CORAL GABLES, FL. A state inspector visiting Terre del Sapore on Giralda Avenue on April 21 found that food was not being cooked to the minimum temperatures required to kill pathogens, one of seven high-severity violations documented at the upscale Italian restaurant that day. The facility was not closed.
The inspection turned up a list of problems that, taken together, touched nearly every layer of food safety: sourcing, preparation, cooking, chemical storage, and disclosure to customers.
What Inspectors Found
Inspectors cited the restaurant for failing to follow parasite destruction procedures, a violation that applies when fish, pork, or wild game is served raw or undercooked. Without verified freezing at the required temperature and duration, or thorough cooking, parasites including Anisakis in fish and Trichinella in pork can survive and infect customers.
Shell stock identification records were also absent. Oysters, clams, and mussels require tags that trace them back to their harvest origin, and those records must be kept on file. Without them, there is no way to identify the source if a customer becomes ill.
Food contact surfaces, including cutting boards and prep equipment, were not properly cleaned or sanitized. That failure creates a direct transfer route for bacteria between raw proteins and ready-to-eat food.
The inspector also found that the restaurant was not properly applying time as a public health control. When temperature control is not used, food is supposed to be tracked by time and discarded within strict windows. Records showed that system was not being followed correctly, meaning food could have remained in the bacterial growth range without anyone knowing for how long.
Toxic chemicals were stored or labeled improperly near food areas. And the restaurant had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked items, which is required so that elderly diners, pregnant women, and people with compromised immune systems can make informed decisions about what they order.
The single intermediate violation involved inadequate cooling and cold-holding equipment, meaning the physical hardware was not capable of maintaining the temperatures the law requires.
What These Violations Mean
The cooking temperature violation is among the most direct risks on the list. Salmonella in poultry requires an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit to be destroyed. When food is pulled before reaching that threshold, the bacteria survives and reaches the customer's plate. At Terre del Sapore, inspectors documented that this standard was not being met.
The shellfish traceability failure compounds the raw-food risk. Oysters and clams are typically consumed raw or barely cooked, making them among the highest-risk items on any menu. The identification tags required by law exist specifically so that, when a cluster of illnesses is reported, investigators can trace the product to its harvest bed and pull it from distribution. Without those records, that chain breaks entirely.
The missing consumer advisory matters most for the people who would never know to ask. A pregnant woman ordering a lightly cooked fish dish, or an elderly customer eating oysters, has no way of knowing the restaurant has not disclosed the risk unless the menu says so. At Terre del Sapore on April 21, it did not.
Improperly stored chemicals near food represent a different category of danger, one that is acute rather than cumulative. A mislabeled container or a chemical stored above a prep surface can contaminate food directly, and the resulting illness can be immediate and severe.
The Longer Record
This was not the restaurant's worst inspection on paper, but it was close. State records show Terre del Sapore has been inspected 20 times and has accumulated 108 total violations across that history.
The October 2025 inspection produced six high-severity violations with no intermediate violations alongside them, a nearly identical profile to what inspectors found this April. The April 2023 inspection recorded two high-severity violations, the December 2023 visit recorded two more, and the August 2022 inspection produced six high-severity violations and three intermediate ones.
The pattern is not one of occasional lapses. In eight of the inspections on record, the restaurant drew at least two high-severity violations. The facility has never been emergency-closed.
The one inspection that produced zero violations of any kind came in December 2024. Two days before that clean result, a separate visit had found one high-severity and three intermediate violations.
Still Open
Florida's emergency closure authority exists for situations where inspectors determine that continued operation poses an immediate threat to public health. Seven high-severity violations at Terre del Sapore on April 21 did not meet that threshold, at least not in the judgment of the inspector on site that day.
The restaurant on Giralda Avenue was still serving customers when the inspection closed.