ORLANDO, FL. Inspectors visiting Nomi Sushi Hibachi and Sake Bar on East Colonial Drive on August 3, 2026 found that staff could not demonstrate any allergen awareness, a failure that puts the restaurant's customers with food allergies directly at risk every time they order.
That was one of six high-severity violations documented during the visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The allergen violation is stark at a sushi and hibachi restaurant. A kitchen that cannot demonstrate allergen awareness cannot reliably warn customers about fish, shellfish, soy, or sesame, four of the most common triggers for severe allergic reactions.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for failing to follow parasite destruction procedures. At a restaurant that serves raw and lightly cooked fish, that is not a paperwork problem. Proper freezing protocols are the primary barrier between a customer and a live parasite.
The shellfish traceability violation compounds that risk. Inspectors found inadequate shell stock identification records, meaning there is no documented chain of custody for any oysters, clams, or mussels served at the restaurant. If a customer became ill, investigators would have no records to trace the source.
Inspectors also noted food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated. Staff were cited for not reporting illness symptoms and for using improper hand and arm washing technique. The two intermediate violations involved single-use items being reused and inadequate toilet facilities.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of illness non-reporting and improper handwashing technique at a single facility is particularly dangerous. When an employee with norovirus or another gastrointestinal illness continues working, the virus moves directly from their hands to food. Improper handwashing technique means that even employees who go through the motions of washing are not eliminating pathogens before touching food or surfaces. At Nomi Sushi, both failures were documented on the same visit.
The parasite destruction violation carries a specific risk that is easy to underestimate. Parasites including Anisakis and tapeworm species survive in raw fish and are only reliably killed by freezing fish to precise temperatures for specific time periods. A restaurant that is not following those procedures is serving raw fish without that safeguard in place.
The shellfish traceability failure matters because shellfish filter large volumes of water and can concentrate bacteria and viruses, including those that cause hepatitis A. The records requirement exists precisely so that when someone gets sick, public health officials can identify the harvest area, the supplier, and other customers who received the same batch. Without those records, that investigation cannot happen.
The allergen finding is the kind of violation that ends in an emergency room. Food allergies affect tens of millions of Americans, and reactions to fish, shellfish, and soy can be severe. A restaurant with no demonstrated allergen awareness cannot reliably field a question from a customer about whether a dish contains a specific ingredient.
The Longer Record
The August 2026 inspection was the fifth on record for Nomi Sushi Hibachi. Across those five inspections, the restaurant has accumulated 55 total violations.
The pattern is consistent and it runs in one direction. The restaurant's inspection on June 10, 2025 produced zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. Four weeks later, on July 31, 2025, inspectors returned and found 12 high-severity violations and 1 intermediate. Four days after that, on August 4, 2025, a follow-up visit found 10 high-severity violations and 1 intermediate. The restaurant had not been closed between those visits.
By January 2026, a fourth inspection found 8 high-severity violations. The August 2026 visit found 6 high-severity violations. The number has declined slightly from the summer 2025 peak, but across four of the five inspections on record, the restaurant has logged high-severity violations in the double digits or close to it.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The Longer Pattern
Several of the violation categories from August 2026 are not new. A restaurant that logged 12 high-severity violations in one visit and 10 in the next, then 8, then 6, is not a restaurant that caught a bad week. It is a restaurant with documented, persistent compliance failures across more than a year of inspections.
The June 2025 clean inspection makes the July 2025 collapse more striking, not less. Whatever conditions produced zero violations in June produced 12 four weeks later. The records do not explain that gap.
Nomi Sushi Hibachi and Sake Bar at 12189 East Colonial Drive remained open after the August 3, 2026 inspection.
