MIAMI, FL. A seafood restaurant on Biscayne Boulevard drew 11 high-severity violations in a single inspection last week, including food sourced from unapproved suppliers, no employee illness reporting policy, and food contact surfaces inspectors deemed improperly sanitized.
That restaurant, Crafty Crab Cajun Seafood Restaurant at 15911 Biscayne Blvd. in North Miami Beach, led a grim week across South Florida. State inspectors flagged 15 restaurants in the tri-county region between April 20 and April 26, 2026, citing a combined 108 high-severity violations. Fourteen of those facilities are in Miami-Dade County. One is in Broward.
The Violations
Crafty Crab's record is notable not just for the count but for what the violations describe together. Inspectors cited the restaurant for having no person in charge present or performing duties, no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing, improper handwashing technique, food from unapproved sources, missing shellfish traceability records, and unsanitized food contact surfaces. That combination, management absent, illness controls nonexistent, sourcing unverified, covers nearly every layer of a kitchen's safety structure.
Candies Cabaret at 2663 NW 36th St. in Miami drew 10 high-severity violations. Inspectors cited the venue for food from unapproved sources, food in poor condition, food not cooked to required minimum temperature, no employee health policy, no person in charge, inadequate handwashing, and improper handwashing technique.
Sports Grill Miami Lakes at 15462 NW 77th Ct. also reached 10 high-severity violations, with inspectors noting inadequate handwashing facilities, no employee health policy, no person in charge, employees not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, unsanitized food contact surfaces, time as a public health control not properly used, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
Two restaurants in Coral Gables, a tourist-heavy area along Giralda Avenue and Alhambra Circle, each drew nine high-severity violations. Aromas del Peru of Coral Gables at 110-112 Giralda Ave. was cited for food from unapproved sources, food in poor condition, missing shellfish traceability records, food not cooked to minimum temperature, improper time controls, no consumer advisory, and inadequate handwashing. Globe Cafe and Bar at 377 Alhambra Cir. drew the same violation count, including improperly stored toxic chemicals near food, food not cooked to minimum temperature, missing shellfish records, and no consumer advisory.
Iron Sushi at 9432 NE 2nd Ave. in Miami Shores Village accumulated nine high-severity violations that inspectors found particularly serious for a raw-fish operation: inadequate handwashing facilities, employees not reporting illness symptoms, food in poor condition, missing shellfish traceability records, parasite destruction procedures not followed, food not cooked to minimum temperature, and unsanitized food contact surfaces.
King and I Thai Restaurant at 15508 NW 77th Ct. in Miami Lakes, one address away from Sports Grill, drew nine high-severity violations. Inspectors cited it for no person in charge, employees not reporting illness, inadequate handwashing, improper handwashing technique, food in poor condition, missing shellfish traceability records, unsanitized food contact surfaces, and food not cooked to minimum temperature.
Black Point Ocean Grill at 24775 SW 87th Ave. in Cutler Bay drew eight high-severity violations, including no allergen awareness demonstrated, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness, and improper time controls.
In Broward County, Grace Restaurant at 2710 West Atlantic Blvd. in Pompano Beach was cited for three high-severity violations: food in poor condition, unsanitized food contact surfaces, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
Ming Yuan Restaurant at 3006 NW 2nd Ave. in Miami drew four high-severity violations, two of which involved chemicals. Inspectors found toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used, alongside unsanitized food contact surfaces and no consumer advisory.
El Encuentro Restaurant at 3511 NW 17th Ave. in Miami was also cited for dual chemical violations, toxic chemicals improperly stored and toxic substances improperly identified or used, along with unsanitized food contact surfaces and an intermediate violation for improper sewage or wastewater disposal.
What These Violations Mean
The food-from-unapproved-sources citations at Crafty Crab, Candies Cabaret, and Aromas del Peru are not paperwork issues. When a restaurant cannot document where its food came from, there is no traceability chain if a customer gets sick. Investigators cannot identify the contaminated batch, cannot issue a recall, and cannot stop other restaurants from serving the same product.
The cluster of illness-policy violations across this week's inspections is more alarming in combination than any single citation. At Crafty Crab, Sports Grill Miami Lakes, King and I Thai, Black Point Ocean Grill, and Candies Cabaret, inspectors found either no written employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, or both. A sick food worker with no obligation to report symptoms and no policy telling them to stay home is the documented origin of most multi-victim outbreaks.
The parasite destruction citation at Iron Sushi carries particular weight at a restaurant serving raw fish. Without verified freezing protocols, parasites including Anisakis can survive in raw or lightly prepared fish and cause serious gastrointestinal illness. The missing shellfish traceability records at Iron Sushi, King and I Thai, Crafty Crab, Aromas del Peru, and Globe Cafe compound this: shellfish are among the highest-risk raw foods, and without harvest tags on file, there is no way to trace a contaminated batch back to its source bed.
Chemical violations at Ming Yuan, El Encuentro, and Globe Cafe represent a different category of risk. Improperly stored or unlabeled chemicals near food preparation areas can cause acute poisoning through direct contamination, with symptoms that are often misattributed to foodborne illness rather than chemical exposure.
The Longer Record
The data this week does not include prior inspection counts for individual facilities, but several locations carry contextual weight on their own terms. The two Miami Lakes restaurants, King and I Thai and Sports Grill Miami Lakes, share the same street and drew a combined 19 high-severity violations in the same inspection week. That is a notable concentration for a single commercial corridor.
The Coral Gables pair, Aromas del Peru and Globe Cafe, operate within a few blocks of each other in one of Miami-Dade's most-visited dining districts. Both drew nine high-severity violations. Aromas del Peru's citation list includes food from unapproved sources alongside cooking temperature failures, a combination that suggests both procurement and kitchen execution problems. Globe Cafe added toxic chemical storage to its nine-violation tally.
Crafty Crab's 11-violation inspection stands apart from the rest of the week not because any single finding is unprecedented but because the failures are so comprehensive. Management absent, illness policy missing, sourcing unverified, shellfish records unavailable, surfaces unsanitized, handwashing inadequate in both frequency and technique. Each of those categories represents a separate system that failed on the same day.
Iron Sushi's parasite destruction citation remains unresolved in the public record. Whether the restaurant had documentation of proper freezing protocols that inspectors found insufficient, or had no protocol at all, the record does not specify.