MIAMI, FL. Two Miami restaurants, KYU on NW 25th Street and La Bodega Restaurant on SW 88th Street, each accumulated 11 high-severity violations during the week of April 27, the worst tallies among 15 Miami-Dade facilities cited in state inspection records reviewed by FloridaFoodSafety.org.
KYU, a well-known wood-fired restaurant in Wynwood, drew citations for food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers, failure to follow parasite destruction procedures for fish, food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, employees not reporting illness symptoms, and a person in charge not present or not performing duties. La Bodega, in southwest Miami, matched that count with an overlapping set of failures, adding inadequate handwashing facilities, no written employee health policy, food in poor condition or mislabeled, and inadequate shell stock identification records for shellfish.
The Violations
GO-GO on Alton Road in Miami Beach logged 10 high-severity violations, including food from unapproved sources, inadequate shellfish traceability records, employees not reporting illness, improper handwashing, and time-as-public-health-control procedures not properly followed. The Alton Road location puts it squarely in one of Miami Beach's busiest commercial corridors.
Taco Rico on SW 8th Street also reached 10 high-severity violations, with inspectors noting parasite destruction failures, food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, improper use of time as a public health control, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, and improperly stored toxic chemicals alongside the shellfish traceability and surface sanitation failures.
Kami-Koi Sushi Fusion on SW 56th Street drew nine high-severity citations including no person in charge, no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness, inadequate handwashing facilities, food not cooked to required minimum temperatures, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items. A sushi restaurant without a consumer advisory for raw fish is a direct failure to warn the customers most at risk.
New Campo Argentino on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach reached nine high-severity violations, with inspectors citing food from unapproved sources, parasite destruction failures, food not cooked to minimum temperatures, no consumer advisory, improperly stored chemicals, inadequate handwashing facilities, and improperly cleaned food contact surfaces.
Pacifico on W 29th Street in Hialeah collected nine high-severity violations, including no person in charge, no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness, food from unapproved sources, inadequate shellfish traceability, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
El Rio Lindo Cafe Corp on SW 12th Avenue in Miami also reached nine high-severity violations, with three separate handwashing failures cited: inadequate handwashing by food employees, inadequate handwashing facilities, and improper technique. Inspectors also flagged food from unapproved sources, inadequate shellfish records, improperly cleaned surfaces, food not cooked to required temperatures, and no consumer advisory.
Paseo Catracho on SW 8th Street drew nine high-severity violations including no person in charge, employees not reporting illness, food from unapproved sources, shellfish traceability failures, improperly cleaned contact surfaces, no consumer advisory, and improperly stored toxic chemicals.
Sushi Bombs on NW 77th Court in Miami Lakes accumulated eight high-severity violations, including food from unapproved sources, food in poor condition or mislabeled, inadequate shellfish records, improperly stored chemicals, and a person in charge not present.
Café Bea on SW 142nd Avenue in Miami drew four high-severity violations, including improper handwashing technique, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used.
White Lion Cafe and Antiques on NW 7th Street in Homestead was cited for three high-severity violations: improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, toxic substances improperly identified or stored, and required procedures for specialized processes not followed.
Rincon Nica Restaurant on W 16th Avenue in Hialeah drew two high-severity violations for improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled.
The Chinese Restaurant on SW 112th Street in Miami was cited for three high-severity violations alongside four intermediate citations, including improper sewage or wastewater disposal and single-use items being reused.
La Jato Restaurant on W 16th Avenue in Hialeah drew three high-severity violations for improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, no consumer advisory, and toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled.
What These Violations Mean
The most pervasive high-severity violation this week was improperly cleaned or sanitized food contact surfaces, cited at 13 of the 15 facilities. Cutting boards, prep tables, slicers, and countertops that are not properly sanitized between uses become direct transfer points for bacteria including Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria. A surface that looks clean is not the same as a surface that is safe.
Unapproved food sourcing was flagged at KYU, La Bodega, GO-GO, New Campo Argentino, Pacifico, El Rio Lindo, Paseo Catracho, and Sushi Bombs. Food from unapproved suppliers bypasses USDA and FDA inspection chains entirely. If someone becomes ill and investigators need to trace the source, there is no documentation to follow. That gap is not a paperwork problem; it is the difference between containing an outbreak and losing track of it.
Parasite destruction failures at KYU, Taco Rico, and New Campo Argentino are particularly acute for restaurants serving raw or lightly cooked fish. Without proper freezing protocols, parasites including Anisakis can survive in fish served as sushi, ceviche, or tartare and cause serious gastrointestinal illness. The consumer advisory violations at Café Bea, Taco Rico, Kami-Koi, New Campo Argentino, Pacifico, El Rio Lindo, Paseo Catracho, The Chinese Restaurant, and La Jato compound the risk: customers who are pregnant, elderly, or immunocompromised have no way of knowing the food they are ordering has not been fully cooked or treated.
The cluster of employee illness reporting failures at La Bodega, KYU, GO-GO, Kami-Koi, Pacifico, Sushi Bombs, and Paseo Catracho is a direct outbreak pathway. Norovirus, the leading cause of foodborne illness in the United States, spreads almost entirely through infected food workers who continue handling food while symptomatic. A facility without a written illness policy, as documented at La Bodega, Kami-Koi, and Pacifico, has no mechanism to stop that chain of transmission before it reaches customers.
The Longer Record
The data provided does not include prior inspection counts for these facilities, which limits the ability to place this week's findings in historical context. What the violation patterns do show is a concentration of systemic failures rather than isolated incidents. Facilities like La Bodega and KYU, each with 11 high-severity violations in a single inspection, are not accumulating minor paperwork errors. Missing a person in charge, sourcing food from unverified suppliers, skipping parasite destruction, and failing to train employees on illness reporting are independent failures that reinforce each other.
The geographic spread across the week's data is also notable. SW 8th Street alone accounts for two of the highest-severity inspection results: Taco Rico and Paseo Catracho, both with nine or more high-severity violations and overlapping failure categories including shellfish traceability, unapproved sourcing, and chemical storage. Collins Avenue and Alton Road in Miami Beach, both high-traffic tourist corridors, produced two of the week's more serious tallies in GO-GO and New Campo Argentino.
Hialeah contributed three facilities to this week's list: Rincon Nica, Pacifico, and La Jato. Pacifico's nine high-severity violations, including no person in charge and no employee health policy, represent the most serious findings among the Hialeah group.
Sushi Bombs in Miami Lakes flagged food in poor condition or mislabeled alongside unapproved sourcing and shellfish traceability failures. For a restaurant whose menu centers on raw fish preparations, the combination of those three violations means the facility cannot verify where its seafood came from, cannot confirm the shellfish was harvested from approved waters, and had product on hand that inspectors assessed as substandard.