ORLANDO, FL. Food at Old Cuban Cafe on North Goldenrod Road was not cooked to required minimum temperatures during a state inspection on September 22, 2026, a violation that inspectors ranked among nine high-severity citations at the Orlando restaurant. The facility was not closed.
The September inspection produced 16 total violations, nine of them high-severity, seven intermediate. State inspectors documented that food was not reaching the temperatures required to kill pathogens like Salmonella in poultry, which survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. That violation alone is among the most direct routes from a restaurant kitchen to a hospital.
What Inspectors Found
The violations reached across nearly every basic layer of food safety. Inspectors cited no person in charge present or performing duties, no written employee health policy, and employees not reporting illness symptoms, three separate citations that together describe a kitchen operating without the foundational controls designed to prevent outbreaks.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Toxic substances were improperly identified, stored, or used. No allergen awareness was demonstrated by staff, a citation that matters to the 32 million Americans living with food allergies.
The intermediate violations added further depth to the picture. Inspectors noted improper sewage or wastewater disposal, inadequate cooling and cold-holding equipment, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, improper sanitizing solution or procedures, single-use items being reused, improper use of wiping cloths, and inadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilities.
Shellfish traceability records were also flagged as inadequate. Shellfish consumed raw or lightly cooked, including oysters, clams, and mussels, require chain-of-custody documentation so health officials can trace an outbreak to its source. Without those records, that traceability disappears.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and employees not reporting illness symptoms is, according to public health data, the most direct path to a multi-victim outbreak. Norovirus, which causes 20 million infections in the United States annually, spreads through exactly this mechanism: a sick food worker, no policy requiring them to stay home, no manager present to enforce one.
The undercooked food citation compounds that risk. When food doesn't reach required internal temperatures, pathogens that could have been killed survive and reach the customer's plate. Salmonella in poultry is the textbook example, but the principle applies across proteins.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and utensils create a secondary transfer route. Bacterial biofilms develop on improperly cleaned surfaces within 24 hours and resist standard cleaning once established. A cutting board or prep surface that looks clean can carry contamination from one food item to the next.
The sewage violation is the one that tends to stop readers cold. Improper wastewater disposal means raw sewage, which contains E. coli, Hepatitis A, and other pathogens, can contact surfaces, equipment, or food inside the facility. It is not a paperwork violation.
The Longer Record
The September 2026 inspection was not an outlier. State records show 29 inspections on file for Old Cuban Cafe, with 273 total violations accumulated across that history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The eight most recent prior inspections tell a consistent story. In March 2026, six months before the September visit, inspectors cited six high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. In October 2025, four high-severity violations. In April 2025, three high-severity violations. The pattern does not show improvement over time.
Going back further: five high-severity violations in October 2023, three in March 2023, four in both February 2024 inspections. The September 2026 count of nine high-severity violations is the highest single-inspection total in the visible record.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority is triggered when inspectors determine a facility poses an immediate threat to public health. Nine high-severity violations at Old Cuban Cafe on September 22, 2026, did not meet that threshold, at least not in the judgment of the inspectors on site that day.
The restaurant remained open after the inspection.
Customers who ate at the Goldenrod Road location around that date were served food that inspectors determined had not been cooked to required temperatures, by staff working under no written illness policy, in a kitchen where food contact surfaces had not been properly cleaned and sanitized. State records show that outcome, and the history behind it, 273 violations across 29 inspections, with no emergency closure ever ordered.
The restaurant was open.
