CUTLER BAY, FL. Fish served at a Cutler Bay poke restaurant may not have been frozen long enough to kill parasites, state records show, and that was just one of eleven high-severity violations inspectors documented at the restaurant in a single visit this month.
State records from the July 10 inspection of Poke & Tea on Old Cutler Road show inspectors cited the restaurant for sourcing food from unapproved or unknown suppliers, failing to follow parasite destruction procedures, and operating without a written employee health policy. Despite all eleven high-severity violations, the restaurant was not emergency-closed.
What Inspectors Found
The parasite destruction violation is particularly acute at a poke restaurant, where raw fish is the core product. State and federal rules require fish served raw to be frozen to specific temperatures for specific durations, a process that kills parasites including Anisakis and tapeworm larvae. Inspectors found those procedures were not being followed.
Inspectors also flagged food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, and separately cited food found in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated. That combination means customers had no way of knowing where the fish in their bowls came from or whether it had passed any regulatory inspection.
Two additional high-severity violations involved toxic chemicals, one for improper storage or labeling and one for improper identification or use. Inspectors also cited inadequate shellfish traceability records, meaning the origin of any oysters, clams, or mussels on the menu could not be verified. The restaurant received a single intermediate violation for reusing single-use items.
What These Violations Mean
The parasite destruction failure and the unapproved food source violation work together in a way that compounds the risk. Fish from an uninspected supplier, served raw without the required freeze cycle, could carry live parasites directly to a customer's bowl. There is no regulatory checkpoint in that chain.
The employee health violations add a second, separate hazard. Without a written health policy and without employees reporting illness symptoms, a worker sick with Norovirus has no structured reason to stay home or be sent home. Norovirus spreads through contaminated food and surfaces with very low exposure doses, and a single sick food handler can trigger a multi-victim outbreak. Inspectors found both the missing policy and the failure to report symptoms at Poke & Tea on the same visit.
The improper handwashing technique citation closes a third gap. Even a worker who tries to wash their hands can leave pathogens in place with the wrong technique, making the handwashing step functionally useless. Combined with improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, inspectors were documenting multiple failure points in the most basic contamination barriers a restaurant has.
The absence of a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods meant that elderly customers, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems had no posted warning that the menu carried elevated risk.
The Longer Record
Poke & Tea: High-Severity Violations Over Time
Poke & Tea has been inspected 17 times, accumulating 140 total violations across its record. High-severity citations have appeared in every inspection year in the data, including 6 high-severity violations in a single March 2024 inspection and 4 high-severity violations in both August 2025 and January 2025.
The restaurant passed two inspections cleanly, in May 2025 and December 2023, with zero high-severity violations. But those clean visits have not interrupted the broader pattern. Every other inspection in the record produced high-severity citations, and the July 2026 inspection produced more than any prior visit.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history. The July 10 visit, with 11 high-severity violations including unapproved food sourcing, parasite failures, and no health policy for sick workers, did not change that.
Poke & Tea remained open after the inspection.
