MIAMI, FL. State inspectors who walked into Paseo Catracho on SW 8th Street on April 27 found food on the premises from unapproved or unknown sources, meaning some of what the restaurant was serving that day had bypassed federal safety inspections entirely and could not be traced if someone got sick.
That was one of nine high-severity violations documented in a single visit. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The inspectors also documented two separate violations involving toxic chemicals, one for improper storage or labeling and a second for improper identification, storage, or use. Both categories were flagged as high severity. Together they suggest chemicals were present in the facility in ways that created an immediate risk of contaminating food or surfaces.
Employees were found not reporting symptoms of illness, and inspectors cited improper handwashing technique, meaning workers were making attempts to wash their hands but not doing so in a way that actually removes pathogens. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized.
Shell stock identification records were inadequate. Shellfish, including oysters, clams, and mussels, are high-risk foods frequently consumed raw. Without proper records, there is no way to identify where the shellfish came from if a customer becomes ill. Inspectors also found no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, leaving customers with no warning that anything on the menu carried elevated risk.
Among the five intermediate violations: improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, single-use items being reused, inadequate ventilation and lighting, and improper use of wiping cloths.
What These Violations Mean
Food from an unapproved or unknown source is one of the most serious categories in a restaurant inspection. Every licensed supplier in Florida is subject to USDA or FDA oversight, which means there is a paper trail if contamination is detected. Food that enters a kitchen outside that system carries no such guarantee and cannot be recalled or traced. If a customer who ate at Paseo Catracho on or around April 27 develops a foodborne illness, investigators would have no way to trace that food back to its origin.
The illness-reporting and handwashing violations compound each other in a specific way. An employee who is sick and does not report it is already a transmission risk. If that same employee is washing hands improperly, the last barrier between their illness and a customer's plate is gone. Norovirus, which spreads through exactly this route, can sicken dozens of people from a single infected food handler.
The two chemical violations are distinct from the food-handling failures but no less serious. Improperly stored or unlabeled chemicals near food preparation areas can contaminate food directly, or can be mistaken for food-safe substances. Both violations were flagged as high severity on the same inspection, suggesting the problem was not isolated to one product or one location in the kitchen.
The absence of a person in charge performing duties is, in the inspection record, both a violation and an explanation. CDC data cited in the inspection report shows establishments without active managerial control accumulate critical violations at three times the rate of those with engaged management on the floor. The April 27 inspection at Paseo Catracho found that management failure alongside eight other high-severity problems.
The Longer Record
The April 27 inspection was not an outlier. Paseo Catracho has 30 inspections on record and 373 total violations documented across those visits. Every inspection listed in the prior history going back to February 2023 included at least two high-severity violations. Several included four or five.
The most recent inspection before April 27 was on March 19, 2026, five weeks earlier. That visit produced four high-severity violations and one intermediate. The visit before that, in November 2025, produced five high-severity violations and two intermediate. The pattern holds across two full years of records without a single inspection that came back clean.
The restaurant was emergency-closed once before, in August 2017, after inspectors found roach activity. It reopened the following day. That closure is the only one in the facility's history despite the volume of high-severity violations accumulated since.
Nine high-severity violations on a single inspection is the worst single-visit total in the recent record. The facility remained open after inspectors left on April 27.