MIAMI BEACH, FL. Back in April 2026, state inspectors walked into Sawaddee Thai & Sushi Restaurant on East Bay Drive and documented that the kitchen had no procedures in place to destroy parasites in fish, a requirement that exists specifically because sushi restaurants serve raw seafood to customers who have no way of knowing whether the fish on their plate could harbor Anisakis worms or tapeworm larvae.
That was one of six high-severity violations cited during the April 3 inspection. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The parasite destruction violation sits alongside a citation for food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers. For a restaurant that serves raw fish, those two violations together represent a compounding problem: inspectors could not verify where the fish came from, and the kitchen had no documented process for rendering it safe even if the source had been legitimate.
The inspector also cited the restaurant for having no consumer advisory on the menu for raw or undercooked foods. Customers who ordered sushi that day had no written notice that what they were eating carried any risk at all.
Two more high-severity violations addressed the staff. The restaurant had no written employee health policy, and employees were not reporting symptoms of illness. Those two citations go together: without a policy, workers have no formal instruction about when to stay home, and without reporting, a sick employee can move through a kitchen service for hours before anyone intervenes.
The sixth high-severity violation was for food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Three intermediate violations rounded out the inspection: multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, single-use items being reused, and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
What These Violations Mean
The parasite destruction failure is the violation most specific to what Sawaddee does. Florida requires that fish served raw be frozen to kill parasites before it reaches a customer's plate. Without documentation that this step occurred, there is no way to know whether the fish served that day had been treated at all. Anisakis, a roundworm found in saltwater fish, causes severe abdominal pain and can require surgical removal if it embeds in the stomach lining. It survives refrigeration. It does not survive proper freezing.
The unapproved food source violation compounds that risk. When food arrives through unregulated channels, it bypasses USDA and FDA inspection checkpoints. If a customer became sick, investigators would have no supply chain to trace. The trail ends at the kitchen door.
The employee illness violations are a separate pathway to the same outcome. Norovirus, the most common cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, spreads through an infected worker touching food or surfaces. A written health policy is the mechanism that keeps a sick employee out of the kitchen. Sawaddee had neither the policy nor the reporting practice in place on April 3.
The food contact surface citation ties directly to the utensil violations. Improperly cleaned surfaces and multi-use tools develop bacterial biofilms, layers of bacteria that bond to the surface and resist standard wiping. Those surfaces then transfer contamination to every item that touches them.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection was not an anomaly. State records show 22 inspections on file for Sawaddee, with 248 total violations accumulated across that history.
Going back through the prior eight inspections alone, the pattern is consistent. The October 2025 visit produced four high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. The June 2025 visit produced five high and two intermediate. The March 2025 visit produced four high and three intermediate. The December 2024 visit produced six high and four intermediate, matching the April 2026 count exactly. The June 2024 visit also produced six high and four intermediate. The March 2024 visit was the worst in recent memory: eight high-severity violations and four intermediate ones.
High-severity violations have appeared at every one of those inspections without exception.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed. In 22 inspections on record, the state has not once issued an emergency closure order, even during the March 2024 inspection that produced eight high-severity violations in a single visit.
Still Open
State inspectors left Sawaddee Thai & Sushi open on April 3, 2026, after documenting six high-severity violations at a restaurant that serves raw fish, had no parasite destruction records, could not verify where its food came from, and had no system in place to keep sick workers out of the kitchen.
The 248 violations accumulated across 22 inspections represent a record that stretches back years. The restaurant has never been closed.
