TAMPA, FL. A state inspector walked into Samurai Blue on North Dale Mabry Highway on May 19 and found toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled near food, no written employee health policy, and a worker who had not reported illness symptoms, all in a restaurant that serves raw fish and shellfish to the public.
The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The May 19 inspection produced 8 high-severity and 4 intermediate violations, a total of 12 citations in a single visit. Among the high-severity findings: the restaurant had no written employee health policy, an employee had not reported illness symptoms to management, and food contact surfaces had not been properly cleaned or sanitized.
Shellfish traceability records were also inadequate. At a restaurant serving raw fish and shellfish, inspectors cited the absence of proper shell stock identification records.
The consumer advisory violation compounded that risk. Customers eating raw or undercooked items, including anyone elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised, were given no written warning that their meal carried elevated health risks.
The person in charge was either absent or not performing supervisory duties at the time of the inspection. Improper handwashing technique was documented as well, a separate citation from the employee illness reporting failure.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no employee health policy and an employee not reporting illness symptoms is the documented setup for a Norovirus outbreak. Norovirus causes an estimated 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and food workers are among its primary transmission vectors. Without a written policy, workers have no formal obligation to stay home or report symptoms, and managers have no documented standard to enforce.
The shellfish traceability failure carries its own distinct risk. Oysters, clams, and mussels are high-risk foods often consumed raw or barely cooked. Proper shell stock records exist so that if a customer gets sick, investigators can trace the shellfish back to the harvest location and pull product from other restaurants. Without those records, an outbreak becomes much harder to contain.
Improperly stored or labeled toxic chemicals near food is an acute poisoning risk, not a theoretical one. A mislabeled chemical container, or a cleaning agent stored too close to food prep surfaces, can cause chemical contamination that is rapid and severe.
Food contact surfaces that are not properly cleaned and sanitized, combined with multi-use utensils that are also cited as improperly cleaned, means that whatever bacteria was on those surfaces could transfer directly to the next plate of food. At a sushi restaurant, where much of what is served is raw, there is no cooking step to kill that bacteria before it reaches a customer.
The Longer Record
The May 19 inspection was not a first. State records show Samurai Blue has been inspected 24 times and has accumulated 162 total violations across its history. The restaurant has never been emergency-closed.
The pattern of high-severity violations is not new. In January 2024, inspectors cited 7 high-severity violations. In August 2023, another 7 high-severity violations. The November 2025 inspection produced 6 high-severity violations, and the April 2025 visit produced 4.
The May 19 total of 8 high-severity violations is the highest single-visit count in the records provided, a new peak in a history that has never dipped below 1 high-severity citation in any documented visit.
The day after the May 19 inspection, a follow-up visit on May 20 found 1 high-severity and 1 intermediate violation still present. Some of the most serious issues from the day before had apparently been addressed. Others had not.
The Pattern
What the records show is a restaurant that has cycled through high-severity violations across multiple years without accumulating an emergency closure. The employee health policy violations, the handwashing citations, the food contact surface failures, these are not the kind of issues that appear once and disappear. They reflect practices that either were not corrected or were corrected temporarily and then slipped again.
The shellfish traceability and consumer advisory violations are particularly notable at a restaurant whose menu centers on raw fish. Both are documentation requirements, meaning they require affirmative action by management to maintain. Neither was in place when inspectors arrived.
Samurai Blue on North Dale Mabry logged 8 high-severity violations on May 19, 2026. It remained open and serving customers that day.