WESTON, FL. Inspectors who visited Moon Thai & Japanese on Weston Road on August 31 found that the restaurant was not following required parasite destruction procedures for raw fish, serving customers sushi and other raw seafood without the freezing or cooking protocols designed to kill Anisakis, tapeworm, and other parasites that survive in undercooked fish.
That was one of 12 high-severity violations documented in a single visit. The restaurant remained open.
What Inspectors Found
The inspector also found no person in charge present or performing supervisory duties at the time of the visit. That absence matters: state data consistently shows that restaurants without active managerial oversight during operating hours accumulate critical violations at roughly three times the rate of managed facilities.
The employee health violations compounded the picture. Inspectors cited the restaurant for having no written employee health policy, and separately for employees not reporting illness symptoms. Those are three distinct, stacked failures in the chain that is supposed to keep a sick worker away from food preparation.
Inspectors also found improper handwashing technique and inadequate handwashing facilities, meaning the infrastructure for basic hygiene was both insufficient and being used incorrectly. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and required procedures for specialized food processes were not being followed.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled near food areas. A separate citation covered the absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, the notice that is legally required to be posted so that elderly diners, pregnant women, and immunocompromised customers can make an informed choice about what they order.
Three intermediate violations rounded out the inspection: single-use items being reused, inadequate ventilation and lighting, and improperly maintained toilet facilities.
What These Violations Mean
The parasite destruction citation is the most direct physical risk to anyone who ordered raw fish at Moon Thai and Japanese. Sushi-grade fish must be frozen to specific temperatures for specific time periods before being served raw, a process that kills Anisakis and other parasites that are invisible to the naked eye and survive light cooking. When that protocol is not documented or not followed, the fish on the plate carries whatever the fish carried in the water.
The food-from-unapproved-sources citation adds a second layer of risk. Food that enters a restaurant through unregulated channels has not been inspected by federal food safety agencies. If a contamination event occurs, there is no supply chain to trace, no lot number to pull, no distributor to contact. The shellfish traceability failure is the same problem applied specifically to oysters, clams, and mussels, which are frequently consumed raw and are a documented vehicle for Norovirus and Vibrio outbreaks. Without shell stock tags on record, there is no way to identify where the shellfish came from if a customer gets sick.
The employee illness cluster is separately alarming. Norovirus, which causes an estimated 20 million infections in the United States each year, is transmitted directly through food handled by infected workers. A written health policy is the mechanism that requires workers to disclose symptoms and stay out of the kitchen. Without the policy, without a reporting requirement, and without a manager present to enforce either, a symptomatic employee has no formal barrier between themselves and the food they are preparing.
The absence of a consumer advisory means that customers who are most vulnerable to raw-food illness, including those who are pregnant, elderly, or managing conditions that suppress immune response, had no posted notice that the food they were ordering carried elevated risk.
The Longer Record
The August 31 inspection was not an aberration. Moon Thai and Japanese has 34 inspections on record and 290 total violations across that history. The two most recent inspections before August 31 each produced high-severity violation counts in the same range: 9 high-severity violations in February 2026 and 7 in October 2025. The March 2025 inspection logged 10 high-severity violations.
The restaurant has been emergency-closed twice. In August 2019, inspectors shut it down for fly activity; it reopened the following day. In April 2015, roach activity prompted a second emergency closure, also resolved within 24 hours.
The pattern across the inspection record is consistent: the restaurant cycles between inspections with zero high-severity violations, as in February and August 2023, and inspections that produce seven, nine, or ten high-severity findings. The August 31 visit, with 12, is the highest single-inspection count in the recent history provided.
The November 2023 inspection found 7 high-severity violations. Two months later, in February 2024, the count was zero. By September 2024 it was back to 5. The oscillation suggests that conditions improve enough to pass a follow-up inspection, then deteriorate again before the next visit.
Still Open
State inspectors documented 12 high-severity violations at Moon Thai and Japanese on August 31, including failures in food sourcing, raw fish safety protocols, employee illness reporting, managerial oversight, and chemical storage.
The restaurant was not emergency-closed.
