JACKSONVILLE, FL. State inspectors walked into Sam Won Garden at 4345-1 University Blvd S on August 11, 2026 and documented food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, meaning some of what was served to customers that day had bypassed every federal safety inspection required to reach a licensed Florida kitchen.
That was one of ten high-severity violations cited in a single visit.
The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The food sourcing violation is among the most difficult to walk back. When food arrives through unapproved or unknown channels, there is no documentation trail if a customer gets sick. There is no lot number to pull, no distributor to contact, no way to determine where contamination entered the supply chain.
Inspectors also cited the kitchen for failing to cook food to required minimum temperatures. In a Korean restaurant where poultry and meat are central to the menu, that is not a minor procedural gap. Salmonella survives in chicken below 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled, a violation that carries risk of acute poisoning if a chemical contacts food or is mistaken for a food-safe product. Staff also showed no allergen awareness, which the state cites as a direct risk to the 32 million Americans with food allergies.
Two separate handwashing violations were cited: employees not washing hands adequately, and employees using improper technique even when they did wash. Those are not the same violation. The first means the step was skipped or shortened. The second means the step was taken but executed in a way that leaves pathogens on the hands.
Three intermediate violations accompanied the ten high-severity citations: multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, inadequate ventilation and lighting, and inadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilities.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of unapproved food sourcing and undercooking at the same facility, in the same inspection, is the scenario public health officials describe as compounding risk. Food that entered the kitchen without federal inspection and was then not cooked to the temperature required to kill common pathogens represents two consecutive failures with no safety net between them.
The employee health policy violation matters in a specific way. Without a written policy, there is no mechanism requiring a sick employee to report symptoms or stay home. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, spreads through food prepared by infected workers. A policy does not guarantee compliance, but the absence of one removes the only formal checkpoint.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, cutting boards, prep tables, and utensils carry bacteria from one food item to the next. The state notes that bacterial biofilms form on improperly cleaned multi-use utensils within 24 hours, and those biofilms resist standard cleaning once established. The utensil violation cited here as intermediate compounds the surface sanitation failure already flagged as high-severity.
The allergen awareness citation means staff could not adequately identify or communicate which dishes contained common allergens. For a customer with a severe shellfish or peanut allergy, that gap is not a courtesy failure. It is a medical one.
The Longer Record
Sam Won Garden has 36 inspections on record and 391 total violations accumulated across those visits. August 11 was not an outlier. It was consistent with a pattern that runs back years.
The inspection on January 17, 2025 produced 11 high-severity violations and 3 intermediate citations, the highest single-day total in the recent record. October 6, 2025 produced 8 high-severity and 3 intermediate violations. February 9, 2026 produced 6 high-severity violations. The August 2026 inspection, at 10 high-severity violations, fits squarely inside that range.
The facility was emergency-closed once, on August 26, 2024, for roach activity. It passed two consecutive inspections in the days that followed, on August 30, 2024. By October 2025, high-severity violations had returned in volume.
The brief clean period in late August and September 2024 is the exception, not the pattern. Four of the six most recent inspections before August 2026 documented six or more high-severity violations each.
Sam Won Garden: Recent Inspection Pattern
Open for Business
State inspectors cited 391 violations across 36 visits and documented food arriving from unknown sources, temperatures insufficient to kill common pathogens, and chemicals stored without proper labeling, all in the same August afternoon.
Sam Won Garden served customers the next day.
