HOLLYWOOD, FL. A state inspector walked into Mr Q Crab House on North SR 7 on October 2 and found the restaurant could not document where its shellfish came from, had no consumer advisory warning customers about raw or undercooked food, and had no demonstrated allergen awareness among staff. The restaurant serves seafood. It was not closed.
The inspection turned up seven high-severity violations and one intermediate violation. That count matches the seven high-severity violations documented at the same restaurant in January 2026, and it exceeds the six high-severity violations found in February 2025 and August 2023.
What Inspectors Found
The shellfish violation is the one that stands out most sharply for a seafood restaurant. State records show inspectors found inadequate shell stock identification and records, meaning the restaurant could not demonstrate where its oysters, clams, or mussels originated. That documentation exists for one reason: if customers get sick, investigators need to be able to trace the product back to its harvest bed.
The food contact surfaces violation compounds the risk. Improperly cleaned cutting boards, prep surfaces, and utensils are a primary transfer point for bacteria, and in a kitchen handling raw shellfish, an unsanitized surface becomes a direct route between raw product and anything else prepared on it.
Three of the seven high-severity violations centered on the people preparing the food. The restaurant had no written employee health policy, at least one employee was not reporting illness symptoms, and staff were not washing their hands and arms correctly. Those three violations, together, describe a kitchen where the basic protocols for keeping sick workers away from food were not in place.
The seventh high-severity violation was the absence of a consumer advisory. Any restaurant serving raw or undercooked seafood is required to notify customers so that people with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, the elderly, and children can make an informed choice. There was no such notice.
What These Violations Mean
The shellfish traceability violation carries consequences that extend well beyond a single meal. Oysters, clams, and mussels are filter feeders that concentrate whatever is in the water around them, including bacteria and viruses. They are frequently eaten raw or lightly cooked, which means the food itself does not go through a kill step. When a restaurant cannot produce shell stock tags showing the harvest location, date, and dealer, public health investigators lose the ability to connect a sick customer to a contaminated lot, and other people eating from that same lot continue to be exposed.
The employee illness violations work together in a specific way. A written health policy tells workers which symptoms require them to stay home or avoid handling food. Without that policy, there is no baseline. The separate finding that an employee was not reporting symptoms means the gap in policy translated into a gap in practice. Norovirus, which spreads easily through food handled by an infected worker, can sicken dozens of people from a single exposure.
Improper handwashing technique is worth explaining plainly. An employee who goes through the motions of washing hands but does not scrub long enough, or skips the wrist and forearm, or rinses without soap, leaves pathogens on their hands. The act of washing does not equal the result of clean hands. At a restaurant where raw shellfish is being handled, that distinction matters.
The allergen awareness violation affects 32 million Americans with food allergies. A staff that cannot identify which dishes contain shellfish, tree nuts, or other common allergens cannot protect a customer who asks. Allergic reactions to shellfish send tens of thousands of people to emergency rooms each year.
The Longer Record
The October 2 inspection is not an outlier. State records show Mr Q Crab House has been inspected 31 times and has accumulated 214 total violations across its inspection history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern in the high-severity counts is consistent. Inspectors found six high-severity violations in August 2023, six again in February 2025, seven in January 2026, and seven again in October 2026. The single clean inspection on record, in April 2024, was followed two days later by three high-severity violations at a follow-up visit.
The categories repeat. The employee health policy, illness reporting, and handwashing violations documented in October 2026 are not new findings at this location. A restaurant that has been inspected 31 times and has logged 214 violations has had repeated opportunities to address the same categories of risk.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed. After the October 2 inspection, with seven high-severity violations documented including no shellfish traceability records and no consumer advisory, it remained open.
