KEY BISCAYNE, FL. A state inspector walked into Milanezza on Crandon Boulevard on May 4 and found food sourced from suppliers that have never been vetted by federal food safety regulators, a violation that means no one can trace where that food came from or what it may have carried.
That was one of nine high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector also cited employees for not reporting illness symptoms, a separate high-severity violation. That finding means workers who may have been sick were handling food without triggering any internal reporting system that would have pulled them off the line.
Handwashing failures appeared twice in the same inspection report. The facility lacked adequate handwashing infrastructure, and separately, employees who did attempt to wash their hands were doing it incorrectly. Both violations were flagged at the high-severity level.
The shellfish records violation adds another layer of concern. Milanezza serves seafood, and without proper shell stock identification tags and records, there is no way to trace oysters, clams, or mussels back to their harvest site if a customer gets sick.
Inspectors also found that food contact surfaces, the cutting boards, prep tables, and utensils that touch food directly, were not being properly cleaned and sanitized. Toxic chemicals were stored or labeled improperly, placing them in proximity to food. And the restaurant was not using time as a public health control correctly, meaning food was allowed to sit in the temperature danger zone longer than regulations permit without being discarded.
There was no consumer advisory posted to warn diners that raw or undercooked items were on the menu.
What These Violations Mean
The food sourcing violation is the one that regulators treat as a baseline safety guarantee. USDA and FDA inspections exist to screen for Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli before food reaches a kitchen. When a restaurant bypasses approved suppliers, those screenings never happen. If a customer gets sick, investigators have no chain of custody to follow.
The illness-reporting failure compounds every other violation in the report. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness outbreaks tied to restaurants, spreads primarily through infected food handlers. A worker who is symptomatic and not required to report it can contaminate food, surfaces, and other employees before anyone knows there is a problem.
The double handwashing failure, inadequate facilities and improper technique, means that even when employees tried to wash their hands, the attempt was not effective. Studies have consistently shown that handwashing is the single most reliable barrier against pathogen transfer in a kitchen. At Milanezza on May 4, that barrier was broken at both the infrastructure and the technique level simultaneously.
The missing consumer advisory matters most to the most vulnerable diners. Elderly customers, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems face acute risk from raw or undercooked shellfish and meat. Without a posted advisory, those customers cannot make an informed choice about what they order.
The Longer Record
The May 4 inspection was not an aberration. State records show Milanezza has been inspected 32 times and has accumulated 333 total violations across that history, with no emergency closures on record.
The two most recent inspections before May 4 tell the same story. On March 11, inspectors found 10 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations. On March 26, they returned and found 5 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations. The facility has not been closed after any of these visits.
Go back further and the pattern holds. On July 16, 2025, inspectors documented 11 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations. The following day, July 17, a follow-up inspection still found 7 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations. Four months later, in October 2024, there were 5 more high-severity violations.
The facility has never triggered an emergency closure in its 32 inspections on record. The May 4 report, with 9 high-severity violations including food from unapproved sources and employees not reporting illness, left Milanezza open for business.