APOPKA, FL. A state inspector walked into Takami Sushi & Bar on Ocoee Apopka Road in September and found food sourced from unapproved or unknown suppliers sitting in a restaurant that serves raw fish to the public, with no documentation to trace where that food came from if someone got sick.
That was one of seven high-severity violations cited at the Apopka sushi restaurant on September 22. The facility was not closed.
What Inspectors Found
The shellfish traceability violation compounds the sourcing problem. Inspectors cited the restaurant for inadequate shell stock identification and records, meaning there was no reliable documentation of where oysters, clams, or mussels came from. At a restaurant that serves raw and lightly cooked seafood, that gap matters: if a customer became ill from contaminated shellfish, investigators would have no chain of custody to follow.
The handwashing record was cited twice, separately. Inspectors found both that food employees were not washing their hands adequately and that the technique used during any washing attempt was improper. That is not a paperwork problem. It means pathogens present on workers' hands were not being removed before those hands touched food.
Employees were also found not reporting symptoms of illness. At a sushi bar, where much of the food is handled directly and served raw or minimally processed, a sick employee who keeps working is a direct transmission route to customers.
Food contact surfaces were not properly cleaned or sanitized. Multi-use utensils were not properly cleaned either. The inspector also cited the restaurant for improper sewage or wastewater disposal, and for failing to post a consumer advisory notifying customers that raw or undercooked foods carry elevated risk.
That last violation carries a specific weight at a sushi restaurant. Pregnant women, elderly customers, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system who orders raw fish at Takami had no written notice that they were taking on additional risk.
What These Violations Mean
Food from unapproved sources is a foundational food safety failure. The federal inspection system, whatever its limits, exists to screen for Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli before product reaches a kitchen. When a restaurant bypasses that system, there is no safety net and, critically, no paper trail. If a customer at Takami became ill from contaminated fish or shellfish purchased outside approved channels, investigators would have no supplier to contact, no lot number to trace, no recall to trigger.
The shellfish problem sharpens that risk considerably. Oysters, clams, and mussels are filter feeders that concentrate pathogens from the water they grow in, including norovirus and Vibrio bacteria. The shell stock tagging system exists specifically because raw shellfish illnesses are notoriously hard to trace after the fact. Without those records at Takami, that tracing becomes nearly impossible.
The illness-reporting and handwashing violations together describe a kitchen where contamination could move from a sick worker to a customer's plate with no barrier in between. Norovirus, one of the most common causes of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, spreads primarily through exactly this route: an ill food handler who does not report symptoms, does not wash hands properly, and handles food that is served raw. At a sushi bar, there is no cooking step to interrupt that chain.
Improper sewage disposal introduces the risk of fecal contamination in a facility where raw food is prepared. That is not a theoretical concern. It is a direct contamination pathway.
The Longer Record
Takami Sushi & Bar has two inspections on record. The first, conducted on June 4, 2026, found no high-severity violations. Two intermediate violations were cited. That inspection, on paper, looked routine.
The September 22 inspection was not routine. Seven high-severity violations in a single visit, at a facility with only two inspections on record, means this inspection accounts for all of the restaurant's high-severity history in one afternoon.
The facility has never been emergency-closed. The June inspection gave no indication that a visit three months later would produce this volume of serious findings. Whether the conditions documented in September existed in June and were missed, or developed in the intervening months, the record does not say.
What the record does say: on September 22, 2026, a state inspector found food from unknown sources, no illness reporting, two separate handwashing failures, missing shellfish records, unsanitary food contact surfaces, improperly cleaned utensils, sewage disposal problems, and no warning to customers eating raw fish.
Still Open
State emergency closure authority is triggered when inspectors determine that conditions pose an immediate threat to public health serious enough to require shutting the facility down on the spot. That determination was not made at Takami on September 22.
The restaurant remained open after the inspection.
Customers who ate there that day, or in the days that followed before any corrections were made, had no way of knowing that the kitchen behind their sushi order had seven high-severity violations on its inspection report.
