HOLLYWOOD, FL. A state inspection of Mamacita's Mexican Bar & Grill at 591 N Broadwalk on May 5 found that the restaurant was serving food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, meaning inspectors had no way to verify whether that food had ever passed a federal safety check.
The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The May 5 inspection produced 10 high-severity violations and one intermediate, a total of 11 citations in a single visit. The violations ran across nearly every layer of food safety: sourcing, cooking, sanitation, handwashing, chemical storage, and management oversight.
The unapproved food sourcing citation was not the only one threatening customers before a meal even reached the table. Inspectors also cited the restaurant for failing to cook food to required minimum temperatures. Undercooking is one of the most direct routes for Salmonella in poultry and other pathogens to survive onto a plate.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled near food areas. That violation carries an acute poisoning risk distinct from the biological hazards elsewhere on the report: a mislabeled or misplaced chemical can contaminate food without any visible sign.
The restaurant was also cited for inadequate shell stock identification records. Mamacita's is a Mexican bar and grill on the Hollywood Broadwalk, a high-traffic tourist corridor. If shellfish served there made someone sick, inspectors would have no supplier records to trace it back to the source.
Handwashing failures appeared twice in the same inspection, once for inadequate facilities and once for improper technique. An employee was also cited for not reporting illness symptoms. That combination, a worker who may be sick, washing hands incorrectly, at a sink that doesn't meet standards, is the kind of layered failure that state health officials say enables multi-victim outbreaks.
The person in charge was either absent or not performing required supervisory duties. State data consistently links that finding to higher rates of critical violations across a facility.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved sources is not a paperwork problem. When a restaurant buys food outside the regulated supply chain, that product has bypassed USDA and FDA inspection entirely. If it harbors Listeria, Salmonella, or E. coli, there is no audit trail to identify where it came from or who else received it. At a beachside restaurant serving tourists who may be elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised, that gap is acute.
The shellfish traceability violation compounds that risk specifically. Oysters, clams, and mussels are often consumed raw or barely cooked, and they filter large volumes of water, concentrating whatever pathogens that water contains. Florida requires restaurants to keep shellfish tags on file precisely so that, if a customer gets sick, the lot can be identified and recalled. Without those records, that chain breaks entirely.
The undercooking violation sits alongside those sourcing failures. Poultry not brought to 165 degrees Fahrenheit can carry live Salmonella to the plate. That is not a marginal risk at slightly lower temperatures. It is a documented, consistent cause of foodborne illness outbreaks nationwide.
The handwashing failures matter because they are infrastructure, not attitude. Improper technique leaves pathogens on hands even when an employee is trying to wash them off. Inadequate facilities mean proper technique is impossible regardless of intent. When an employee who has not reported illness symptoms is working in that environment, the transmission risk is direct and immediate.
The Longer Record
The May 5 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Mamacita's has been inspected 34 times and has accumulated 269 total violations across that history.
The October 2025 inspection produced eight high-severity and three intermediate violations. The August 2023 visit produced seven high-severity and two intermediate. The February 2026 inspection, three months before this one, produced three high-severity citations. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern is not a facility occasionally slipping and correcting course. High-severity violation counts of seven, eight, and now ten appear across multiple years, interspersed with clean inspections that suggest the problems are correctable but not corrected in any lasting way.
The May 6 follow-up inspection, the day after the 10-violation visit, showed zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. That result is consistent with the historical pattern: a bad inspection, a rapid cleanup for the follow-up, and then a return to serious citations months later.
Still Open
State inspectors documented 10 high-severity violations at a restaurant sitting on one of Broward County's most visited tourist stretches on a Tuesday in early May, the beginning of the busy season on the Hollywood Broadwalk.
The restaurant served customers that day.