TAMPA, FL. State inspectors visited Rasoi Indian Cuisine at 1701 E 8th Avenue on May 20 and found no evidence that staff could identify or communicate food allergens to customers, a failure that puts the 32 million Americans living with food allergies at direct risk every time they place an order.
The inspection logged six high-severity violations and two intermediate violations. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The allergen violation was not a paperwork technicality. Inspectors determined staff could not demonstrate awareness of the major food allergens, meaning a customer with a peanut, tree nut, or shellfish allergy had no reliable way to get accurate information before eating. Food allergy reactions send 30,000 people to emergency rooms in the United States each year.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for carrying shellfish without adequate shell stock identification records. Shellfish, including oysters, clams, and mussels, are among the highest-risk foods served in any restaurant because they are often consumed raw or lightly cooked. Without traceability records, there is no way to identify the harvest source if a customer becomes ill.
Food contact surfaces were found to be improperly cleaned and sanitized, a direct route for bacterial transfer between raw ingredients and ready-to-eat food. Multi-use utensils were also cited for inadequate cleaning, a separate intermediate violation that compounds the surface contamination risk.
The restaurant had no written employee health policy, meaning there was no documented mechanism to keep sick workers out of food preparation. It also lacked a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked menu items, leaving customers without the disclosure required to make an informed choice about their order.
Inspectors noted improper handwashing technique, meaning employees were making handwashing attempts that left pathogens on their hands. That finding, combined with the health policy gap and the surface sanitation failures, describes a kitchen where contamination controls were failing at multiple points simultaneously.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of violations documented at Rasoi on May 20 is not a collection of isolated oversights. Together they describe a facility where the basic systems designed to prevent a customer from getting sick were absent or broken.
The allergen failure is the most immediate risk for a specific population. A diner with a severe allergy who asks a staff member whether a dish contains a particular ingredient is depending on that employee to know the answer accurately. When inspectors find no allergen awareness demonstrated, they are documenting that this knowledge does not exist in a reliable form on the floor.
The shellfish traceability gap matters for a different reason. If a customer develops a foodborne illness after eating shellfish at Rasoi, investigators need harvest location records to trace the source and determine whether other people bought from the same batch. Without those records, that chain breaks.
Improperly sanitized food contact surfaces are among the most consistent vectors for bacterial transfer in any kitchen. Cutting boards, prep tables, and similar surfaces that touch raw protein and are then used for other food without proper sanitization carry contamination from one item to the next. The intermediate finding on multi-use utensils adds a second surface-contact pathway.
The employee health policy violation means there is no documented rule requiring a worker who is vomiting or has diarrhea to stay home. Norovirus, which causes approximately 20 million illnesses in the United States annually, is transmitted through exactly this route.
The Longer Record
The May 20 inspection was not an anomaly. Rasoi has now been inspected 32 times and has accumulated 287 total violations across that history.
The pattern in the recent record is consistent. The October 2025 inspection produced six high-severity and five intermediate violations. The January 2025 inspection produced six high-severity and three intermediate violations. The May 2026 inspection produced six high-severity and two intermediate violations. Three consecutive inspection cycles with six high-severity findings each.
The restaurant has been emergency-closed three times. Inspectors shut it down in September 2024 for roach activity, and it reopened two days later. It was closed again in October 2023 for roach activity and reopened the following day. Before that, a June 2021 closure for rodent activity was resolved the same day.
The September 2024 closure followed an inspection on September 9 that itself produced six high-severity and four intermediate violations, with a follow-up inspection the same day and two more the following day. That sequence, four inspections in two days, reflects the level of intervention the state had to apply to get the facility to a passable standard.
The 287 cumulative violations across 32 inspections place this facility well outside the range of a restaurant working through routine compliance issues.
Still Open
State rules give inspectors the authority to order an emergency closure when conditions present an immediate threat to public health. Roach activity triggered that threshold twice at this address in the past two years.
Six high-severity violations documented on May 20, including no allergen awareness, no shellfish traceability, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, and no mechanism to keep sick employees out of the kitchen, did not.
Rasoi Indian Cuisine remained open after the inspection.