ORLANDO, FL. A Chinese restaurant on Alafaya Trail was serving shellfish with no records to trace where those oysters, clams, or mussels came from, according to a state inspection conducted September 9, 2026.
Summer Palace at 588 S. Alafaya Trail drew six high-severity violations and two intermediate violations during that inspection. State inspectors documented failures in handwashing infrastructure, handwashing technique, shellfish traceability, food contact surface sanitation, time as a public health control, and consumer disclosure for raw or undercooked foods. Despite all six high-severity citations, the restaurant was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The shellfish traceability violation is among the most serious on the list. When a restaurant cannot produce shell stock identification tags or records, there is no paper trail connecting the food on a customer's plate to the harvest location, harvest date, or dealer certification. If someone gets sick, investigators have nothing to trace.
The restaurant was also cited for having no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods. Summer Palace serves dishes that include items that can be ordered raw or undercooked, and without a visible disclosure, customers who are elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised have no way to know they are taking on elevated risk.
The two handwashing violations compound each other. One cited inadequate facilities, meaning the physical infrastructure for handwashing was not up to code. The other cited improper technique, meaning that even when employees did attempt to wash their hands, they were not doing it correctly. Together, those two citations describe a kitchen where pathogen transfer from hands to food was a realistic, ongoing possibility.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for food contact surfaces that were not properly cleaned or sanitized, and for improper use of time as a public health control. When a facility uses time rather than temperature to manage food safety, it must strictly track how long food stays in the danger zone between 41 and 135 degrees. The citation indicates that tracking was not happening correctly.
What These Violations Mean
The shellfish traceability failure carries consequences that extend beyond a single meal. Oysters and clams are filter feeders that can concentrate bacteria and viruses, including Vibrio and norovirus, from surrounding water. They are frequently eaten raw or barely cooked. If a customer at Summer Palace became ill after eating shellfish, and the restaurant had no records identifying the harvest source, public health investigators would have no starting point for tracing a potential outbreak.
The absence of a consumer advisory for raw foods is a direct failure to warn the people most at risk. Pregnant women, cancer patients, people on immunosuppressants, and adults over 65 face significantly higher odds of serious illness from pathogens like Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli. A posted advisory is a basic, low-cost protection. Summer Palace did not have one on September 9.
Reusing single-use items, the intermediate violation, is a separate contamination pathway. Gloves, utensils, and containers designed for one use accumulate bacteria and residue with each additional use. Combined with improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, that creates multiple overlapping routes for contamination to reach a customer's plate.
The Longer Record
The September inspection was not an anomaly. State records show Summer Palace has been inspected 27 times and has accumulated 304 total violations over its inspection history. It has never been emergency-closed.
The recent inspection pattern is consistent and troubling. On February 9, 2026, inspectors found five high-severity and three intermediate violations. On August 27, 2025, it was six high-severity and two intermediate violations, an identical count to the September 2026 inspection. On February 13, 2025, five high-severity and two intermediate. On September 23, 2024, six high and three intermediate. On June 7, 2024, seven high and three intermediate.
The worst single inspection on record was March 13, 2024, when inspectors documented 10 high-severity violations and five intermediate violations in a single visit.
The only clean inspection in the recent record was April 12, 2023, when inspectors found zero high-severity and zero intermediate violations. That result stands alone in a string of inspections that have otherwise produced between three and ten high-severity citations per visit.
Open for Business
Six high-severity violations in a single inspection is not a minor stumble. The combination of shellfish with no traceability records, no consumer advisory for raw foods, handwashing failures at both the infrastructure and technique level, improperly sanitized food contact surfaces, and mismanaged time controls describes a kitchen operating well outside the standards designed to prevent customers from getting sick.
Summer Palace remained open after the September 9 inspection. As of that date, it had not been emergency-closed at any point in 27 inspections on record.
