ORLANDO, FL. Inspectors who visited U and Me Revolving Hot Pot at 12384 State Road 535 on May 26 found toxic chemicals improperly stored or labeled near the food operation, one of eight high-severity violations documented at the Orlando restaurant that day. The facility was not closed.
The inspection turned up a list of failures that cut across nearly every layer of food safety: management, employee health, handwashing, shellfish recordkeeping, temperature control, and chemical storage. Two intermediate violations were added on top of that.
What Inspectors Found
The person in charge was either absent or not performing required oversight duties during the inspection. That finding alone is significant: establishments without active managerial control produce three times as many critical violations, according to CDC data cited in state inspection records.
The restaurant also had no written employee health policy and no system for employees to report illness symptoms. Those two violations operate together. Without a policy, workers have no formal guidance on when to stay home. Without a reporting mechanism, a sick employee handling food has no structured obligation to disclose it.
Inspectors also cited improper handwashing technique. The violation is distinct from not washing hands at all. Even when an employee makes the attempt, incorrect technique leaves pathogens on hands that then transfer to food, surfaces, and utensils.
The shellfish violation adds a different dimension. A revolving hot pot restaurant serves items that customers cook themselves at the table, and shellfish such as oysters, clams, and mussels are common offerings. Without proper shell stock identification records, there is no traceability if a customer becomes ill. No records means no ability to identify the source, the harvest location, or the supplier.
The restaurant was also cited for failing to post a consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, a requirement specifically designed to warn elderly diners, pregnant women, young children, and anyone with a compromised immune system that certain menu items carry elevated risk.
What These Violations Mean
The combination of no illness policy and no symptom reporting is not a paperwork problem. Norovirus, the most common cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States, spreads primarily through infected food workers who handle food while symptomatic or shortly before symptoms appear. A written health policy is the mechanism that creates a legal and operational expectation for workers to disclose. Without it, the barrier between a sick employee and a customer's plate is informal at best.
The time-as-public-health-control violation is among the more technical findings but carries real consequence. When a restaurant opts to use time rather than temperature to keep food safe, it accepts a strict obligation: food in the temperature danger zone must be tracked, labeled, and discarded within a defined window. Failing to follow that protocol correctly means food that should have been thrown out stays in service.
The chemical storage violation is the most immediately acute risk in the group. Improperly stored or unlabeled chemicals near food areas can cause direct contamination, and mislabeled containers can result in chemicals being mistaken for food-safe substances. That is not a slow-build risk. It is the kind of failure that can harm a customer in a single meal.
Taken together, the May 26 inspection documented failures at the management level, the employee level, the food handling level, the sourcing level, and the chemical storage level simultaneously.
The Longer Record
The May 26 inspection did not represent a new low for this location. It represented a pattern.
U and Me Revolving Hot Pot has 36 inspections on record and 466 total violations across that history. The most recent prior inspection, from December 2025, produced 10 high-severity violations and 2 intermediate violations. The inspection before that, in May 2025, produced 6 high-severity violations. The April 2025 inspection produced 7 high-severity violations.
Going further back, the December 2024 inspection cycle tells the same story. A visit on December 9, 2024 produced 9 high-severity and 6 intermediate violations. A follow-up visit the next day, December 10, found 2 high-severity violations, suggesting some corrections were made, but the cycle repeated. By April 2024, inspectors were back documenting 10 high-severity and 8 intermediate violations in a single visit.
The restaurant was emergency-closed once before, in April 2015, after inspectors found roach activity. It reopened the following day.
The violations documented on May 26, 2026 were serious enough, numerous enough, and consistent enough with the prior record that the pattern is not ambiguous. Eight high-severity violations, a 466-violation history, a prior emergency closure, and recurring failures in the same categories, including management oversight, employee illness policy, and food safety controls.
The restaurant remained open after the May 26 inspection.