ORLANDO, FL. Back in April 2026, a state inspector walked into Ternerita Steakhouse on Universal Boulevard and left with a report documenting nine high-severity violations, including food not cooked to required minimum temperatures and no procedures in place to destroy parasites in fish or other proteins. The restaurant was not closed.
The April 9 inspection also turned up a person in charge who was either absent or not performing their duties, employees who were not reporting illness symptoms, and toxic chemicals stored improperly near food. Three intermediate violations were added to the tally, bringing the total to twelve cited deficiencies in a single visit.
What Inspectors Found
The undercooking violation is the one that should stop anyone who ate there in April. Salmonella survives in poultry below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. At a steakhouse, where beef may be ordered rare, the stakes around internal temperature controls are not abstract.
The parasite destruction finding compounds that concern. Fish served without proper freezing or cooking protocols can harbor Anisakis, a parasitic roundworm that causes severe abdominal pain and, in some cases, requires surgical removal. There is no way for a customer to know whether the fish on their plate was handled correctly.
The inspector also cited employees for not reporting illness symptoms. That violation, paired with the absence of any written employee health policy, means a worker showing signs of Norovirus or another communicable illness had no documented protocol requiring them to stay away from food preparation.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled near food. That is not a paperwork issue. Mislabeled or misplaced chemicals near food surfaces can cause acute poisoning with no warning to the person eating the meal.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of violations documented on April 9 describes a kitchen operating without several of the most basic safeguards against foodborne illness. When a person in charge is absent or not performing oversight duties, CDC data shows that establishments accumulate critical violations at roughly three times the rate of those with active managerial control. At Ternerita, that absent oversight coincided with nine high-severity findings in a single inspection.
The illness-reporting failures deserve particular attention. Norovirus accounts for roughly 20 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States each year, and food workers are among its most efficient transmission vectors. A written health policy that requires symptomatic workers to report and stay home is one of the simplest barriers against an outbreak. The inspector found no such policy in place and found employees who were not reporting symptoms.
Improper handwashing technique was also cited. Studies show that even when workers make an attempt to wash their hands, incorrect technique leaves pathogens on skin. Combined with improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and improperly used wiping cloths, the April inspection described a kitchen where contamination could move freely from surface to food to plate.
The food contact surface violation matters because cutting boards, prep counters, and utensils that are not properly sanitized become transfer points for bacteria. Bacterial biofilms can develop on inadequately cleaned utensils within 24 hours, and those biofilms protect the bacteria inside from standard cleaning attempts.
The Longer Record
The April 2026 inspection was not an outlier. State records show 28 inspections on file for Ternerita Steakhouse, with 277 total violations documented across that history.
Seven of the eight most recent inspections before April 2026 included high-severity violations. The October 2025 visit logged ten high-severity violations and three intermediate ones. The March 2025 visit logged eight high-severity violations. The October 2024 visit logged seven. The pattern does not describe a restaurant that fixed problems between visits and then slipped again. It describes a restaurant that has accumulated high-severity citations in nearly every inspection cycle going back to at least 2023.
The August 2023 inspection also produced ten high-severity violations, matching the October 2025 count as the worst single visits on record. The only inspection in the recent history that came back clean on high-severity violations was March 2023, which produced zero high-severity findings, and May 2024, which produced one.
Despite 277 total violations across 28 inspections, the facility has never been emergency-closed.
Still Open
State inspectors documented nine high-severity violations at Ternerita Steakhouse on April 9, 2026, including food served without reaching required cooking temperatures, no parasite destruction protocol for fish, employees not reporting illness symptoms, and toxic chemicals stored near food. The restaurant remained open after the inspection.
The 277 violations on record across 28 inspections span more than two years of documented findings. The April visit added nine more to that count.
Ternerita Steakhouse was open for dinner that night.