HIALEAH, FL. A food worker at a Hialeah seafood restaurant showed up sick and failed to report illness symptoms to management, state records show, one of six high-severity violations documented at Pacifico on West 29th Street during a September 23 inspection. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The September 23 inspection turned up ten violations in total, six of them high-severity. Inspectors documented that the restaurant had no written employee health policy and that at least one worker was not reporting illness symptoms, a combination that state health officials identify as the leading driver of multi-victim foodborne outbreaks.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled near food areas. That violation sat alongside a finding that food contact surfaces had not been properly cleaned or sanitized, meaning any pathogens already present had a direct path to customers' plates.
Inspectors also documented improper handwashing technique among staff. Handwashing attempts were being made, the record indicates, but performed incorrectly, leaving pathogens on hands that then touched food. There was no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked menu items, leaving elderly diners, pregnant women, and customers with compromised immune systems without any warning about the elevated risk those dishes carry.
On the intermediate side, inspectors found inadequate cooling and cold-holding equipment, single-use items being reused, poor ventilation and lighting, and improper waste disposal. The waste disposal finding is not minor at a restaurant that has previously been shut down for both roach and rodent activity.
What These Violations Mean
The illness-reporting failure is the violation most likely to put customers in a hospital. When a sick food worker continues handling food without telling anyone, Norovirus, Salmonella, and Hepatitis A travel directly from the worker's hands to the food being prepared. A single infected worker can trigger an outbreak affecting dozens of people before anyone connects the illnesses back to a meal.
The absence of a written employee health policy compounds that risk. Without a formal policy, workers have no clear instruction about what symptoms require them to stay home or step away from food preparation. The two violations together, documented on the same day at Pacifico, describe a kitchen where a sick employee had no written obligation to report and did not report.
Improperly stored toxic chemicals near food represent a separate, acute hazard. Mislabeled or misplaced cleaning agents have been documented in cases where chemical residue contaminated food directly, causing poisoning that mimics foodborne illness. Combined with food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized, the September 23 inspection describes a kitchen where contamination could arrive from multiple directions simultaneously.
The cooling equipment finding adds another layer. If the equipment cannot hold food at required temperatures, bacterial growth accelerates during every hour food sits in that danger zone. At a seafood restaurant, where raw fish and shellfish are already higher-risk ingredients, that failure is not theoretical.
The Longer Record
The September 23 inspection did not represent a new low for Pacifico. It came one day after a September 22 inspection that found ten high-severity violations and six intermediate ones, the worst single-day tally in the recent record. State inspectors had been at the restaurant the day before and returned the following morning to find six more high-severity violations still present.
The facility has accumulated 560 total violations across 41 inspections on record. Eight of the most recent inspections, stretching back to June 2024, all included at least four high-severity violations. The April 2026 inspection found nine high-severity violations. The August 2025 inspection found seven.
Pacifico has been emergency-closed three times. Inspectors shut it down in August 2018 for rodent activity, and it reopened the next day. They closed it again in August 2020 for roach activity, and it reopened the following day. A third closure came in January 2021, again for rodent activity, with a two-day turnaround. Each time, the restaurant passed a follow-up and resumed service.
The pattern across those 41 inspections is not one of isolated incidents. High-severity violations have appeared in every recent inspection cycle, in overlapping categories, with short correction windows followed by new citations at the next visit.
Open for Business
State inspectors documented six high-severity violations at Pacifico on September 23, including a sick employee who did not report illness symptoms and toxic chemicals stored improperly near food. The restaurant was not emergency-closed.
It had been inspected the day before, when ten high-severity violations were recorded.
The day after that second inspection, Pacifico remained open.
