FORT MYERS, FL. State inspectors visited XiXi Hibachi and Sushi on Gladiolus Drive on August 14, 2026, and found that the restaurant had no documented procedures for destroying parasites in the raw fish it was serving to customers.
At a sushi restaurant, that is not a footnote. It is the central function of the kitchen.
What Inspectors Found
The inspection logged 10 high-severity violations and 4 intermediate violations on a single visit. The parasite destruction citation means inspectors found no evidence the restaurant was properly freezing fish before serving it raw, the standard method for killing Anisakis and tapeworm larvae that survive in uncooked seafood.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for food not cooked to required minimum temperatures. Undercooking is a direct pathway for Salmonella survival in poultry and other proteins.
The violations did not stop there. Inspectors found no written employee health policy and documented that employees were not reporting illness symptoms. Those two citations together describe a kitchen where a sick cook has no formal obligation to stay home and no system requiring disclosure.
Toxic chemicals were found improperly stored or labeled. Inadequate shellfish identification records meant there was no way to trace oysters, clams, or mussels back to their source if a customer got sick. Time as a public health control was not being properly applied, meaning food that should have been tracked and discarded after a set window was not being managed that way.
The restaurant also had no consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foods, and staff demonstrated no allergen awareness.
On the intermediate side, inspectors cited improper sewage or wastewater disposal, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, inadequate ventilation and lighting, and inadequate or improperly maintained toilet facilities.
What These Violations Mean
The parasite destruction citation is the one that defines the risk at a sushi restaurant specifically. Florida regulations require that fish served raw or undercooked be frozen to a specific temperature for a specific duration before service, a process that kills Anisakis roundworms and tapeworm larvae that live in the muscle tissue of fish. When that process is not documented or followed, every plate of sashimi or nigiri carries a risk that customers cannot see and cannot consent to, because the restaurant also had no consumer advisory posted.
The illness reporting failures compound that risk significantly. Food workers who do not report symptoms are the leading cause of multi-victim Norovirus outbreaks, according to federal food safety data. Without a written health policy, there is no framework requiring a sick employee to disclose symptoms or stay out of the kitchen. At a restaurant where handwashing technique was also cited as improper, the transmission pathway from an ill worker to a customer's plate is short.
The allergen citation carries its own weight. Food allergies affect an estimated 32 million Americans, and allergic reactions send roughly 30,000 people to emergency rooms each year. A kitchen with no demonstrated allergen awareness cannot reliably keep shellfish proteins out of a dish ordered by someone with a shellfish allergy, or peanut derivatives away from a customer who could go into anaphylaxis.
The improper sewage disposal finding adds a layer that is harder to dismiss. Fecal contamination introduced through improperly handled wastewater can reach food contact surfaces, utensils, and food itself. Combined with the utensil cleaning citation, which describes surfaces that develop bacterial biofilms within 24 hours of inadequate cleaning, the kitchen environment documented in this inspection was compromised at multiple points simultaneously.
The Longer Record
XiXi Hibachi and Sushi has three inspections on record. The August 2026 visit is the worst.
The previous inspection, in November 2025, found 8 high-severity violations and 1 intermediate. The inspection before that, in July 2025, found no high-severity violations and only 1 intermediate. The trajectory from that relatively clean July 2025 visit to 8 high-severity violations four months later, and then to 10 high-severity violations nine months after that, describes a facility moving in a consistent direction.
The restaurant has accumulated 33 total violations across its three inspections on record. It has never been emergency-closed. The November 2025 inspection, which also produced 8 high-severity violations, did not result in closure either.
Open for Business
State inspectors documented 10 high-severity violations at XiXi Hibachi and Sushi on August 14, 2026. Violations included no parasite destruction procedures for raw fish, food not cooked to minimum temperatures, no employee illness reporting system, improper chemical storage, and no allergen awareness among staff.
The restaurant was not closed.
It remained open to serve customers.
