MIAMI, FL. Las Tejas Restaurant on SW 26th Street drew 15 high-severity violations in a single inspection this week, the highest count among 15 Miami-Dade facilities cited during the week of September 18 through September 24, including citations for food from unapproved sources, no employee illness policy, no illness reporting by staff, and inadequate shellfish traceability records.
That combination, management absent or not performing duties, employees not reporting symptoms, and food arriving from sources that bypassed federal inspection, represents the kind of layered failure that state health officials associate with the highest outbreak risk.
What Inspectors Found
Rio Grande Churrascaria at 11995 SW 26th Street, less than a block from Las Tejas, drew 11 high-severity violations of its own. Inspectors cited the churrascaria for food from unapproved sources, no illness policy, employees not reporting symptoms, inadequate handwashing, improper handwashing technique, inadequate shellfish records, and food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized.
Two major restaurants on the same stretch of SW 26th Street, cited the same week for nearly identical systemic failures, is a pattern the records make plain.
Mitricolor at 13740 SW 152nd Street also drew 11 high-severity violations. Inspectors there found that parasite destruction procedures were not followed, that food was not cooked to required minimum temperatures, and that time as a public health control was not properly used. Those three violations together describe a kitchen where fish or meat could reach a customer with live parasites or bacterial loads high enough to cause illness.
China Lee Restaurant at 559 SW 8th Street matched that count with 11 high-severity citations. The inspection there documented food contaminated by chemical, physical, or biological hazards, food from unapproved sources, inadequate handwashing facilities, and food not cooked to required minimum temperatures.
Manta Restaurant at 102 NW 25th Street drew 10 high-severity violations. The inspector found no person in charge present or performing duties, no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing facilities, food not cooked to minimum temperatures, and no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked items.
No consumer advisory is a violation that recurred across this week's inspections with striking frequency.
China Buffet at 1032 SW 67th Avenue, Whisk Gourmet Food and Catering at 7382 SW 56th Avenue, Burger King at 7975 NW 27th Avenue, Don Criollito at 12039 SW 132nd Court, and Shahs of Kabob at 48 SW 12th Street each drew nine high-severity violations.
Burger King's nine citations included parasite destruction procedures not followed, food from unapproved sources, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled. For a national chain with corporate food safety protocols, those violations stand out against what the franchise model is supposed to prevent.
Don Criollito's nine citations included food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated, alongside parasite destruction failures and toxic chemical storage violations. Whisk Gourmet, a catering operation, was cited for inadequate handwashing facilities and food from unapproved sources, a combination that creates compounded risk for off-site events where no follow-up inspection is possible.
Dunkin Donuts at 9545 NE 2nd Avenue drew eight high-severity violations including no allergen awareness demonstrated, food not cooked to minimum temperatures, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. A coffee-and-pastry chain with an allergen awareness failure is a specific hazard for the 32 million Americans with food allergies.
Casa Nane at 1130 SW 2nd Avenue and Rinconcito Paisa 1 Restaurant at 15108 SW 72nd Street each drew eight high-severity violations. Both were cited for food not cooked to minimum temperatures, time as a public health control not properly used, and toxic chemical storage failures.
Sushi Sake at 14627 SW 42nd Street drew three high-severity violations, the lowest count in this week's group, but two of them were direct consumer hazards: no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods at a restaurant that serves raw fish, and no allergen awareness demonstrated.
El Meson del Paraiso Restaurant at 12820 SW 120th Street drew two high-severity violations, for inadequate handwashing by food employees and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used.
What These Violations Mean
The most common high-severity violation across this week's 15 facilities was the cluster around employee illness: no written health policy, no illness reporting by staff, and no active manager to enforce either. Las Tejas, Rio Grande Churrascaria, Mitricolor, Manta, China Buffet, Whisk Gourmet, Don Criollito, and Casa Nane were all cited for one or more of those three violations. When a food worker with Norovirus has no policy requiring them to report symptoms, and no manager present to notice, every customer served that shift is a potential victim. Norovirus spreads with as few as 18 viral particles, and an infected worker can contaminate hundreds of portions before a single customer reports illness.
Food from unapproved sources, cited at Las Tejas, Rio Grande Churrascaria, China Lee, Whisk Gourmet, Burger King, Don Criollito, Shahs of Kabob, and Rinconcito Paisa, means the supply chain for that food cannot be traced. If someone gets sick, public health investigators have no harvest location, no processing facility, no distribution record to chase. That traceability gap is precisely why the federal inspection system exists, and bypassing it removes the single most important tool for stopping an outbreak once it starts.
Parasite destruction failures at Mitricolor, Burger King, and Don Criollito describe a specific biological hazard. Fish served without proper freezing or cooking can carry Anisakis larvae. Pork without verified treatment can carry Trichinella. These are not hypothetical risks. They are the documented reason that freezing protocols were written into federal food code in the first place.
Toxic chemical storage violations appeared at Whisk Gourmet, Burger King, Don Criollito, Shahs of Kabob, Casa Nane, Dunkin Donuts, and Rinconcito Paisa. Cleaners and sanitizers stored near or above food preparation surfaces can contaminate food directly. Mislabeled chemical containers create acute poisoning risk when staff mistake them for food-safe products.
The Longer Record
Rio Grande Churrascaria has 33 prior inspections on record, the most of any facility in this week's group. Eleven high-severity violations at a restaurant with that many inspection visits is not a new operation finding its footing. China Buffet has 32 prior inspections. Don Criollito and Sushi Sake each have 29. El Meson del Paraiso and Rinconcito Paisa each have 28. China Lee has 27.
Mitricolor's 26 prior inspections and this week's parasite destruction failure and minimum cooking temperature citation raise a specific question the records cannot answer: whether those violations are new findings or recurring ones.
Las Tejas, the week's highest violator with 15 high-severity citations, has 23 prior inspections. That is not a short history. A facility with more than two dozen inspection visits and a single-week citation count of 15 high-severity violations is not an outlier encountering a bad week. It is a facility the inspection record has been watching for some time.
Casa Nane stands apart in the opposite direction. With only seven prior inspections on record, it is one of the newest facilities in this group, and it drew eight high-severity violations in a single visit. That is a steep start. Manta Restaurant, with 17 prior inspections, and Dunkin Donuts at that location, also with 17, both drew nine and eight high-severity violations respectively, suggesting the problems at those addresses are not self-correcting.
Burger King at 7975 NW 27th Avenue has 20 prior inspections. The franchise model is built around standardized procedures that are supposed to make food from unapproved sources and parasite destruction failures structurally impossible. Whether those nine high-severity violations were addressed before the week ended is not reflected in the data available.
