TAMPA, FL. Mandy's Restaurant at 4025 W Waters Ave drew 10 high-severity violations during a single inspection the week of May 12, the highest single-facility tally among 15 Tampa restaurants flagged that week, according to state records. Inspectors documented employees not reporting illness symptoms, inadequate handwashing, improper handwashing technique, food in poor condition, missing shellfish traceability records, unsanitized food contact surfaces, and misuse of time as a public health control, all in one visit.
That last violation, time as a public health control, means food was being held in the temperature danger zone between 41 and 135 degrees without the written time procedures the state requires as a substitute safeguard. At Mandy's, inspectors also flagged food described as being in poor condition, mislabeled, or adulterated, a citation that can cover anything from visibly spoiled product to items with no labeling indicating what they are or when they were prepared.
The Violations
Grand Hacienda at 11955 Sheldon Road was cited for six high-severity violations, including no person in charge present or performing duties, no employee health policy, employees not reporting illness symptoms, missing shellfish traceability records, unsanitized food contact surfaces, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods. Inspectors also documented improper sewage or wastewater disposal, an intermediate violation that means raw sewage had potential to contaminate the facility.
2 Alex's at 7049 W Waters Ave matched that six-violation count, with inspectors noting improper handwashing technique, missing shellfish records, unsanitized food contact surfaces, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items. Inadequate toilet facilities were also cited, a condition that state inspectors flag because it discourages proper handwashing by employees.
Circles Bistro at 13002 N Dale Mabry Hwy drew the same six-violation total, including no person in charge, employees not reporting illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, missing shellfish records, unsanitized food contact surfaces, and no consumer advisory.
Grillsmith Carrollwood at 14303 N Dale Mabry Hwy also produced six high-severity citations, but two of them stand out from the week's broader pattern. Inspectors documented that parasite destruction procedures were not followed and that food was not cooked to required minimum temperatures. Those two violations together mean fish or other proteins at risk for parasites may not have been frozen to the required kill-step temperature, and that cooked items were served below the minimum safe internal temperature, a direct pathway for Salmonella and other pathogens to reach customers.
Pei Wei Fresh Kitchen at 12927 N Dale Mabry Hwy was cited for toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled and toxic substances improperly identified, stored, or used, two separate chemical-handling violations in the same inspection. Both involve chemicals stored or handled near food, creating a direct contamination risk.
Motorworks Brewing Taproom at 707 Harbour Post Dr was cited for food from an unapproved or unknown source, one of the more serious findings of the week. Food from unapproved sources bypasses federal inspection entirely, meaning there is no traceability if a customer becomes ill.
Pho Quyen Cuisine at 2740 E Fowler Ave also drew a food-from-unapproved-source violation, alongside inadequate cooling and cold-holding equipment, a combination that means the restaurant had both uninspected product coming in and insufficient equipment to keep it at safe temperatures once it arrived. Single-use items were cited as being improperly reused as well.
Coppertail Brewing Co at 2601 E 2nd Ave was flagged for parasite destruction procedures not followed, toxic substances improperly identified or stored, and missing shellfish traceability records. Woods Bar and Grille at 8458 Sheldon Rd and Petra Restaurant at 1118 W Kennedy Blvd each drew four high-severity violations, both including toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled and unsanitized food contact surfaces.
True Food Kitchen at 3645 Midtown Dr and Predalina at 1001 E Cumberland Ave each accumulated five high-severity violations. Madison 2.0 at 1704 N Howard Ave drew five as well, including no person in charge and unsanitized food contact surfaces. New Wok on By at 15708 N Dale Mabry Hwy rounded out the list with four high-severity citations.
What These Violations Mean
The most common pattern across this week's inspections was the pairing of no employee health policy with employees not reporting illness symptoms. Those two violations appeared together at Mandy's Restaurant, Grand Hacienda, 2 Alex's, Grillsmith Carrollwood, True Food Kitchen, Predalina, Motorworks Brewing Taproom, Circles Bistro, and New Wok on By. Without a written health policy, workers have no documented instruction on when to stay home. Without reporting, a worker with Norovirus, Hepatitis A, or Salmonella can spend an entire shift handling food, and no one in the facility is required by internal procedure to intervene.
Shellfish traceability failures appeared at eleven of the fifteen facilities. When a restaurant cannot produce shell stock identification tags for oysters, clams, or mussels, there is no way to trace those items back to a harvest location or a licensed dealer if a customer becomes ill. Shellfish are filter feeders that concentrate whatever pathogens are present in the water they are harvested from. The tag requirement exists specifically so that health officials can identify and pull a contaminated batch before more people are exposed.
The parasite destruction violations at Grillsmith Carrollwood and Coppertail Brewing Co carry a different kind of risk. Proper parasite destruction requires fish to be frozen at specific temperatures for specific durations before being served raw or undercooked. When that step is skipped, parasites including Anisakis, a roundworm found in many saltwater fish, can survive and infect customers. At Grillsmith, that violation was accompanied by food not cooked to minimum temperature, meaning the facility's cooked items also did not reach the internal temperatures required to kill pathogens.
The chemical violations at Pei Wei Fresh Kitchen, Woods Bar and Grille, and Petra Restaurant are worth noting separately. Two of Pei Wei's five high-severity violations involved chemicals, one for improper storage or labeling and one for improper identification, storage, or use of toxic substances. Inspectors treat these as distinct citations because they address different failure modes: one is about where chemicals are kept relative to food, the other is about whether workers can identify what those chemicals are and use them correctly.
The Longer Record
Several facilities on this week's list have long inspection histories that make the current findings harder to dismiss as anomalies. Petra Restaurant has 35 prior inspections on record. Pho Quyen Cuisine has 34, as does Circles Bistro. 2 Alex's has 37, the highest prior inspection count of any facility on this week's list. That 2 Alex's has been inspected at least 37 times and still drew six high-severity violations this week, including improper handwashing technique and unsanitized food contact surfaces, is a fact the record states plainly.
Mandy's Restaurant, the week's top violator with ten high-severity citations, has 33 prior inspections behind it. The facility's current violations include categories, handwashing failures, illness-reporting gaps, unsanitized surfaces, that appear repeatedly across its inspection history and across the histories of other long-inspected facilities on this list.
Three facilities stand out as relatively new to the inspection record. Madison 2.0 has only 10 prior inspections and already drew five high-severity violations this week, including no person in charge and unsanitized food contact surfaces. True Food Kitchen has 9 prior inspections and produced five high-severity citations. Predalina, with 14 prior inspections, drew five as well, including time as a public health control not properly used, the same time-abuse violation found at Mandy's.
The Longer Pattern
Across all 15 facilities, the consumer advisory violation, no posted notice that raw or undercooked items carry risk, appeared in 12 of the 15 inspection reports. That advisory is required any time a menu offers items that may be served raw or undercooked, from sushi to burgers to oysters on the half shell. Its absence means customers with compromised immune systems, including pregnant women, the elderly, and people undergoing chemotherapy, have no way of knowing from the menu that a dish carries elevated risk.
Motorworks Brewing Taproom's food-from-unapproved-source violation remains the single most difficult finding in this week's data to contextualize, because the record does not specify what the unapproved item was or how long it had been in use.