathogens on hands that are then transferred directly to food.
The restaurant had no written employee health policy, meaning there was no formal system requiring sick workers to stay out of the kitchen. And there was no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked menu items, leaving customers with no notice that certain dishes carry elevated risk.
What These Violations Mean
The parasite destruction failure is the violation that most directly endangered anyone who ordered fish at Lychee Garden that day. Proper parasite destruction requires fish intended to be served raw or undercooked to be frozen at specific temperatures for specific durations. Without that step, parasites including Anisakis, which can burrow into the stomach lining, and tapeworm remain viable in the finished dish.
The undercooking violation compounds that risk. A kitchen that is not meeting minimum cooking temperatures for one protein category may be missing them across the menu. Combined with food contact surfaces that were not properly sanitized, the conditions create multiple overlapping routes for pathogens to reach a customer's plate.
The absence of an employee health policy is a structural failure, not a one-day lapse. Without a written policy, there is no mechanism to keep a worker with Norovirus or Salmonella out of food preparation. Norovirus alone accounts for roughly 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and direct transmission from an infected food handler is one of its most common vectors.
The chemical storage violation adds a separate and acute risk. Cleaning chemicals stored near or above food preparation areas can contaminate food directly. Unlabeled containers create the possibility that a chemical is used in place of a food-safe product. These are not low-probability scenarios; they are the circumstances that precede poisoning incidents documented in state records nationwide.
The Longer Record
The August 31 inspection was not an outlier. State records show Lychee Garden has been inspected 25 times, accumulating 140 total violations across that history.
High-severity violations have appeared in nearly every recent inspection cycle. Inspectors found five high-severity violations in August 2023, four in August 2025, three in February 2025, and two each in October 2024, April 2024, and January 2026. The seven cited on August 31, 2026 are the highest single-visit count in the recent record.
The pattern is not one of a restaurant that slipped during a difficult period. It is a record of persistent high-severity findings across multiple years, with the counts fluctuating but never reaching zero.
Lychee Garden has never been emergency-closed in its 25 inspections on record.
Open for Business
State inspectors have the authority to order an emergency closure when conditions pose an immediate threat to public health. Seven high-severity violations in a single visit, covering undercooking, parasite survival, chemical contamination, cross-contamination, and disease transmission, did not meet that threshold at Lychee Garden on August 31.
The restaurant served customers that day, and the day after.
State records show the last time the restaurant had zero high-severity violations in a routine inspection was August 2023, a visit that itself was followed three days later by a five-high-violation inspection on August 28 of that year.
As of the August 31, 2026 inspection, Lychee Garden remained open with no emergency closure on record.
