BOCA RATON, FL. A state inspector walked into Mi Casita Mexican Restaurant at 499 NE Spanish River Blvd on July 15 and found food that had not been cooked to the required minimum temperature, six total high-severity violations, and no written policy requiring sick employees to report their illness before handling food. The restaurant was not closed.
The inspection documented nine violations in total, six of them high-severity. That tally puts the July 15 visit among the worst single inspections in the restaurant's recorded history, which stretches back across 35 inspections and 135 total violations.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooked food violation is the most direct threat to anyone who ate there that day. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and inspectors cited the restaurant for failing to bring food to that threshold.
Layered on top of that: inspectors found that employees were not reporting symptoms of illness, and that the restaurant had no written health policy in place to require them to do so. Those two violations compound each other in a specific way.
The inspector also cited improper hand and arm washing technique, meaning that even when employees attempted to wash their hands, they were not doing it correctly. Inadequate toilet facilities were documented as an intermediate violation, which matters here because the handwashing failure and restroom infrastructure failure together create a direct route from employee to food.
Inspectors additionally found inadequate shell stock identification records. Mi Casita serves shellfish, which are consumed raw or lightly cooked. Without proper records, there is no way to trace a contaminated batch back to its source if customers become sick.
The restaurant also lacked a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, meaning customers ordering dishes that carry inherent risk had no way to know it.
Improper sewage or wastewater disposal rounded out the intermediate violations. The record does not specify where the sewage issue was located within the facility.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no illness reporting policy and employees not actually reporting symptoms is how multi-victim outbreaks start. Norovirus, which spreads person-to-person through fecal-oral contact, can move from a single sick food worker to dozens of customers within a single shift. A written health policy is the mechanism that gives a sick employee both the instruction and the protection to stay home. Without it, there is no formal barrier between an ill worker and the food they prepare.
The undercooked food violation compounds that risk. Salmonella, the pathogen most associated with undercooked poultry, can cause severe gastrointestinal illness, hospitalization, and in vulnerable populations, death. Finding this violation alongside a handwashing technique failure means two of the most critical kill steps in food safety, heat and hygiene, were both compromised on the same day.
The shellfish traceability failure is a separate category of danger. Oysters, clams, and mussels are filter feeders that concentrate bacteria and viruses from the water they inhabit. When a restaurant cannot produce shell stock identification records, health investigators have no way to identify the harvest location or supplier if customers report illness. The trail goes cold before it starts.
Improper sewage disposal in a food service facility carries a specific implication: raw sewage contains E. coli, Hepatitis A, and a range of other pathogens. If wastewater is not properly contained and routed, it can reach food contact surfaces, prep areas, or the hands of employees who then handle food.
The Longer Record
The July 15 inspection did not come out of nowhere. Mi Casita has 35 inspections on record and 135 total violations documented across that history. It has never been emergency-closed.
The inspection record from the past 18 months shows a facility that oscillates between clean visits and serious ones. The restaurant passed inspections with zero high-severity violations in March 2026 and January 2026, but just two days before that clean January visit, on January 23, inspectors found seven high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. That January 23 inspection is the only one in the recent record that rivals July 15 in severity.
The pattern is consistent enough to name: the restaurant clears a follow-up inspection, returns to compliance on paper, then accumulates serious violations again. The January 2026 sequence repeated almost exactly in July 2026. A high-violation inspection on July 15 was followed by a single high-severity violation on the July 16 callback, suggesting the most urgent items were addressed within 24 hours.
What the record does not show is any emergency closure across 35 inspections, including the January visit with seven high-severity violations and the July visit with six.
The Pattern
The July 16 follow-up found one remaining high-severity violation. The restaurant stayed open through the original inspection and through the callback.
Customers who ate at Mi Casita on July 15 did so while inspectors had documented undercooked food, no illness reporting system, improper handwashing, shellfish with no traceable origin, and sewage disposal problems. They were not told. There was no consumer advisory on the menu, and the restaurant did not close.
The state's records show the violations. The restaurant remained open.
