PANAMA CITY, FL. A state inspector walked into Sake House II on Thomas Drive on April 20 and found food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, toxic chemicals improperly stored near food, and employees using improper handwashing technique, then documented all of it, issued six high-severity citations, and left the restaurant open.
The inspection on April 20, 2026 produced six high-severity violations and four intermediate violations at the 1012 Thomas Drive location. That is ten citations in a single visit, and not one of them triggered an emergency closure order.
What Inspectors Found
The food temperature violation sits at the top of any reasonable list of concerns. At a restaurant that serves cooked proteins, failing to reach required minimum temperatures means pathogens like Salmonella can survive and reach a customer's plate.
The toxic chemical storage violation compounds that risk. Chemicals stored improperly near food preparation areas can contaminate food through direct contact or mislabeling, and the consequences of that kind of contamination are acute, not gradual.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for failing to post a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, a requirement that exists specifically because sushi menus carry inherent risk. Without that disclosure, a pregnant customer, an elderly diner, or someone on immunosuppressants has no way of knowing they are eating food that has not been fully cooked.
The handwashing citation is its own category of problem. An employee going through the motions of washing hands but using improper technique is, in practice, not washing their hands at all. Every surface that employee touches afterward is a potential transmission point.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of violations found at Sake House II on April 20 is not a collection of paperwork failures. It is a set of conditions that, together, create multiple simultaneous routes to foodborne illness.
Undercooking is the most direct. Salmonella in poultry requires an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit to be destroyed. Food that does not reach that threshold and is served to a customer is food that can cause illness, regardless of how fresh the ingredients were when they arrived.
The time-as-public-health-control violation adds a second layer. When a restaurant uses time rather than temperature to manage food safety, the rules are strict: food must be tracked, labeled, and discarded within a set window. When those procedures are not followed, food that has spent hours in the temperature danger zone between 41 and 135 degrees sits in a zone where bacteria multiply rapidly, and neither the staff nor the customer knows how long it has been there.
The specialized process violation matters for a different reason. Sushi restaurants routinely handle raw fish, perform modified atmosphere packaging, and manage acidification of rice, all of which require documented, approved procedures. When those procedures are not followed, the safety controls that make those processes permissible collapse entirely.
The Longer Record
The April 20 inspection is not an anomaly. It is the latest entry in a record that goes back 29 inspections and 172 total violations at this address.
The pattern in the prior inspection data is specific and repeating. In November 2025, inspectors found six high-severity violations and three intermediate violations. In May 2025, they found six high-severity violations and three intermediate violations. In February 2024, they found six high-severity violations and one intermediate violation. In November 2024, they found four high-severity violations and three intermediate violations.
Each of those visits was followed, eventually, by a clean inspection. In December 2025, the restaurant passed with zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. In November 2024 and November 2023, it also passed clean. The pattern is consistent: serious violations, a passing inspection, serious violations again.
That cycle has now repeated across at least four separate inspection periods without producing an emergency closure. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed in its recorded history.
Still Open
State records show Sake House II was not ordered closed on April 20, 2026, despite the six high-severity citations.
The restaurant at 1012 Thomas Drive remained open to customers after an inspection that documented food cooked to insufficient temperatures, toxic chemicals stored improperly near food, and employees washing their hands incorrectly.
That is where the record ends.