ROYAL PALM BEACH, FL. A state inspector walked into Souvlaki Fast at 1250 Royal Palm Beach Blvd. on July 27 and found food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, a violation that means pathogens like Salmonella can survive the cooking process and reach a customer's plate.
That was one of six high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooking violation was not the only finding tied directly to what lands on a customer's plate. Inspectors also cited the facility for having no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, meaning customers with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, elderly diners, and young children had no notice that any item on the menu carried elevated risk.
Toxic substances were found to be improperly identified, stored, or used. That violation sits alongside the undercooking citation and the illness-reporting failure as the three findings most capable of causing immediate harm.
The two intermediate violations added to the picture. Inspectors found improper sewage or wastewater disposal on the premises, and multi-use utensils were not properly cleaned.
What These Violations Mean
The failure to cook food to required minimum temperatures is one of the most direct pathways to a foodborne illness outbreak. Salmonella in poultry, for example, survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. A customer eating undercooked protein at Souvlaki Fast on July 27 had no way of knowing the food had not reached a safe internal temperature.
The employee illness-reporting failure compounds that risk significantly. Food workers who do not report symptoms are the primary driver of multi-victim outbreaks, particularly for norovirus, which spreads rapidly from an infectious employee to dozens of customers through food contact. At Souvlaki Fast, that failure existed at the same time as the improper handwashing technique citation, meaning the two violations reinforce each other: an ill employee who also washes hands incorrectly presents a compounded transmission risk.
The shellfish traceability violation is a separate category of danger. Shellfish consumed raw or lightly cooked, including oysters, clams, and mussels, carry bacteria and viruses that can cause serious illness. The identification and recordkeeping requirements exist specifically so that if a customer gets sick, the source lot can be traced and pulled. Without those records, that chain of accountability breaks entirely.
Improperly cleaned multi-use utensils develop bacterial biofilms within 24 hours. Those biofilms protect bacteria from standard cleaning agents, meaning the problem compounds with each use cycle. Combined with the improper sewage disposal finding, the July 27 inspection described a facility with failures at multiple points in the food preparation and sanitation chain.
The Longer Record
The July 27 inspection was not an anomaly. Souvlaki Fast has 24 inspections on record and has accumulated 134 total violations across that history.
The pattern of high-severity findings is consistent. In January 2026, inspectors cited four high-severity and two intermediate violations. In January 2025, three high-severity and two intermediate. In August 2024, four high-severity violations on August 20 triggered an emergency closure for sewage backup. The facility was allowed to reopen the following day after a follow-up inspection logged zero violations, but by January 2025 the high-severity citations had returned.
The sewage backup closure in August 2024 is directly relevant to the July 2026 inspection. Improper sewage or wastewater disposal appeared again as an intermediate violation on July 27, nearly two years after the same category of problem forced a temporary shutdown.
The July 27 inspection produced the highest single-visit high-severity count in the facility's recent record, six citations in one visit. The follow-up inspection conducted the next day, July 28, found one high-severity violation remaining. That single remaining high-severity citation after a six-violation inspection is itself notable.
Open for Business
Florida's emergency closure authority exists for situations where inspectors determine a facility poses an immediate threat to public health. Six high-severity violations, including undercooking, unreported employee illness, improper handwashing, and toxic substance mishandling, did not meet that threshold at Souvlaki Fast on July 27.
The facility served customers that day.
