MIAMI, FL. Fifteen South Florida restaurants were cited for three or more high-severity health violations during the week of October 17, 2026, with five of those facilities each drawing 10 or more high-priority citations in a single inspection sweep that stretched from Ocean Drive to Homestead and north to Hialeah.
The Worst of the Week
Havana Beach at 740 Ocean Drive in Miami Beach drew 11 high-severity violations and 5 intermediate, the highest combined total of the week. Inspectors cited the restaurant for having no employee health policy, for an employee failing to report illness symptoms, for inadequate handwashing facilities, for improper handwashing technique, for food from an unapproved or unknown source, for inadequate shell stock identification, for food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, and for food not cooked to the required minimum temperature.
Taj Mahal Indian Cuisine at 2216 NE 123rd Street in North Miami also reached 11 high-severity violations, including a citation for parasite destruction procedures not followed, a violation that means fish or pork served at the restaurant may not have been frozen or cooked to the temperatures required to kill Anisakis, tapeworm, or Trichinella. Inspectors also cited the restaurant for food in poor condition or adulterated, for no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, and for improper time-as-public-health-control procedures, in addition to the employee illness and handwashing failures.
Mr Cachapa Hialeah at 2085 W 76th Street in Hialeah matched that 11-violation high-severity count and added 6 intermediate violations, giving it the highest total violation count of the week at 17. The citations included no person in charge present or performing duties, no employee health policy, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, inadequate shell stock identification, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, and improper use of time as a public health control.
Ocean Drive, Wynwood, and Brickell
The week's violations were not confined to neighborhood spots. Havana Beach sits on one of Miami Beach's most heavily trafficked tourist blocks. The hotel restaurant at Hotel Indigo Miami Brickell / Atwell Suites at 145 SW 11th Street drew 5 high-severity violations, including food from an unapproved or unknown source, food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, and no allergen awareness demonstrated. A single intermediate violation for improper sewage or wastewater disposal was also documented.
Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen at 316 NW 24th Street in Wynwood logged 10 high-severity violations, including food from an unapproved source, parasite destruction procedures not followed, food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, and improper use of time as a public health control. No person in charge was present or performing duties at the time of the inspection.
Nusr-Et Steakhouse at 999 Brickell Avenue drew a single high-severity citation, for food contact surfaces not properly cleaned or sanitized, with no intermediate violations recorded.
Hialeah, Homestead, and the Rest of Miami-Dade
Feel Good Coffee Lounge at 13750 NW 107th Avenue in Hialeah accumulated 10 high-severity violations despite its name. The citations included no person in charge present, no employee health policy, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, food from an unapproved source, inadequate shell stock identification, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, and food not cooked to the required minimum temperature.
Shinju Japanese Buffet at 8800 SW 72nd Street in Miami drew 10 high-severity violations and 7 intermediate, the second-highest combined total of the week at 17. Inspectors cited inadequate handwashing facilities, improper handwashing technique, food from an unapproved source, inadequate shell stock identification, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, and improper use of time as a public health control.
Shorty's Bar B Q at 11575 SW 40th Street in Miami was cited for 8 high-severity violations, including toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled, toxic substances improperly identified or stored, no allergen awareness demonstrated, no employee health policy, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, and food not cooked to the required minimum temperature.
El Gallego Spanish Food at 7171-7173 SW 8th Street in Miami drew 11 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate. The citations included no person in charge present, inadequate handwashing facilities, improper handwashing technique, food from an unapproved source, inadequate shell stock identification, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, and improper use of time as a public health control.
Habana 1900 at 8770 Coral Way in Miami was cited for 5 high-severity violations including no person in charge, no employee health policy, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, and two separate chemical storage violations. Three intermediate violations included multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, improper sanitizing procedures, and inadequate toilet facilities.
La Pasadita at 624 N English Avenue in Homestead drew 6 high-severity violations, including an employee not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate shell stock identification, food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, improper use of time as a public health control, and two chemical storage violations.
Ashoka Indian Cuisine at 295 NW 82nd Avenue in Miami was cited for 3 high-severity violations: food in poor condition or adulterated, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
Kitchen Bistro at 3401 NW 25th Street in Miami drew 4 high-severity violations, including no person in charge, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, and food contact surfaces not properly cleaned.
The lone Broward County entry, Bagel Time Cafe at 2478 N SR 7 in Margate, drew 1 high-severity violation for improper handwashing technique and 2 intermediate violations.
What These Violations Mean
The most common high-severity pattern this week was the combination of no employee health policy and an employee not reporting illness symptoms, found together at Havana Beach, Taj Mahal Indian Cuisine, Mr Cachapa Hialeah, Shorty's Bar B Q, Shinju Japanese Buffet, Feel Good Coffee Lounge, and Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen. These two violations operate as a system failure. Without a written health policy, workers have no documented obligation to disclose that they are sick. Without that disclosure, a worker with Norovirus, Salmonella, or Hepatitis A can handle ready-to-eat food through an entire shift. Norovirus alone causes 20 million illnesses in the United States each year, and food workers are its primary vehicle in restaurant outbreaks.
Five facilities this week, including El Gallego Spanish Food, Shinju Japanese Buffet, Mr Cachapa Hialeah, Feel Good Coffee Lounge, and La Pasadita, were cited for inadequate shell stock identification. Shellfish, including oysters, clams, and mussels, are high-risk foods frequently consumed raw or lightly cooked. When the identification tags that trace a specific batch of shellfish back to its harvest location are missing or incomplete, there is no way to identify the source if a customer becomes ill. During a Vibrio or Hepatitis A outbreak linked to shellfish, those tags are the only tool investigators have to pull contaminated product before more people are sickened.
Parasite destruction violations at Taj Mahal Indian Cuisine and Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen are among the most underreported serious citations in restaurant inspections. When fish or pork is served without being frozen to the temperatures and durations required by state code, parasites including Anisakis in fish and Trichinella in pork can survive to cause illness in customers. These violations are especially significant at restaurants serving dishes that may feature undercooked or lightly prepared proteins.
The toxic chemical storage violations at Shorty's Bar B Q, Habana 1900, and La Pasadita, where chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled near food, represent a category of risk that can cause immediate acute illness rather than the slower onset of bacterial foodborne disease. A mislabeled chemical container used in food preparation can put a customer in the emergency room within hours.
The Longer Record
The data available for this week does not include prior inspection counts for all 15 facilities, which limits a full comparative history. What the violation totals alone reveal is a concentration of management-level failures across Miami-Dade. Six of the 15 facilities this week were cited for no person in charge present or performing duties, a violation that state data associates with three times the rate of critical violations at other establishments. Those six were Mr Cachapa Hialeah, Kitchen Bistro, El Gallego Spanish Food, Habana 1900, Feel Good Coffee Lounge, and Dukunoo Jamaican Kitchen.
El Gallego Spanish Food at 7171-7173 SW 8th Street reached 11 high-severity violations while also lacking a person in charge, a combination that suggests the problems documented this week were not being actively caught or corrected by management before the inspector arrived. The same pattern held at Mr Cachapa Hialeah, where 11 high-severity violations and 6 intermediate citations accumulated in a facility where no one was formally in charge during the inspection.
Feel Good Coffee Lounge in Hialeah is notable for the breadth of its citations. Ten high-severity violations at a coffee lounge, a format that typically handles far less complex food preparation than a full-service restaurant, points to foundational compliance gaps rather than the kind of isolated incident that can occur in a high-volume kitchen.
Havana Beach on Ocean Drive drew the week's most diverse set of high-severity violations, touching employee illness policy, handwashing infrastructure, food sourcing, shellfish traceability, cooking temperatures, and surface sanitation simultaneously. That range, 11 high-severity violations across six distinct risk categories at a restaurant on one of Miami Beach's busiest tourist corridors, is the kind of inspection record that does not resolve itself between visits.
