HOLLYWOOD, FL. Back in April 2026, inspectors walked into Patron Azteca on Sheridan Street and found that no one working in the kitchen could demonstrate any awareness of food allergens, that shellfish on the menu had no traceability records, and that the facility had an improper sewage or wastewater disposal problem. The restaurant was not closed.
The April 8 inspection produced six high-severity violations and one intermediate violation. Under Florida's inspection framework, high-severity violations are the ones most directly linked to foodborne illness and customer injury.
What Inspectors Found
The allergen violation was among the most direct threats to customer safety. Inspectors documented that staff showed no allergen awareness, meaning no one on the floor or in the kitchen demonstrated the knowledge required to field a customer's allergy question accurately. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans and cause roughly 30,000 emergency room visits each year. A customer with a severe allergy to shellfish, tree nuts, or any of the other major allergens had no reliable safety net at this restaurant on that day.
Two separate handwashing violations compounded the picture. Inspectors cited both inadequate handwashing by food employees and improper hand and arm washing technique. The first means workers were not washing hands when they should have. The second means that even when they did wash, the technique left pathogens behind.
The shellfish violation added a traceability problem to the mix. Inspectors found inadequate shell stock identification and records, meaning the oysters, clams, or other shellfish on the menu could not be traced to a certified source if a customer became ill. There was also no consumer advisory posted to warn diners that raw or undercooked items carry elevated risk, a disclosure required specifically to protect elderly customers, pregnant women, and anyone with a compromised immune system.
The intermediate violation, improper sewage or wastewater disposal, rounds out a list that would be alarming at any single restaurant on any given day.
What These Violations Mean
The allergen and handwashing violations together describe a kitchen where the two most basic protections against customer injury were not in place at the same time. Improper handwashing is the single most significant factor in spreading foodborne illness. Hands carry Norovirus, Salmonella, E. coli, and other pathogens directly from surfaces to food. When technique is also wrong, even the attempt at washing provides incomplete protection.
The shellfish traceability failure is a separate category of risk. Shellfish are filter feeders that concentrate bacteria and viruses from the water they grow in. When a restaurant cannot produce shell stock identification records, health officials have no way to trace an illness outbreak back to a specific harvest location or lot. If a customer got sick after eating shellfish at Patron Azteca in April, investigators would have had nowhere to start.
The sewage violation matters because raw sewage contains fecal coliform bacteria. Improper disposal anywhere in a food service facility creates a contamination pathway that can reach food preparation surfaces, utensils, and food itself. Combined with inadequate handwashing, that pathway becomes shorter.
The absence of an employee health policy means there was no written standard requiring sick workers to stay home or report symptoms. Norovirus, which causes the majority of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurants, spreads primarily through infected food handlers. Without a policy, a worker sick with Norovirus had no formal obligation to disclose that to management.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection was not an anomaly. Patron Azteca has accumulated 245 violations across 31 inspections on record in Broward County, a total that works out to nearly eight violations per visit on average.
The pattern of high-severity violations stretches back through every year in the data. The April 8 inspection produced six high-severity violations. The January 2026 inspection produced four high-severity and four intermediate violations. The June 2024 inspection produced five high-severity and three intermediate violations. The April 2024 inspection produced nine high-severity violations, the worst single visit in the recent record.
That April 2024 inspection is worth noting. Nine high-severity violations in a single visit is a significant total. The restaurant was not emergency-closed then either.
In November 2024, inspectors visited twice in two consecutive days. The first visit, on November 19, produced four high-severity violations. A follow-up on November 20 produced two more high-severity violations. Despite back-to-back inspections flagging serious problems, the restaurant continued operating.
Patron Azteca has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history on record. That fact sits alongside 245 total violations, a consistent pattern of high-severity citations across multiple years, and an April 2026 inspection that found sewage disposal problems and no allergen awareness among staff.
The restaurant remained open after inspectors left on April 8, 2026.