MIAMI, FL. A state inspector visiting Mikes at Venetia on NE 15th Street on May 26 found food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, toxic chemicals stored improperly near food preparation areas, and employees neither reporting illness symptoms nor following a written health policy. The restaurant, located on the ninth floor of a building at 555 NE 15 ST, was not closed.
Seven of the nine violations documented that day were classified as high severity. The facility remained open to the public.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooking violation is the most direct threat to anyone who ate there. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Pathogens in ground beef survive below 155 degrees. When food is not brought to required temperatures, those organisms reach the plate alive.
Toxic chemicals stored or labeled improperly near food preparation areas create a separate and unrelated risk. A mislabeled chemical bottle, or one placed near food surfaces, can contaminate a meal without any visible sign. The customer would have no way to know.
The inspector also cited employees for not washing hands adequately and for food contact surfaces that had not been properly cleaned or sanitized. Those two violations together describe a kitchen where contamination can move from one surface to another, and from employee hands to food, without interruption.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and employees not reporting illness symptoms is what state investigators call an outbreak enabler. Without a written policy requiring sick workers to stay home, there is no mechanism to stop a Norovirus-infected employee from handling food. Norovirus causes an estimated 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and a single sick food worker can expose dozens of customers in a single shift.
The absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods compounds the undercooking violation. Elderly diners, pregnant women, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system face elevated risk from undercooked proteins. A consumer advisory does not eliminate that risk, but it allows those customers to make an informed choice. Without one, they cannot.
The intermediate violation for improper sewage or wastewater disposal is not a paperwork issue. Raw sewage contains fecal bacteria including E. coli and Salmonella. Improper disposal means those pathogens have a pathway into a facility where food is being prepared.
Taken together, the seven high-severity violations documented on May 26 describe a kitchen with simultaneous failures in cooking, sanitation, chemical storage, employee health, and waste management. None of them were minor.
The Longer Record
The May 26 inspection was not an outlier. State records show Mikes at Venetia has been inspected 25 times and has accumulated 366 total violations across that history. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
The most recent prior inspection, conducted just eleven days earlier on May 15, produced 11 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate violations, the worst single-inspection tally in the recent record. The May 26 visit, with 7 high-severity violations, was the follow-up to that.
Mikes at Venetia: Recent Inspection Pattern
The September 24, 2025 inspection produced exactly the same violation count as May 26: 7 high severity, 2 intermediate. The facility was not closed then either. In the eight months between that September visit and the May 2026 pair of inspections, the restaurant was cited in five separate inspections, each producing multiple high-severity violations.
Only two inspections in the recent record produced low violation counts: October 3, 2025, with 2 high and 1 intermediate, and April 29, 2025, with 2 high and 1 intermediate. Those results sit between stretches of significantly higher violation tallies, suggesting brief corrections that did not hold.
The facility has 366 violations on record across 25 inspections. It has never been emergency-closed. After an inspection eleven days ago that produced the highest recent violation count on record, a follow-up visit found 7 more high-severity violations. Mikes at Venetia remained open.