MIAMI, FL. State inspectors walked into Poke OG at 161 SE 1st Street on August 27, 2026, and left with nine violations on the books, including seven rated high-severity. The restaurant was not closed.
Among the findings: food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, meaning the fish and other ingredients on customers' plates that day may never have passed a federal safety inspection. For a restaurant built around raw and lightly dressed seafood, that citation sits at the center of everything.
What Inspectors Found
The unapproved-source citation was not the only finding tied to the food itself. Inspectors also cited food in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated, and food not cooked to the required minimum temperature. All three violations on the same inspection sheet describe a kitchen where the safety of the product, from sourcing through cooking, was in question.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled, a violation that puts chemical contamination of food and surfaces in play. Inspectors also cited inadequate shell stock identification and records, meaning shellfish served at the restaurant could not be traced to a licensed harvester or processor.
Inadequate handwashing by food employees rounded out the high-severity findings. Two intermediate violations, improperly cleaned multi-use utensils and improper use of wiping cloths, were also documented.
What These Violations Mean
Food from an unapproved source is not a paperwork problem. When a restaurant cannot document where its fish, shellfish, or other ingredients came from, there is no traceability if a customer gets sick. Federal inspection at the source exists specifically to screen for Listeria, Salmonella, and other pathogens before food reaches a kitchen. At Poke OG, a restaurant whose entire menu is built on raw and lightly prepared seafood, that gap is not abstract.
The shell stock identification violation compounds the sourcing problem. Oysters, clams, and mussels are among the highest-risk foods served in any restaurant because they are frequently consumed raw or barely cooked. State law requires licensed restaurants to keep the harvest tags attached to shellfish shipments on file for 90 days, precisely so that a Vibrio or norovirus outbreak can be traced back to a specific harvest area and date. Without those records, that tracing is impossible.
The cooking temperature violation means food reached customers without the heat necessary to kill pathogens that survive undercooking. Salmonella in poultry requires an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit to be destroyed. A failure to reach that threshold is not a near-miss; it is a direct exposure risk for every customer who ordered that item.
The chemical storage violation adds a separate category of risk entirely. When cleaning agents or pesticides are stored near or above food prep surfaces without proper labeling, the pathway to accidental contamination is short. Combined with improperly cleaned utensils and wiping cloths being used in ways that spread rather than remove contamination, the August inspection described a kitchen with compounding failures across multiple safety categories simultaneously.
The Longer Record
The August 27 inspection was not the first time Poke OG drew serious scrutiny. State records show 14 inspections on file for the restaurant, with 64 total violations documented across those visits. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern is consistent and it runs in one direction. Inspectors cited five high-severity violations in August 2025, four high-severity violations in January 2026, six high-severity violations alongside one intermediate in March 2023, and five high-severity violations plus one intermediate in February 2024. There is no inspection in the record where the restaurant came away clean on the high-severity tier.
The August 2026 inspection, with seven high-severity violations, is the single worst on record for this location. It follows a January 2026 visit that itself produced four high-severity findings, meaning the restaurant entered its most recent inspection already carrying a recent history of serious citations.
In three years of inspections, Poke OG has not had a single visit with zero high-severity violations.
Open for Business
State inspectors documented seven high-severity violations at Poke OG on August 27, 2026, including food from unapproved sources, undercooked food, and improperly stored toxic chemicals in a restaurant that serves raw and lightly prepared seafood.
The restaurant was not closed.
Customers who walked through the door after that inspection had no way of knowing what the state's records showed. The orange closure sticker was never posted. The doors stayed open.
