HOMESTEAD, FL. A poke restaurant in Homestead was cited for six high-severity health violations in a single inspection last month, including a failure to follow parasite destruction procedures for raw fish, and inspectors allowed it to remain open.
State records show the September 30 inspection of Poke 1800 at 3324 NE 8th Street produced six high-priority citations and two intermediate violations, the second-worst violation count the restaurant has recorded across eight inspections on file.
What Inspectors Found
The parasite destruction citation is the most acute concern for a restaurant whose menu is built on raw fish. State food code requires that fish served raw be frozen to specific temperatures for specific durations to kill parasites including Anisakis, a roundworm found in marine fish, and tapeworm larvae. If that process is skipped or improperly documented, customers eating raw tuna or salmon bowls have no assurance the fish was rendered safe.
The allergen citation compounds that risk. Inspectors found no allergen awareness demonstrated by staff. Poke restaurants routinely handle shellfish, soy, sesame, and fish, all among the most common triggers for severe allergic reactions. A customer with a shellfish allergy who asks a staff member whether a bowl is safe has no reliable answer if that staff member has not been trained to give one.
Inspectors also cited an employee for not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and a failure to correctly use time as a public health control for food held outside of temperature regulation.
What These Violations Mean
The parasite destruction failure is not a paperwork problem. Anisakis larvae can survive in raw or undercooked fish and, once ingested, burrow into the stomach lining, causing severe abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. The required freezing protocol exists specifically because the parasite is invisible to the naked eye. A customer ordering a raw salmon bowl at Poke 1800 on the day of this inspection had no way of knowing whether that step had been taken.
The illness reporting violation creates a direct transmission route from an infected employee to every customer served that shift. Norovirus, one of the most common foodborne illnesses in the United States, spreads readily through food handled by a sick worker. The violation does not mean an employee was sick on September 30; it means the facility had no functioning system to ensure a sick employee would stay home or be removed from food handling.
Improper handwashing technique is distinct from not washing hands at all. An employee who goes through the motions of handwashing but does so incorrectly, skipping steps or cutting the duration short, can transfer pathogens to food even while appearing to follow protocol. Combined with food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized, the inspection describes a kitchen where contamination can move from surface to hand to food with no reliable barrier stopping it.
The time-as-public-health-control citation applies to food held without refrigeration. When a facility uses time rather than temperature to manage food safety, it must track exactly when food was removed from temperature control and discard it within a set window. Inspectors found that system was not being properly followed, meaning food in the temperature danger zone, between 41 and 135 degrees, may have been served past the point at which it should have been thrown out.
The Longer Record
The September 30 inspection did not reveal a restaurant having an isolated bad day. Poke 1800 has accumulated 80 violations across eight inspections on file, a rate of 10 violations per visit on average.
The pattern of high-severity citations is consistent across years. In October 2024, inspectors found nine high-priority violations and three intermediate ones. In April 2024, the count was nine high and two intermediate. In November 2025, it was five high. The March 2026 inspection recorded zero violations, but that was followed two days later by a return visit that produced nine high-priority citations and three intermediate ones, the highest single-inspection tally in the facility's record.
The six high-severity violations from September 30 represent the third time in eight inspections that the facility has been cited for five or more high-priority violations. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
Open for Business
Despite six high-severity violations on September 30, including the failure to follow parasite destruction procedures for raw fish, Poke 1800 was not ordered shut. State inspectors have the authority to emergency-close a restaurant when an imminent hazard to public health exists. They did not exercise that authority here.
The restaurant has now been inspected eight times. It has never received a closure order. It has recorded 80 total violations. It remained open after this inspection.
