WESTON, FL. State inspectors visiting Olenka Peruvian Bistro at 2246 Weston Rd on May 14 found the restaurant was serving food from unapproved or unknown sources and had not followed parasite destruction procedures, two violations that together mean customers had no guarantee the fish on their plates had been safely handled from the moment it was caught to the moment it was served.
The inspection produced six high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The parasite destruction citation is notable for a Peruvian restaurant, where dishes like ceviche and tiradito are prepared with raw or lightly cured fish. FDA guidelines require that fish served raw or undercooked be frozen to specific temperatures for specific durations to kill parasites including Anisakis, a roundworm that can embed in the stomach lining, and tapeworm larvae. There was no documented evidence those procedures were followed here.
The shell stock citation adds a second traceability gap. Shellfish, including oysters, clams, and mussels, are required by state and federal rules to be accompanied by tags identifying their harvest location and date. Without those records, there is no way to trace an illness back to a specific harvest bed if a customer gets sick.
Inspectors also found that food contact surfaces had not been properly cleaned or sanitized, and that employees were not washing their hands and arms with correct technique. Those two violations together create a direct route for bacteria to move from surface to surface and from worker to food.
The restaurant had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked items. That notice is required specifically to warn pregnant women, elderly customers, and people with compromised immune systems that certain dishes carry a higher risk.
What These Violations Mean
The food-from-unapproved-sources violation is one of the hardest to dismiss as paperwork. When food enters a kitchen from an uninspected or unknown supplier, it has bypassed the USDA and FDA checkpoints designed to screen for Listeria, Salmonella, and other pathogens before the product ever reaches a restaurant. If someone gets sick, investigators have nowhere to start.
The parasite destruction failure compounds that risk at Olenka specifically. A Peruvian kitchen routinely handles raw fish as a core ingredient, not an occasional special. Anisakis larvae are invisible to the naked eye and survive acid-based cures like lime juice. Proper freezing kills them. Without documentation that freezing occurred, there is no way to know whether it did.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, the fifth high-severity citation, are what food safety professionals call a multiplication point. Bacteria deposited on a cutting board or prep surface during one task can transfer to every ingredient that touches that surface afterward. The intermediate citation for multi-use utensils that were not properly cleaned adds to the same concern: biofilms, layers of bacteria that bond to surfaces and resist standard wiping, can form on utensils within 24 hours of inadequate cleaning. Wiping cloths cited for improper use can then carry contamination across surfaces rather than removing it.
The Longer Record
The May 14 inspection was the eleventh on record for Olenka Peruvian Bistro. Across those eleven visits, inspectors have documented 89 total violations. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern in those records is difficult to ignore. In November 2024, a single inspection produced ten high-severity violations and four intermediate ones, the worst single visit in the restaurant's file. A follow-up visit one week later, also in November 2024, still found three high and two intermediate violations. The high counts did not stop there.
February 2025 brought six high-severity violations and one intermediate, a number that matches this month's inspection exactly. August 2025 produced three more high-severity citations. February 2026 added five high-severity violations and one intermediate. The only clean inspection in the recent record was March 2026, which showed zero high or intermediate violations, a single clear visit sandwiched between two inspections with significant findings.
The violations are not random across categories. Parasite destruction, food sourcing, and shellfish traceability are recurring themes in a restaurant whose menu depends on raw fish. That combination has now appeared across multiple inspection cycles without triggering a closure.
Open for Business
Six high-severity violations in a single inspection is not an unusual threshold for emergency closure in Florida. The state's emergency closure standard centers on an immediate threat to public health, and the combination of unapproved food sources, no parasite destruction records, and unsanitized food contact surfaces documented on May 14 fits the language of that standard closely.
State records show the restaurant was not closed after the May 14 inspection.
Customers who ate at Olenka Peruvian Bistro around that date had no way of knowing, from a menu advisory that did not exist, that raw fish on their plates may have come from an uninspected source and may not have been frozen to the temperature required to kill parasites.
The restaurant remained open.