MIAMI, FL. Five South Florida restaurants each drew 11 high-severity violations in a single inspection during the week of October 14, 2026, a tally that included unapproved food sources, food cooked below required temperatures, and no written policy to keep sick workers out of the kitchen, state records show.
Inspectors documented serious violations at 15 facilities across Miami-Dade and Broward Counties during the seven-day stretch. No facilities in Palm Beach County appeared in the high-severity data this week. Twelve of the flagged locations were in Miami-Dade; three were in Broward.
The Worst of the Week
La Hormiga de Oro III on SW 147th Avenue in Miami carried the week's heaviest combined load at 11 high-severity and 5 intermediate violations. Among the most serious: food from unapproved or unknown sources, inadequate shellfish identification records, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, and food not cooked to required minimum temperatures. No person in charge was present or performing duties, and the facility had no written employee health policy.
Churros Manolo on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, a tourist-corridor location steps from the beach, also drew 11 high-severity violations. Inspectors cited inadequate handwashing by food employees, inadequate handwashing facilities, food from unapproved sources, and a failure to follow parasite destruction procedures for fish, pork, or wild game. No person in charge was present, and employees were not reporting illness symptoms.
Parasite destruction is a requirement specifically tied to serving raw or undercooked animal proteins. Churros Manolo's citation in that category, combined with the unapproved food source finding, means inspectors could not confirm where the food came from or whether it had been properly processed before reaching customers.
La Pasadita on North English Avenue in Homestead matched the 11-violation high-severity count. Records show food was not cooked to required minimum temperatures, shellfish lacked adequate identification records, and food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned. Employees were not reporting illness symptoms, and the handwashing technique documented was inadequate.
El Gallego Spanish Food on SW 8th Street in Miami also reached 11 high-severity violations. The facility was cited for inadequate handwashing facilities, improper handwashing technique, food from unapproved sources, shellfish traceability failures, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, food not cooked to minimum temperature, and improper use of time as a public health control. No person in charge was present.
Taj Mahal Indian Cuisine on NE 123rd Street in North Miami rounded out the five-way tie at 11 high-severity violations. Inspectors found food in poor condition or adulterated, parasite destruction procedures not followed, food contact surfaces improperly cleaned, and time as a public health control not properly used. The facility had no employee health policy, employees were not reporting symptoms, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods was posted.
The Rest of the Miami-Dade List
Shinju Japanese Buffet on SW 72nd Street in Miami drew 10 high-severity and 7 intermediate violations, the highest intermediate count of any facility this week. Inspectors cited inadequate handwashing facilities, improper handwashing technique, food from unapproved sources, shellfish traceability failures, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, and time as a public health control not properly used. No employee health policy was in place.
Kitchen Bistro on NW 25th Street in Miami also drew 10 high-severity violations. The record shows food from unapproved sources, parasite destruction procedures not followed, food not cooked to required minimum temperature, and time as a public health control not properly used. No person in charge was present, employees were not reporting illness symptoms, and handwashing technique was cited as improper.
Feel Good Coffee Lounge on NW 107th Avenue in Hialeah drew 10 high-severity violations despite operating as a coffee lounge. Inspectors found food from unapproved sources, shellfish lacking identification records, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, and food not cooked to required minimum temperatures. No person in charge was present, no employee health policy existed, employees were not reporting symptoms, and handwashing technique was cited as improper.
Los Tortolitos Bakery II Corp on SE 12th Avenue in Homestead drew 10 high-severity violations. Records show food in poor condition or adulterated, shellfish traceability failures, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, time as a public health control not properly used, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. No employee health policy was in place and employees were not reporting illness symptoms.
Habana 1900 on Coral Way in Miami drew 5 high-severity violations, including two chemical-related citations: toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned, and no person in charge was present.
Broward County
Doughboys Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant on SE 17th Street in Fort Lauderdale led Broward County's list with 10 high-severity violations. Inspectors cited inadequate handwashing by food employees, improper handwashing technique, shellfish traceability failures, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. No person in charge was present, no employee health policy existed, and employees were not reporting symptoms.
Shahi Indopak Restaurant on North University Drive in Lauderhill drew 9 high-severity violations. Among the most specific: food contaminated by chemical, physical, or biological hazards; toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled; shellfish traceability failures; and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. Employees were not reporting illness symptoms, handwashing was inadequate, and no employee health policy was in place.
Bagel Time Cafe on North SR 7 in Margate drew 1 high-severity violation for improper handwashing technique, along with citations for reusing single-use items and inadequate ventilation and lighting.
What These Violations Mean
The most widespread high-severity violation this week was the absence of a written employee health policy, cited at 12 of the 15 facilities, including La Hormiga de Oro III, Churros Manolo, La Pasadita, Taj Mahal Indian Cuisine, Shinju Japanese Buffet, Kitchen Bistro, Feel Good Coffee Lounge, Los Tortolitos Bakery II, Doughboys Pizzeria, Shahi Indopak Restaurant, Habana 1900, and Macitas Restaurant. Without a written policy, there is no mechanism to keep a sick worker from handling food. Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million illnesses annually in the United States, spreads most efficiently through an infected food handler who has no formal instruction to stay home.
Several facilities were cited for failing to follow parasite destruction procedures, including Churros Manolo, Taj Mahal Indian Cuisine, and Kitchen Bistro. This violation applies when a facility serves raw or undercooked fish, pork, or wild game without first freezing it to temperatures that kill parasites such as Anisakis or Trichinella. At a Miami Beach tourist destination like Churros Manolo, that gap is compounded by the unapproved food source citation, which means inspectors had no documentation of where the food originated.
The unapproved food source violation, cited at La Hormiga de Oro III, Churros Manolo, La Pasadita, El Gallego Spanish Food, Kitchen Bistro, Feel Good Coffee Lounge, and Shinju Japanese Buffet, removes the traceability chain entirely. If a customer becomes ill, investigators cannot trace the food back to a distributor, a farm, or a processing facility. That traceability is the foundation of outbreak investigation.
Chemical violations at Habana 1900 and Shahi Indopak Restaurant represent a separate category of risk. Improperly stored or unlabeled cleaning chemicals near food preparation areas can contaminate food directly, and a mislabeled chemical can be applied to a surface at the wrong concentration or used in the wrong context entirely.
The Longer Record
The data this week does not include prior inspection counts for each facility, which limits direct comparison of chronic versus newer violators. What the violation profiles do reveal is a pattern of facilities where multiple foundational controls failed simultaneously. At La Hormiga de Oro III, El Gallego Spanish Food, Kitchen Bistro, Feel Good Coffee Lounge, and Doughboys Pizzeria, no person in charge was present during the inspection. That single condition is significant: inspectors consistently document more critical violations at facilities where no manager is actively overseeing operations, and it appeared at five of the week's most heavily cited locations.
Shinju Japanese Buffet accumulated the week's highest combined violation count when intermediate citations are included, 17 total, and its profile includes four distinct handwashing failures across infrastructure, technique, and policy categories. A buffet format, where food sits exposed and customers cycle through continuously, raises the stakes on every one of those failures.
The two Homestead facilities, La Pasadita and Los Tortolitos Bakery II, each drew 10 or more high-severity violations and both were cited for shellfish traceability failures. Shellfish traceability tags are required to remain on file for 90 days specifically because shellfish harvested from contaminated waters can carry Vibrio or norovirus, and investigators need those records to trace an outbreak back to a harvest site. Both facilities lacked them.
Los Tortolitos Bakery II also drew a citation for no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. A bakery serving food that requires that advisory is already in an elevated-risk category, and the absence of the advisory means customers with compromised immune systems had no way to know.
