RIVERVIEW, FL. State inspectors walked into the Texas Roadhouse at 13006 S US 301 on August 27, 2026, and found that the restaurant had no approved potable water supply, one of six high-severity violations documented that day. The restaurant was not emergency-closed.
A food establishment without a confirmed safe water source is using water of unknown origin for cooking, washing produce, cleaning surfaces, and handwashing. Inspectors also found that food was not cooked to required minimum temperatures, toxic substances were improperly stored or identified, and food contact surfaces had not been properly cleaned or sanitized. The restaurant served customers through all of it.
What Inspectors Found
The potable water violation is the kind that, in other inspections, triggers an immediate emergency closure. Water used for cooking, rinsing, and handwashing that does not come from an approved source can carry E. coli, Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and Legionella. None of those pathogens are visible, and none of them announce themselves until someone is sick.
The temperature violation compounds the water problem. Undercooking is one of the most direct routes to a foodborne illness outbreak. Salmonella in poultry is not killed below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. At this location, inspectors documented that food was not reaching required minimum temperatures.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for inadequate shell stock identification and records. Texas Roadhouse serves shellfish, which customers sometimes eat raw or lightly cooked. Without proper tagging records, there is no way to trace a contaminated batch back to its source if someone gets sick.
The restaurant had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked menu items. That advisory exists specifically to warn elderly diners, pregnant women, young children, and people with compromised immune systems, the groups most likely to suffer serious or fatal outcomes from undercooked food.
What These Violations Mean
The potable water citation is not a paperwork problem. Every rinse of produce, every pot of water brought to boil, every employee handwash at an unapproved source is a potential contamination event. The microorganisms that travel through non-potable water do not require large quantities to cause illness.
The food temperature violation at this location means that whatever pathogen load existed in raw protein was not reliably destroyed before reaching a plate. Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, and Campylobacter are the most common culprits in undercooked meat and poultry outbreaks. They are also among the most preventable, because heat kills them, when the food gets hot enough.
Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces and multi-use utensils work together to move bacteria from one food to the next. Cutting boards, prep surfaces, and utensils that are not properly sanitized develop bacterial biofilms within 24 hours, layers of bacteria that standard wiping does not remove and that resist even some sanitizing solutions.
The wiping cloth violation matters for the same reason. A cloth used to wipe a raw-meat surface and then used on a prep counter does not clean anything. It redistributes contamination. Together, these four violations describe a kitchen where bacteria introduced at one point had multiple pathways to spread.
The Longer Record
The August 27 inspection was not an anomaly. The Riverview Texas Roadhouse has accumulated 124 violations across 20 inspections on record, and six of those inspections in the past three years each produced five or more high-severity citations.
The pattern goes back at least to September 2023, when inspectors found nine high-severity violations in a single visit. That inspection was followed one week later by a clean report, zero high and zero intermediate violations, in October 2023. But the pattern reasserted itself. By March 2024, inspectors were back to seven high-severity violations. By October 2024, six. By April 2025, seven high and five intermediate in the same visit.
The April 2025 inspection stands out. Twelve total violations in one visit, the highest single-day tally in the available record, produced no emergency closure.
The restaurant has never been emergency-closed in its inspection history. That fact sits alongside a record that includes at least six separate inspections with six or more high-severity violations each, and a total violation count of 124 across 20 visits.
Open for Business
A follow-up inspection the next day, August 28, found one remaining high-severity violation. The correction happened in 24 hours.
What did not happen was a closure on August 27, when inspectors documented a restaurant with no approved potable water, food not reaching safe cooking temperatures, improperly sanitized surfaces, toxic substances stored wrong, no shellfish traceability records, and no advisory warning vulnerable customers about undercooked food.
Six high-severity violations. The doors stayed open.
