MIAMI, FL. State inspectors cited 15 South Florida restaurants with three or more high-severity violations during the week of August 19, 2026, producing 97 high-priority citations across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, with a Biscayne Boulevard hotel and a Northwest Miami eatery each drawing the week's worst tally.
The Leaders in the Wrong Direction
AC Hotel Miami Midtown at 3400 Biscayne Blvd. drew 12 high-severity citations, including no person in charge performing duties, no employee health policy, inadequate handwashing facilities, improper handwashing technique, food from an unapproved source, missing shellfish traceability records, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, and food not cooked to required minimum temperature. That combination, management absent and food from sources that bypassed federal inspection arriving on surfaces that were not properly cleaned, covers nearly every critical failure category in a single visit.
Rinconcito Latino Mixto at 2502 NW 10th Ave. matched that count at 12 high-severity violations, also citing no person in charge, no employee health policy, inadequate handwashing by employees, inadequate handwashing facilities, improper technique, food from unapproved sources, and missing shellfish records. The facility added five intermediate violations on top of that, for a combined 17 citations in the inspection.
Toro Toro at 100 Chopin Plaza, inside the InterContinental Miami in the heart of downtown, drew 11 high-severity violations. Inspectors cited food from unapproved sources, food in poor condition or adulterated, missing shellfish identification records, failure to follow parasite destruction procedures for fish, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, food not cooked to required minimum temperature, and no employee health policy. A restaurant serving raw fish in a hotel frequented by international travelers without following parasite destruction procedures is a specific and documented gap.
Across the Map: Doral, Hialeah, and the Southwest Corner
Panaderia Colombiana Mi Cali at 2350 W 60th St. in Hialeah recorded 11 high-severity violations, including employees not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing by food employees, improper handwashing technique, missing shellfish records, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, and time not properly used as a public health control. The bakery also had no employee health policy and no person in charge performing duties.
El Berrinche at 13911 SW 42nd St. in southwest Miami drew 11 high-severity violations, among them employees not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing facilities, food from unapproved sources, food in poor condition or adulterated, missing shellfish records, and failure to follow parasite destruction procedures. The facility also lacked an employee health policy.
Las Columnas Restaurant at 1657 NW 79th Ave. in Doral had 10 high-severity violations. Inspectors found no person in charge, no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness, inadequate handwashing facilities, improper handwashing technique, missing shellfish records, failure to follow parasite destruction procedures, and improperly sanitized food contact surfaces.
Mochima Bistro at 11030 SW 184th St. also reached 10 high-severity violations, with citations for no person in charge, no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness, inadequate handwashing facilities, improper technique, food from unapproved sources, missing shellfish records, and time not properly used as a public health control.
Friends Market and Bistro at 31 SE 6th St. in downtown Miami drew 10 high-severity violations including employees not reporting illness, inadequate handwashing, improper technique, food from unapproved sources, food in poor condition, missing shellfish records, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, and food not cooked to minimum required temperature.
Broward and Palm Beach: The Outlying Citations
Fish Tales at 3355 NE 33rd St. in Fort Lauderdale led Broward County with 9 high-severity violations. Inspectors cited no person in charge, employees not reporting illness, improper handwashing technique, food in poor condition, missing shellfish records, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, food not cooked to minimum temperature, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. A seafood restaurant on the Intracoastal with no consumer advisory for raw items and no shellfish traceability records is a documented gap for the tourist-heavy stretch of Fort Lauderdale's waterfront.
South China Restaurant at 5550 Flamingo Rd. in Cooper City drew 5 high-severity violations, including no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness, improper handwashing technique, missing shellfish records, and improperly sanitized food contact surfaces. Inspectors also documented improper sewage or wastewater disposal as an intermediate violation.
In Palm Beach County, Schooner's Market at 1001 N. Highway A1A in Jupiter drew 3 high-severity violations: improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, food not cooked to required minimum temperature, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled.
Three additional Miami-Dade facilities rounded out the week. Akashi Japanese Restaurant at 5830 S. Dixie Hwy. in South Miami drew 5 high-severity violations, including missing shellfish records, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, toxic chemicals improperly stored, and required procedures for specialized processes not followed, a direct concern for a restaurant serving raw fish preparations. Inspectors also found improper sewage or wastewater disposal as an intermediate violation.
Five Spice Vietnamese Pho and Sushi Bar at 1801 NE 8th St. in Homestead drew 5 high-severity violations: inadequate handwashing by employees, failure to follow parasite destruction procedures, food not cooked to minimum required temperature, time not properly used as a public health control, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. A sushi bar without parasite destruction procedures and without a consumer advisory is missing two of the foundational safeguards for raw fish service.
Nueva San Salvador Restaurant No. 4 at 1147 NW 22nd Ave. had 4 high-severity violations including no employee health policy, inadequate handwashing by employees, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled.
Tap42 at 11735 Sherry Ln. in Kendall drew 2 high-severity violations: improperly sanitized food contact surfaces and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used, alongside intermediate citations for improper sewage disposal, single-use items reused, and inadequate ventilation.
What These Violations Mean
The most widespread violation this week was missing or inadequate shellfish traceability records, cited at AC Hotel Miami Midtown, Rinconcito Latino Mixto, Toro Toro, Panaderia Colombiana Mi Cali, El Berrinche, Mochima Bistro, Friends Market and Bistro, Las Columnas Restaurant, South China Restaurant, Fish Tales, and Akashi Japanese Restaurant. When shellfish arrive without proper identification tags, there is no way to trace an oyster, clam, or mussel back to its harvest bed if a customer gets sick. Shellfish are filter feeders that concentrate whatever is in the water around them, including Vibrio bacteria and norovirus, and they are often consumed raw or barely cooked.
The second most consistent pattern was the combination of no employee health policy and employees not reporting illness symptoms, documented together at Panaderia Colombiana Mi Cali, El Berrinche, Mochima Bistro, Las Columnas Restaurant, Friends Market and Bistro, South China Restaurant, and Fish Tales. Norovirus, the most common cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurants, requires as few as 18 viral particles to cause infection. A single sick employee working a full shift without a policy requiring them to report symptoms can expose every customer served that day.
Food from unapproved or unknown sources appeared at AC Hotel Miami Midtown, Rinconcito Latino Mixto, Toro Toro, El Berrinche, Mochima Bistro, and Friends Market and Bistro. Food that bypasses USDA or FDA inspection carries no traceability chain. If a customer becomes ill, investigators have no starting point.
Parasite destruction failures at Toro Toro, El Berrinche, Las Columnas Restaurant, and Five Spice Vietnamese Pho and Sushi Bar represent a specific gap in raw fish service. Fish served raw or undercooked must be frozen to specific temperatures for specific durations before service to kill parasites including Anisakis, a worm that causes severe abdominal pain and can require surgical removal. None of those four facilities had the required procedures in place.
The Longer Record
The data does not include prior inspection counts for these facilities, which limits direct comparison of chronic versus new violators. What the records do show is that several of this week's worst performers are not obscure neighborhood spots. Toro Toro operates inside a major downtown Miami hotel at Chopin Plaza, a location serving business travelers, convention attendees, and tourists. Fish Tales sits on the Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale, a tourist corridor. AC Hotel Miami Midtown is a national chain hotel brand on one of Miami's most-traveled corridors. The scale of the violations at those locations, 12 high-severity at the hotel and 11 at the downtown steakhouse, is not consistent with the profile those addresses carry.
Five facilities this week drew citations in the same categories that inspectors most commonly see escalate to emergency closures: no management oversight, food from uninspected sources, and food not reaching required cooking temperatures. AC Hotel Miami Midtown, Friends Market and Bistro, and Fish Tales all combined three or more of those categories in a single inspection. Rinconcito Latino Mixto accumulated 17 total violations, the week's highest combined count, across 12 high-severity and 5 intermediate citations.
Schooner's Market in Jupiter was the only Palm Beach County facility to appear this week, and its citation for toxic chemicals improperly stored alongside food contact surface violations and undercooked food places it in the same core risk categories as the Miami-Dade leaders, despite a lower overall count.
