ORANGE COUNTY, FL. Two restaurants, one on East Colonial Drive and one on Conroy Windermere Road, each accumulated 11 high-severity violations during the same inspection week, leading a county scorecard that turned up 99 high-severity citations across 12 facilities between September 18 and September 24, 2026.
The Worst of the Week
Bikkuri Sushi Noodle and Grill on East Colonial Drive drew citations that touched nearly every layer of food safety management. Inspectors found no person in charge present or performing duties, no adequate employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, food from unapproved sources, inadequate shellfish identification records, unsanitized food contact surfaces, and improper use of time as a public health control. That is eight distinct high-severity categories, plus three more, in a single visit.
China Garden on Conroy Windermere Road matched that count. Its 11 high-severity violations included the same shellfish traceability failure, the same unapproved food sourcing, and an additional citation for parasite destruction procedures not being followed, meaning fish or other susceptible proteins were not properly frozen or cooked to kill parasites before being served.
Harlow Grove in Winter Garden recorded 10 high-severity violations, including food contaminated by chemical, physical, or biological hazards and food not cooked to required minimum temperatures. Inspectors also cited the facility for unapproved food sourcing and parasite destruction failures.
The Citrus Club on South Orange Avenue also reached 10 high-severity violations. Its citation list included shellfish traceability failures, parasite destruction violations, and no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked items, meaning customers were not informed that certain menu items carried elevated risk.
A Closer Look at the Other Facilities
Old Cuban Cafe on North Goldenrod Road led all facilities inspected this week in combined violation count, with 9 high-severity and 7 intermediate citations. Among the high-severity findings: inadequate handwashing facilities, meaning the physical infrastructure for hand hygiene was absent or deficient; food not cooked to required minimum temperatures; and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used.
Libra and Bar Libra on South Orange Avenue drew 9 high-severity violations, including food from unapproved sources, food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items. No person in charge was present during the inspection.
Oh Que Bueno Restaurant Grill and Bar on South Semoran recorded 9 high-severity violations including two separate toxic chemical citations: improperly stored or labeled toxic chemicals, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. The same inspection found food from unapproved sources and shellfish without adequate traceability records.
Nature's Table at 300 South Orange Avenue drew 8 high-severity violations including inadequate handwashing facilities, employees not reporting illness symptoms, food from unapproved sources, parasite destruction failures, and no allergen awareness demonstrated by staff.
Mi Ranchito Oaxaqueno on North Chickasaw Trail and China Lee on South Kirkman Road each recorded 7 high-severity violations. China Lee's list included a citation for sewage or wastewater disposal, classified as an intermediate violation, alongside high-severity findings for no allergen awareness and no consumer advisory for raw items. Mi Ranchito Oaxaqueno also lacked allergen awareness and had shellfish traceability gaps.
The Marriott Orlando Downtown on West Livingston Street drew 5 high-severity violations, including food contaminated by chemical, physical, or biological hazards, food not cooked to required minimum temperature, and food from unapproved sources. Flyers Wings and Grill on West Colonial Drive recorded 3 high-severity violations, including food not cooked to required minimum temperature.
What These Violations Mean
The single most common high-severity violation pattern this week was the combination of no employee health policy, no illness reporting, and improper handwashing technique. Bikkuri Sushi, China Garden, the Citrus Club, Harlow Grove, Libra and Bar Libra, Mi Ranchito Oaxaqueno, and Old Cuban Cafe all drew at least two of those three citations together. When those three failures coexist in one kitchen, a sick employee has no policy requiring them to report symptoms, no training requiring them to stay home, and no reliable handwashing practice to interrupt transmission. Norovirus, which causes the majority of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, spreads through exactly that sequence.
The food-from-unapproved-sources violation, cited at China Garden, Bikkuri Sushi, Harlow Grove, Libra and Bar Libra, the Marriott, Nature's Table, and Oh Que Bueno, is not a paperwork problem. Food purchased outside licensed and inspected suppliers cannot be traced if a customer becomes ill. If a Listeria or Salmonella outbreak were linked to one of these facilities, investigators would have no supply chain to audit.
Shellfish traceability failures appeared at six facilities this week: China Garden, Bikkuri Sushi, the Citrus Club, China Lee, Mi Ranchito Oaxaqueno, Nature's Table, and Oh Que Bueno. Oysters, clams, and mussels are frequently consumed raw or only lightly cooked. Vibrio bacteria, which thrive in shellfish, can cause severe illness within 24 hours of consumption. Without shellfish identification tags on file, there is no way to issue a recall or identify the harvest bed if customers report getting sick.
Oh Que Bueno's dual toxic chemical citations represent a separate and acute hazard. Cleaners, sanitizers, and pesticides stored near food or mislabeled can cause immediate poisoning with no warning. The Marriott's citation for food contaminated by chemical, physical, or biological hazards, combined with inadequate ventilation, points to a kitchen environment where contamination pathways were not adequately controlled during the inspection week.
The Longer Record
The data provided does not include prior inspection counts for the facilities named this week, which limits the ability to place this week's findings in a longer historical context. What the violation lists themselves reveal, however, is a pattern of systemic management failures rather than isolated incidents. Seven of the 12 facilities were cited for no person in charge present or not performing duties. That citation does not appear alongside a single stray violation in these records. At every facility where it appears, it is accompanied by five or more additional high-severity findings. The absence of active management and the accumulation of critical violations are not coincidental.
The concentration of facilities on South Orange Avenue is notable. The Citrus Club at 255 South Orange Avenue and Libra and Bar Libra at 325 South Orange Avenue, two blocks apart, both drew 9 or more high-severity violations in the same inspection week. Nature's Table at 300 South Orange Avenue, between them geographically, drew 8. Three facilities within a few blocks of each other, all inspected in the same seven-day window, all in the top half of the county's worst performers.
Harlow Grove in Winter Garden was the only facility outside Orlando in this week's worst-performer list. Its 10 high-severity violations, including food not cooked to required minimum temperature and food contaminated by chemical or biological hazards, place a suburban location alongside downtown Orlando addresses at the top of the county's citation count for the week.
Flyers Wings and Grill, with 3 high-severity violations and no intermediate citations, was the lowest-severity entry on this week's list. Its citation for food not cooked to required minimum temperature, at a restaurant whose core product is chicken wings, is the finding that stands on its own.
