MIAMI, FL. A state inspector walked into Midorie 79 on NE 79th Street on October 8, 2026, and found that the restaurant was not following parasite destruction procedures for its fish, a failure that means customers eating raw or undercooked seafood there had no guarantee that the food had been treated to kill Anisakis worms or tapeworm larvae. The restaurant was not closed.
That finding was one of six high-severity violations documented during the visit, a tally that also included employees not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, toxic chemicals stored or labeled incorrectly, and no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. A seventh violation, classified as intermediate, cited inadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilities.
What Inspectors Found
The parasite destruction failure and the illness-reporting violation together represent a compounding risk at a restaurant that serves raw fish. Parasite destruction requires fish to be frozen to specific temperatures for specific durations before it can be served raw or undercooked. Without that step, a customer eating sushi or sashimi has no protection against parasites that survive in untreated seafood.
The employee illness violation adds a separate layer. State rules require food workers to report symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea, and jaundice to a person in charge before handling food. The inspection record does not specify how many employees were affected or what symptoms were present, only that the reporting requirement was not being met.
The improperly stored or labeled toxic chemicals violation rounds out a picture of a kitchen where basic safety protocols, from how food is treated before service to how cleaning products are kept away from food, were not in place on the day inspectors arrived.
What These Violations Mean
Parasite destruction is not optional at a restaurant serving raw fish. Florida requires that fish intended for raw consumption be frozen at minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit for seven days, or at minus 31 degrees for 15 hours, before it reaches a plate. When a restaurant skips or improperly executes that step, parasites including Anisakis, which can embed in the stomach lining and cause severe abdominal pain, survive into the finished dish. Customers who ate raw fish at Midorie 79 before or around the October 8 inspection had no documented assurance that this step had been completed.
The consumer advisory violation compounds that risk. A posted advisory alerts diners, particularly pregnant women, elderly customers, and people with weakened immune systems, that raw or undercooked items carry inherent health risks. Without it, those customers have no information on which to base their choices.
Improper handwashing is, according to state health officials, the single most significant factor in spreading foodborne illness from food workers to customers. The illness-reporting failure makes that worse: a sick employee who does not report symptoms and does not wash hands properly is the most direct route for norovirus, salmonella, and hepatitis A to move from a kitchen to a dining room. Both violations were cited at Midorie 79 on the same inspection.
Improperly stored or labeled chemicals near food create a separate category of risk, acute chemical poisoning, that is distinct from bacterial or parasitic illness. A mislabeled bottle or a chemical stored above a food prep surface can contaminate food in ways that are difficult to detect and fast-acting.
The Longer Record
The October 2026 inspection was the sixteenth on record for Midorie 79. Across those sixteen visits, state inspectors have documented 80 total violations. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern in the prior inspection history is consistent. The March 2026 inspection, seven months before this one, produced 10 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate violations, the worst single inspection in the facility's recorded history. Before that, the October 2025 visit found 4 high-severity violations, and the May 2025 visit found 6 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate violations. Going back further, the January 2022 inspection found 6 high-severity violations and 1 intermediate violation, numbers nearly identical to the most recent visit.
This is not a restaurant that had a bad day in October 2026. High-severity violations have appeared in every inspection on record going back to at least 2022. The specific categories shift slightly from visit to visit, but the severity level does not.
The March 2026 inspection, which produced 14 total violations including 10 at the high-severity level, did not result in a closure. Neither did the October 2026 inspection, which produced 7 violations including 6 at the high-severity level.
Still Open
State inspectors documented six high-severity violations at Midorie 79 on October 8, 2026. Among them: fish served raw without confirmed parasite destruction, employees not reporting illness, food contact surfaces not properly sanitized, and chemicals improperly stored near food.
The restaurant remained open.
