MIAMI, FL. Food at SR Ceviche on NE Miami Gardens Drive was not being cooked to required minimum temperatures on April 20, according to state inspection records, a finding that puts customers at direct risk of Salmonella and other pathogens that survive undercooking. Inspectors also found toxic chemicals stored improperly near food areas. The restaurant was not closed.
The April 20 inspection produced nine high-severity violations and five intermediate violations, a total of 14 citations in a single visit. State inspectors documented failures spanning cooking temperatures, hand hygiene, chemical storage, food contact surfaces, and disease reporting, a cascade of breakdowns that inspectors associate with the absence of active management control.
What Inspectors Found
No person in charge was present or performing duties during the inspection. CDC data links that single condition to three times the rate of critical violations at similar establishments, because without active managerial oversight, multiple systems tend to fail at once. That pattern held here.
Inspectors found employees were not reporting illness symptoms and the restaurant had no written employee health policy. Those two violations together create a direct transmission route for Norovirus, which causes roughly 20 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States each year and spreads rapidly in food service settings where sick workers continue handling food.
The handwashing record was equally concerning. Inspectors cited both inadequate handwashing facilities and improper hand and arm washing technique, meaning that even when employees attempted to wash their hands, the attempt was insufficient to remove pathogens. Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized, compounding the cross-contamination risk.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled near food areas. Mislabeled or misplaced chemicals create an acute poisoning risk when they contaminate food or are mistaken for food-safe products.
The restaurant also lacked a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. For a ceviche restaurant, that omission is particularly significant. Customers who are elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised rely on that disclosure to make informed choices about dishes that may contain raw or lightly treated seafood.
What These Violations Mean
The undercooking violation is the most direct threat to anyone who ate at SR Ceviche on April 20. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. When food is not brought to required minimum temperatures, pathogens that should be killed by heat remain viable and reach the customer's plate. There is no visible sign that food is undercooked.
The combination of no employee illness policy and no symptom reporting creates the conditions for a multi-victim outbreak. Norovirus can be transmitted by a single infected food worker handling ready-to-eat items, and the virus is stable on surfaces for days. Without a written policy requiring sick workers to stay home, there is no mechanism to interrupt that chain.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and improperly cleaned multi-use utensils compound the problem. Bacterial biofilms develop on insufficiently cleaned surfaces within 24 hours and are significantly harder to eliminate than fresh contamination. When sanitizer concentration is also incorrect, as inspectors found here, those biofilms survive the cleaning process entirely.
Improper sewage or wastewater disposal rounds out the picture. Raw sewage contains fecal pathogens including E. coli and Hepatitis A. When disposal is improper, those pathogens can reach food preparation surfaces, equipment, and food itself.
The Longer Record
The April 20 inspection was not an outlier. State records show SR Ceviche has been inspected 24 times and has accumulated 312 total violations across its history, with zero emergency closures.
The pattern of high-severity violations is consistent across nearly every inspection on record. In September 2025, inspectors found eight high-severity violations. In May 2024, nine high-severity violations, matching the April 20 count exactly. In September 2024, seven. The restaurant has not recorded a clean inspection in any of the eight most recent visits documented in state records.
The violations are not rotating categories. Management failures, food handling deficiencies, and hygiene breakdowns appear repeatedly across multiple years. A facility that logs four or more high-severity violations in consecutive inspections spanning 2022 through 2026 is not experiencing isolated bad days.
A follow-up inspection on April 21, the day after the April 20 visit, found one high-severity violation and two intermediate violations remaining. The most acute findings had been addressed. The restaurant's longer record had not changed.
Still Open
State inspectors documented nine high-severity violations at SR Ceviche on April 20, 2026. The violations included undercooking, toxic chemical storage near food, no illness reporting system, and no person in charge on site.
The restaurant was not emergency-closed. It served customers that day.