MIAMI, FL. A Homestead deli accumulated 13 high-severity violations in a single week, the worst total across the tri-county region, as state inspectors flagged 15 South Florida restaurants for three or more high-severity citations between May 27 and June 2, 2026.
The Week's Worst
Royal Palm Grill & Deli on North Krome Avenue in Homestead drew the region's highest single-week high-severity count, 13 in all, plus 4 intermediate violations. Inspectors cited the restaurant for having no person in charge performing duties, no employee health policy, employees failing to report illness symptoms, food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, inadequate shellfish traceability records, and failure to follow parasite destruction procedures. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized.
The combination of unapproved food sourcing and absent shellfish records at one location is notable. When a restaurant cannot document where its shellfish came from, tracing a contamination event back to a harvest bed becomes impossible.
Mi Lindo Ecuador on NW 26th Street in Miami recorded the week's highest total violation count, 18 across 11 high-severity and 7 intermediate citations. Inspectors found no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, food from unapproved sources, food in poor condition, inadequate shellfish identification records, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, and time-as-public-health-control procedures not followed correctly.
Coyote on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach logged 10 high-severity violations. The citations included food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, and food in poor condition. The Collins Avenue location sits in a high-traffic tourist corridor where weekend foot traffic runs into the thousands.
Miami-Dade: Nine Facilities, a Cluster of the Same Failures
Supermachi Grill & Bar on NW 2nd Street in Miami drew 9 high-severity violations, including no person in charge present or performing duties, employees not reporting illness symptoms, food from unapproved sources, and shellfish without adequate identification records. Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and time-control failures rounded out the high-severity list.
La Rampa Restaurant on East 4th Avenue in Hialeah also recorded 9 high-severity violations. Inspectors cited food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, food in poor condition, toxic chemicals improperly stored, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items, and inadequate employee handwashing.
Two restaurants on Crandon Boulevard in Key Biscayne appeared in the same week's data. El Gran Inka at 606 Crandon Blvd drew 9 high-severity violations, including food from unapproved sources, food not cooked to required temperatures, toxic chemicals improperly stored, and both inadequate handwashing and improper handwashing technique cited in the same inspection. Lighthouse Cafe at 1200 Crandon Blvd, less than a mile away, was cited for 4 high-severity violations including toxic chemicals improperly stored and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
El Imperio de la Comida on East 4th Avenue in Hialeah recorded 8 high-severity violations. Inspectors cited food from unapproved sources, food in poor condition, food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, no consumer advisory, toxic substances improperly stored, and inadequate employee handwashing.
Acai Express on Main Street in Miami drew 7 high-severity citations, including food from unapproved sources, parasite destruction procedures not followed, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, and toxic chemicals improperly stored. A smoothie and acai bowl shop with a parasite destruction violation raises a specific concern: raw or minimally processed ingredients served without the freezing protocols required to eliminate parasites.
Broward and Palm Beach: Illness Policies and Shellfish Records
Cami Bakery Corp on North Pine Island Road in Sunrise recorded 6 high-severity violations. Employees were cited for not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, food in poor condition, parasite destruction procedures not followed, time-control failures, and no allergen awareness demonstrated. A bakery with a parasite destruction citation is unusual and points to ingredients, likely fish or undercooked meat products, that require specific handling protocols.
Lalous Cuisine and Catering on Hollywood Boulevard drew 6 high-severity violations, including no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing, improper handwashing technique, and inadequate shellfish identification records. A catering operation with no illness reporting structure and no shellfish traceability is a particular concern: catering events serve large numbers of people from a single food preparation point.
Vienna Cafe and Bistro on South Flamingo Road in Cooper City recorded 6 high-severity violations, including food from unapproved sources, inadequate shellfish records, parasite destruction procedures not followed, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, and employees not reporting illness symptoms.
In Palm Beach County, Mario's Osteria at Glades Road in Boca Raton drew 7 high-severity violations, among them inadequate handwashing facilities, improper handwashing technique, inadequate shellfish identification records, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, toxic substances improperly stored, and no allergen awareness demonstrated. The allergen citation is among the more serious in the week's data: the facility could not demonstrate that staff knew how to handle food allergy requests.
Long Island Bagel & Deli on SR 7 in Boca Raton was cited for 6 high-severity violations, including food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, food in poor condition, toxic chemicals improperly stored, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items. Kapow! Noodle Bar at Plaza Real in Boca Raton drew 6 high-severity violations including all three handwashing failure categories in a single inspection: inadequate facilities, inadequate technique, and inadequate handwashing by employees.
What These Violations Mean
The week's most pervasive failure was handwashing. Across the 15 facilities, inspectors documented inadequate handwashing facilities, improper technique, or employees simply not washing hands at all. At Kapow! Noodle Bar, all three categories appeared in the same inspection. When a restaurant lacks adequate handwashing infrastructure, technique failures follow automatically. Hands are the primary transfer route for Norovirus, the pathogen responsible for the majority of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings.
Food from unapproved or unknown sources appeared at Royal Palm Grill & Deli, Mi Lindo Ecuador, Supermachi Grill & Bar, El Gran Inka, El Imperio de la Comida, Acai Express, and Vienna Cafe and Bistro. The practical consequence: if a customer becomes ill, investigators cannot trace the ingredient back to a distributor, farm, or harvest location. The supply chain is invisible.
Shellfish traceability failures at Royal Palm Grill & Deli, Mi Lindo Ecuador, Supermachi Grill & Bar, Mario's Osteria, Lalous Cuisine and Catering, and Vienna Cafe and Bistro compound that problem. Oysters, clams, and mussels are frequently consumed raw or lightly cooked, and shellfish are a documented vector for Vibrio and hepatitis A. Without harvest tags and receiving records, there is no way to link a sick customer to a contaminated bed.
The employee illness reporting failures at Royal Palm Grill & Deli, Mi Lindo Ecuador, Supermachi Grill & Bar, Cami Bakery Corp, Kapow! Noodle Bar, Lalous Cuisine and Catering, and Vienna Cafe and Bistro represent a direct transmission pathway. A worker with Norovirus who handles food without reporting symptoms can infect dozens of customers before anyone realizes an outbreak has started. The policy violation is not administrative, it is the mechanism by which outbreaks begin.
The Longer Record
The data does not include prior inspection counts for these facilities, so direct comparison of cumulative histories is not available from this week's records. What the violation totals do show is a concentration of systemic failures, not isolated oversights. At Royal Palm Grill & Deli, 13 high-severity violations spanning food sourcing, illness reporting, management oversight, shellfish traceability, and parasite destruction do not reflect a single bad day. They reflect multiple food safety systems failing simultaneously.
The same pattern holds at Mi Lindo Ecuador, where 18 total violations across 11 high-severity and 7 intermediate categories covered food sourcing, illness reporting, handwashing, shellfish records, time control, and surface sanitation in one visit. At Coyote on Collins Avenue, 14 total violations included both cooking temperature failures and improper chemical storage, two categories that sit at opposite ends of the kitchen workflow.
Key Biscayne produced two flagged restaurants on the same boulevard in the same week. El Gran Inka and Lighthouse Cafe are less than a mile apart on Crandon Boulevard, a road that serves as the main commercial corridor for an island community with no alternative dining options nearby. Both were cited for chemical storage violations. El Gran Inka also drew citations for unapproved food sourcing and cooking temperature failures.
Acai Express on Main Street in Miami drew a parasite destruction citation, a violation that does not appear in most routine inspections. That citation, combined with food from unapproved sources and no consumer advisory for raw items, means customers ordering bowls with minimally processed ingredients had no way of knowing those ingredients had not been handled under the protocols required to eliminate parasites.