MIAMI, FL. Fifteen restaurants across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties drew a combined 120 high-severity violations during the week of May 28, 2026, with two locations tied at the top: a Pompano Beach pizzeria and a Miami Beach bar each cited ten times by state inspectors.
The Week's Worst Offenders
Pompano Pizza on South Cypress Road in Pompano Beach drew the week's most alarming cluster of violations in Broward County. Inspectors cited the restaurant for having no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing, improper handwashing technique, food in poor condition, parasite destruction procedures not followed, and food not cooked to minimum required temperatures. No person in charge was present or performing duties during the inspection.
Coyote on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach matched that total with ten high-severity citations of its own. The violations included no employee health policy, improper handwashing technique, food in poor condition, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, food not cooked to required temperature, time as a public health control not properly used, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled.
Collins Avenue draws heavy tourist traffic year-round. The absence of a consumer advisory at a restaurant serving raw or undercooked items means visitors with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, or elderly diners had no warning about what they were ordering.
Charlatam Restaurant and Bar on SW 3rd Avenue in Miami accumulated nine high-severity violations with a particularly troubling combination: food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, inadequate shellfish traceability records, employees failing to report illness symptoms, and food contact surfaces not properly cleaned. All nine of its citations were high-severity. None were intermediate.
Metropol Restaurant in Sweetwater also drew nine high-severity violations, including no person in charge present, no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate shellfish records, food contact surfaces not cleaned, and food not cooked to minimum temperature.
Key Biscayne and Miami's Broader Pattern
Two restaurants on Key Biscayne, a barrier island accessible only by bridge or boat, each drew high-severity violations this week. El Gran Inka on Crandon Boulevard was cited nine times, including for food from unapproved or unknown sources, inadequate handwashing, improper handwashing technique, food not cooked to required temperature, and toxic chemicals improperly stored. Inspectors also noted no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items.
Mestizo Latin Cuisine and Coffee, also on Crandon Boulevard less than a block away, drew eight high-severity violations. Those included no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, food in poor condition, inadequate shellfish records, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, time as a public health control not properly used, no consumer advisory, and toxic chemicals improperly stored.
Two restaurants on the same tourist-heavy street on the same island, both cited for no consumer advisory and inadequate shellfish traceability in the same inspection week.
Caracas Bakery on Biscayne Boulevard drew nine high-severity violations, including food from unapproved or unknown sources, parasite destruction procedures not followed, food not cooked to minimum temperature, and two separate toxic substance violations: chemicals improperly stored or labeled, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used.
San Villa Asian Fusion on NE 3rd Avenue in Miami was cited eight times, including for food from unapproved sources, inadequate shellfish records, parasite destruction procedures not followed, food not cooked to required temperature, and no consumer advisory. Inspectors also documented inadequate handwashing by food employees.
Bocas House on NW 25th Street in Miami drew six high-severity violations, including inadequate handwashing facilities, food not cooked to required temperature, and toxic chemicals improperly stored. Inspectors also noted single-use items being reused, a violation that creates its own contamination pathway.
In Hialeah, two restaurants drew high citation totals within blocks of each other. La Rampa Restaurant on East 4th Avenue was cited nine times, including for no employee health policy, inadequate handwashing, food in poor condition, food contact surfaces not cleaned, food not cooked to required temperature, and toxic chemicals improperly stored. El Imperio de la Comida, also on East 4th Avenue, drew eight high-severity violations including food from unapproved sources, food not cooked to required temperature, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used.
Palm Beach County
Panda Garden Chinese Restaurant on Lake Worth Road in Lake Worth drew nine high-severity violations, including no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate shellfish records, food contact surfaces not cleaned, time as a public health control not properly used, no consumer advisory, and toxic chemicals improperly stored.
Long Island Bagel and Deli on SR 7 in Boca Raton was cited six times at the high-severity level, including for food in poor condition, food contact surfaces not cleaned, food not cooked to required temperature, no consumer advisory, and toxic chemicals improperly stored. Inspectors also documented single-use items being reused and multi-use utensils not properly cleaned.
Mussel Beach Restaurant on East Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach drew two high-severity violations: no person in charge present or performing duties, and employees not reporting illness symptoms.
Royal Palm Grill and Deli on North Krome Avenue in Homestead drew five high-severity violations, including inadequate shellfish identification records, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, time as a public health control not properly used, no consumer advisory, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled.
What These Violations Mean
The most common single violation this week, appearing at Pompano Pizza, Metropol, Mestizo, El Gran Inka, Charlatam, Caracas Bakery, Panda Garden, La Rampa, and others, was the absence of a written employee health policy. That document is not paperwork for its own sake. It is the mechanism by which a food worker who wakes up with diarrhea, vomiting, or jaundice knows they are required to report to management before entering the kitchen. Without it, the decision to work sick is left entirely to the individual employee, and the research is consistent: workers without formal illness reporting requirements stay on the job at far higher rates.
The pairing of "no health policy" with "employees not reporting illness symptoms," documented together at Pompano Pizza, Metropol, Caracas Bakery, Panda Garden, and Mussel Beach, is the inspection record's way of describing a facility where sick workers are both unguided and unmonitored. Norovirus, the most common cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, can be transmitted by a single infected food handler touching ready-to-eat food. It takes fewer than 20 viral particles to cause infection.
Food from unapproved or unknown sources, cited at Charlatam, El Gran Inka, Caracas Bakery, San Villa Asian Fusion, and El Imperio de la Comida, creates a different kind of risk. Inspected supply chains exist precisely because contamination events, whether Listeria in soft cheese or Salmonella in raw poultry, are only traceable when the food's origin is documented. When that documentation doesn't exist, an illness cluster has no thread to pull.
Toxic chemical violations at Coyote, Bocas House, Mestizo, El Gran Inka, Caracas Bakery, Panda Garden, La Rampa, Long Island Bagel, and Royal Palm Grill are not abstract. Cleaning chemicals stored above or adjacent to food, or in unlabeled containers, have caused acute poisoning events in restaurant settings. The double toxic-substance citation at Caracas Bakery, covering both improper storage and improper identification and use, suggests the problem there goes beyond a misplaced bottle.
The Longer Record
The data does not include prior inspection counts for these facilities, which limits the ability to say with precision whether this week's findings represent a new pattern or a continuation of one. What the record does show is that several of these facilities are new enough in the state database to suggest they have not accumulated long inspection histories: Bocas House, Charlatam, Coyote, and Metropol each carry identifiers in the SEA233 range, consistent with recent licensing. Finding six, nine, and ten high-severity violations early in a facility's inspection history is not a minor concern. These are restaurants still establishing their operational habits.
El Imperio de la Comida in Hialeah carries an older identifier, SEA2312802, suggesting a longer licensing history, yet it still drew eight high-severity violations this week including food from unapproved sources and improper chemical storage. Long Island Bagel and Deli in Boca Raton, with identifier SEA6010067, and Mussel Beach Restaurant in Delray Beach, SEA6012861, both carry Palm Beach County license numbers consistent with established operations.
Royal Palm Grill and Deli in Homestead, with five high-severity violations including both shellfish traceability failures and toxic chemical storage, sits in a part of Miami-Dade that sees less inspection scrutiny than the urban core. Its identifier, SEA2302940, places it among the county's longer-tenured licensees.
Pompano Pizza's identifier, SEA1608461, is among the oldest in this week's dataset, suggesting years of operating history in Broward County. Ten high-severity violations in a single inspection, including both the complete absence of an employee health framework and food not cooked to safe temperatures, is the kind of record that accumulates quietly until it doesn't.