MIAMI, FL. Los Roques Gourmet and Grill on NW 58th Street drew 11 high-severity violations during the week of September 25, including food from an unapproved or unknown source, failure to follow parasite destruction procedures, and inadequate handwashing, making it one of the most cited facilities in Miami-Dade County that week.
The unapproved food source citation is the kind inspectors take seriously. If someone gets sick, there is no supply chain to trace.
The Violations
Totoritas Restaurant on NW 36th Street matched Los Roques with 11 high-severity violations. The list included no person in charge present or performing duties, no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing, and food not cooked to required minimum temperature.
Totoritas also drew an inadequate shell stock identification citation. That means shellfish, which are often consumed raw or lightly cooked, could not be traced to a certified harvest location if a customer became ill.
La Brasa Kendall on SW 72nd Street came in with 9 high-severity and 6 intermediate violations. Inspectors cited the restaurant for having no allergen awareness demonstrated, a violation that affects the 32 million Americans with diagnosed food allergies and contributes to roughly 30,000 emergency room visits each year.
La Brasa Kendall was also cited for no employee health policy and for employees not reporting illness symptoms, two violations that together mean the kitchen had no formal system to keep sick workers away from food.
Flora Plant Kitchen on NE 4th Court drew 10 high-severity violations, including food from an unapproved source and food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated. It is a plant-based concept, and the unapproved source citation raises the same traceability problem it does anywhere else: if a customer gets sick, the supply chain cannot be reconstructed.
Dunkin Donuts on Biscayne Boulevard also accumulated 10 high-severity violations. That list included food from an unapproved source, inadequate shell stock identification, parasite destruction procedures not followed, and food not cooked to required minimum temperature. The shell stock citation is particularly notable at a donut chain, suggesting shellfish on the menu that inspectors found no proper traceability records for.
Cote Korean Steak House on NE 2nd Avenue drew 9 high-severity violations, including no person in charge, no employee health policy, and food not cooked to required minimum temperature. At a Korean steakhouse where tableside cooking is part of the concept, a minimum cooking temperature citation carries added weight.
Ohana Sushi and Fusion on SW 127th Avenue also accumulated 9 high-severity violations. Inspectors cited the restaurant for food in poor condition, inadequate shell stock identification, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. At a sushi operation, the absence of a consumer advisory for raw fish means customers with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, and the elderly received no warning about the elevated risk.
Caribe Restaurant on NW 27th Avenue drew 8 high-severity violations with no intermediate violations at all, meaning every citation inspectors wrote that day was at the most serious level. The violations included no person in charge, no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, and inadequate handwashing.
Novotel Miami Brickell on SW 1st Avenue drew 7 high-severity violations, including food not cooked to required minimum temperature and inadequate shell stock identification. The hotel's kitchen was also cited for employees not reporting illness symptoms and inadequate handwashing.
Cerro Negro Restaurant on West Flagler Street accumulated 6 high-severity violations, including two separate chemical storage citations, toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. That double chemical citation means inspectors found more than one category of chemical handling failure in the same kitchen.
Luis Galindo Latin American 2 on SW 24th Street drew 5 high-severity violations including improper hand and arm washing technique, parasite destruction procedures not followed, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled.
FreshCo Fish Market on SW 122nd Avenue drew 5 high-severity violations including food in poor condition and two chemical storage citations, plus an intermediate violation for improper sewage or wastewater disposal. At a fish market, a sewage disposal failure is a direct contamination risk to the product being sold.
Fuddruckers on NW 19th Street drew 4 high-severity violations including two chemical storage failures and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
Mi Tierra Bar and Kitchen on SW 56th Street drew 3 high-severity violations including food not cooked to required minimum temperature and improperly cleaned food contact surfaces.
What These Violations Mean
The most repeated violation across this week's inspections was improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, cited at Los Roques, Totoritas, La Brasa Kendall, Caribe, Novotel, Flora Plant Kitchen, Dunkin Donuts, Cote Korean Steak House, Ohana Sushi, FreshCo Fish Market, and Mi Tierra. Cutting boards, prep tables, and slicers that are not properly cleaned between uses transfer bacteria directly from one food to the next. A surface used to break down raw poultry and then used for ready-to-eat vegetables without sanitizing in between is a textbook pathway for a Salmonella or E. coli outbreak.
The handwashing cluster is equally striking. Inadequate handwashing was cited at Los Roques, Caribe, Novotel, and Totoritas. Improper technique, which is a separate violation meaning workers washed their hands but did so incorrectly, was cited at Luis Galindo, La Brasa Kendall, Los Roques, Totoritas, Novotel, Flora Plant Kitchen, Dunkin Donuts, Cote Korean Steak House, Ohana Sushi, and Fuddruckers. Together, those two violations appeared at more than two-thirds of the facilities cited this week.
The illness-reporting failures at La Brasa Kendall, Caribe, Totoritas, Cote Korean Steak House, Novotel, Flora Plant Kitchen, and Ohana Sushi represent a direct outbreak risk. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses per year in the United States, spreads primarily through infected food workers. A restaurant with no written health policy and no expectation that workers report symptoms has no mechanism to pull a sick employee off the line before customers are exposed.
Food from unapproved sources at Los Roques, Flora Plant Kitchen, and Dunkin Donuts means that food entered those kitchens without passing through USDA or FDA inspected supply chains. If a customer becomes ill and public health investigators need to trace the source, there is no paperwork to follow.
The Longer Record
Cerro Negro Restaurant on West Flagler Street has 38 prior inspections on record, the longest history of any facility cited this week. That is a substantial body of contact with state inspectors, and this week's visit still produced 6 high-severity violations including dual chemical storage failures.
Fuddruckers on NW 19th Street has 37 prior inspections on record. Luis Galindo Latin American 2 has 33. Totoritas has 34. These are not new restaurants working through early compliance issues. They are established operations that have been inspected dozens of times and were still accumulating serious violations during the week of September 25.
Flora Plant Kitchen on NE 4th Court is the newest entrant in this week's data, with only 7 prior inspections on record. It drew 10 high-severity violations, including food from an unapproved source and food in poor condition. A facility on its seventh inspection has had limited opportunity to establish a track record, but 10 high-severity violations this early in a facility's history is a pattern that tends to either correct quickly or compound.
Cote Korean Steak House has 11 prior inspections on record and drew 9 high-severity violations, including no person in charge and no employee health policy. Ohana Sushi and Fusion has 13 prior inspections on record and drew 9 high-severity violations. Neither restaurant is new, and both are already accumulating serious management-level failures.
The Longer Pattern
Four facilities this week, Totoritas, Caribe, Cote Korean Steak House, and Ohana Sushi, were each cited for no person in charge present or performing duties. CDC data links that specific failure to three times as many critical violations at any given inspection. All four of those facilities also drew violations in multiple other high-severity categories during the same visit, which is consistent with what happens when no one in the kitchen is actively enforcing food safety standards.
Los Roques Gourmet and Grill drew citations in 11 distinct high-severity categories, including food from an unapproved source, food in poor condition, and failure to follow parasite destruction procedures, all in a single inspection. The restaurant has 30 prior inspections on its record.
