A look at which restaurants failed inspection
Automatic tips added without telling customers, rodents marking their territory everywhere and restaurant staff ignoring basic food safety instructions highlight a fat list of South Florida restaurants that failed inspection.
How corpulent is this list of filth, vermin and bad food decisions? This list of 22 eateries is the first Sick and Shut Down List with multiple restaurants from each South Florida county — Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.
Weekly reminder: This is a totally reactive list. We don’t do the inspections. We don’t decide who gets inspected. All inspections are done by the Florida Department of Business & Professional regulation. Complaint inspections are borne from customer complaints to the DBPR, which you can make on the agency’s website.
Restaurants stay closed after failed inspections until passing re-inspection. Most places pass that first callback inspection, which is usually the next day. We note below when there’s a divergence from this norm.
Also, general information: Food kept in cold storage — reach-in coolers, walk-in coolers in restaurants, your refrigerator at home — should be stored at or below 41 degrees.
In alphabetical order:
Boardwalk Bar & Grill, 31044 Avenue A., Big Pine Key
Routine inspection, 11 total violations, three high priority violations
A common violation leads off the list: “Accumulation of mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.”
“Exterior door has a gap at the threshold that opens to the outside.” Uh-oh. That can lead to …
“Rodent activity present as evidenced by approximately 10 rodent droppings found on top of dish machine.”
But there was “food stored on floor. In the kitchen, french fries and sauces at the walk-in cooler and potatoes in dry storage.”
The “potato cutter blade is soiled.”
A broken cold storage unit couldn’t handle its job, so 56-degree cooked rice and 53-degree shredded lettuce got hit with Stop Sales.
Boardwalk Bar & Grill, 31044 Avenue A, Big Pine Key Monroe County Property Records Chill-N Kendall, 9065 SW 107th Ave., Kendall
Routine inspection, nine total violations, five high priority violations
“An insect control device is installed over a food preparation area.” The inspector “observed a bug zapper hanging on a dry food rack in back prep room” and one “installed over the prep table at the front counter.”
The placement didn’t matter or work because the inspector also …
“Observed 15-plus live flying insects landing inside containers, directly touching chocolate crunch bar, graham crackers, gummy worms, chopped pecans, Oreo cookies, chocolate chip cookie, Kit Kats and peanut butter cup, containers at the front counter … Observed two live flying insects landing inside containers directly touching white chocolate chips and mini chocolate chips at the front counter.”
Just as the flies landed on the food, a monsoon of Stop Sales came down and sent it all into the trash.
More than five flies were “under the front counter landing on a brownie and cookie sheet tray.” Over 20 flies were “landing on sponges at the three-compartment sink” and another five were “landing on clean equipment at the triple sink.”
With all this, the dishwasher wasn’t sanitizing “properly” or at all — the chlorine sanitizer strength was zero parts per million.
Someone “began to prepare a customer order without first washing hands.”
Along with the flies, also at the front counter: standing water.
READ MORE: Why inspectors halted ‘all food equipment’ use at a South Florida grocery
CM Chicken, 1263 NE 163rd St., North Miami Beach
Routine inspection, eight total violations, two high priority violations
Alphabetically, this is the first of three restaurants this week along the Northwest/Northeast 167th Street and Northeast 163rd Street corridor running from the Golden Glades Interchange to Biscayne Boulevard.
Over the last three years, that’s meant the running — and dropping — of the rodents, and here there were over 10 rodent poop nuggets under the fryers and three “on the back door window.”
Though two roaches died next to an oil filter, the roaches also marked their territory with waste. The inspector counted over 15 pieces of roach excrement under the three-compartment sink, and 20 on the front counter floor. There were five on the floor at the boba station.
The kitchen storage shelves were “soiled.”
The “handwash sink was not accessible for employee use at all times.” The inspection didn’t detail the inaccessibility.
The Cooper, 4610 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens
Complaint inspection, eight total violations, five high priority violations
About 10 roaches chilled on top of the dishwasher. They provided an audience for the six roaches “on the wall, where clean dishes and equipment are stored.”
About 10 little flies were “landing on walls, shelves, and equipment.”
Commercially processed reduced packaged fish comes with a label stating to keep it frozen until you remove it from the package. The reason: Thawing fish still packaged this way creates a bacteria fertility party on the fish. The inspector found vacuum-sealed tuna thawing in the walk-in cooler. Stop Sale on the tuna.
Also getting Stop Sales were 46-degree cooked ribs that had been in a reach-in cooler overnight.
When the inspector returned for the re-inspection, one fly was “landing on clean dishes,” another was “landing on paper towels at the handwash sink.” Two roaches “running on the hallway floor from the bathroom to kitchen entrance” didn’t make it. The manager killed them, but their presence had already killed the re-inspection.
When the inspector returned later that day for another re-inspection, there were “approximately 10 live roaches crawling on top of the clean dish storage rack.”
The Cooper passed inspection on Aug. 21.
Eat & Run Subs, 16775 N. Miami Ave., North Miami Beach
Routine inspection, 10 total violations, four high priority violations
Restaurant No. 2 (alphabetically) along the North Miami Beach corridor has rodent and roach problems about which we told you earlier this week.
READ MORE: Roaches on curtains and rodent poop under fryer spotted at Miami-Dade sub shop
El Club De La Milanesa, 3250 NE First Ave., Miami
Routine inspection, 20 total violations, eight high priority violations
Milanesa is a habitual offender, making this list three times just in 2026 — February with roaches scaling a wall and in May with rodent droppings.
The inspector saw a “wall missing above the walk-in cooler.”
Maybe that’s the open door for the rodents who left “around 25-plus droppings under the cleaning products racks storage by the mop sink.” There was a live roach there, too.
On these rodent-run floors, the inspector saw boxes of single-service articles “stored on the floor between kitchen entrance and hallway bathroom.”
Five flies buzzed the bar area, “landing on clean cups and landing on walls.” Three flies flew around the dishwasher. Another trio were “landing at the prep table by the Milanese preparation table.”
The bar dishwasher had no sanitizer.
Still in the bar area, the ice scoop handle was touching the ice. Because that handle touches hands, that’s a no-no.
At the prep area across from the dishwasher, the wall was “soiled.”
One of the handwash sinks lacked soap.
One worker picked up “soiled cups from a table, and proceeded to get ice for customers by bar area” without washing hands.
Someone else “cracked a raw shell egg … and proceeded to get a clean plate to serve.” Hands should be washed after cracking eggs.
El Encuentro Restaurant, 3068 Lake Worth Rd., Palm Springs
Routine inspection, eight total violations, five high priority violations
“Clean plates at the storage rack near the walk-in cooler were soiled with rodent droppings.”
In addition to those “approximately 13” rodent droppings, there were 10 “on the floor underneath the front counter handwash sink area” and eight on the floor around the water heater.
That front counter handwash sink didn’t have any way to dry your hands.
Stop Sales on 47-degree cooked beef, 48-degree cooked rice and 48-degree raw shell eggs, all of which were in reach-in coolers.
El Machetico, 9674 NW 25th St., Doral
Routine inspection, 18 total violations, seven high priority violations
Five roaches died inside a clean container sitting in a cabinet at the coffee and pastry area. More than seven roaches died under a kitchen prep table and four died on the front counter floor.
Meanwhile, a live roach was “inside of sanitizer water at the triple sink.” Another was under a steam table. Two were in the coffee and pastry area cabinet.
The inspector noted that in addition to a live roach inside the kitchen handwash sink, it was “soiled with food debris.”
Citations for “no soap provided at the handwash sink” and “a box of aluminum foil was stored inside of the kitchen handwash sink.”
Also, an “employee began working with food, handling clean equipment or utensils, or touching unwrapped single-service items without first washing hands.”
Also, an “employee began making coffee without first washing her hands after handling dirty dishes from a customer’s table.
And an “employee left the kitchen with gloves on, came back, touched soiled utensils, then proceeded to use the same gloves to engage in food preparation.”
The floor was “heavily soiled with food debris under the cooking equipment, and…under preparation tables in the kitchen.”
Even the metal stem-type thermometer was “soiled.”
In addition, the wet wiping cloth was not stored in sanitizing solution between uses.”
Family Kitchen Restaurant and Catering, 3134 W. Commercial Blvd., Tamarac
Routine inspection, 12 total violations, four high priority violations
“No dishwashing facilities of any kind provided. No three-compartment or ware washing machine provided in the establishment. No mop sink or curbed cleaning facility provided at the establishment.”
A roach corpse sat on the oven. Another was in a kitchen reach-in cooler.
But the inspector saw at least 48 roaches still among the living. One greeted people “on the ground at the front door in the dining room.” About 35 of them were in the dry storage area, between the wall and a reach-in cooler and under and behind a chest freezer. Five were under a kitchen cooler.
Two reach-in coolers had standing water at the bottom.
A Stop Sale shower for “temperature abuse” fell on pickliz, cooked pork, cooked beans, raw chicken wings, cooked gravy and raw turkey wings, all of which measured 59 to 65 degrees despite a night in a cooler. Slightly cooler, 46 to 51 degrees were cooked chicken, cooked pork, cooked turkey and cooked goat.
After three days working on the issues, the restaurant passed the callback inspection on the first shot.
Hurricane Hole, 5130 Overseas Hwy., Stock Island
Routine inspection, 14 total violations, two high priority violations
“Observed ceiling tiles in the kitchen soiled with food debris.”
“Observed ceiling tiles missing near the reach-in cooler containing sauces next to the liquor storage room.”
“Approximately 20-plus rodent droppings on the floor” near that reach-in cooler.
“Food stored in a location that is exposed to splash/dust” as in a“box of breads stored under dripping water from the A/C at the walk-in cooler.
No soap at a handwash sink.
A can opener was “heavily soiled.”
The walls were “soiled in some areas in the kitchen behind equipment,” and the wall near the dishwasher was soiled with a black substance.”
Jerk Island Take Out Restaurant, 1739 45th St., West Palm Beach
Routine inspection, eight total violations, four high priority violations
Of the eight roaches found running about, six were “crawling on the floor/wall under the triple sink.”
At the sanitation section of the triple sink/three-compartment sink, the chlorine measured 10 parts per million. It needed to be 200.
“Employee handled soiled dishes while washing and rinsing, then handled clean/sanitized dishes while removing from sanitizer/placing to dry/storage.”
One handwash sink was “entirely blocked/covered by a large trash can” and didn’t have any soap or way to dry your hands.
Four live roaches ruined the first callback inspection. The inspector came back later that day and cleared Jerk Island.
Joanna’s Marketplace, 8247 S. Dixie Hwy., South Miami-Dade
Routine inspection, 17 total violations, four high priority violations
Three flies were on the counter and above the food prep table. Eight flies in the kitchen on canned goods and in dry food storage. Six flies were near a floor drain outside the walk-in cooler.
The “10-plus live flies inside a bag of onions in the kitchen area” got a Stop Sale on the onions.
Also getting a Stop Sale was a 4-pound dented can of Dolma grape leaves.
“Observed multiple containers with chipped or broken lids.”
“Non-food grade paper or paper towel was used as a liner” for romaine lettuce.
“Food-contact surface soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime. … Observed that dry food shelves were soiled.”
The deli counter handwash sink didn’t have any paper towels or mechanical blower.
A wall had “dust accumulation.”
La Granja, 3301 Northlake Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens
Routine inspection, 11 total violations, six high priority violations
“The ice machine interior at the server expo area was soiled with a slime-like substance.”
“In the dry pantry room between the kitchen and manager’s office, approximately nine live roaches were crawling on floor and wall.”
Employees went from the customer dining room to the kitchen, then handled clean plates of customer food to take to the customer skipped the step of washing their hands in the kitchen.
There was a “puddle of standing water” under the rotisserie oven and an “accumulation of grease buildup and other residue” between the fryers and the flat-top stove.
The sanitizer buckets where the wiping cloths should be resting between uses? “Multiple sanitizer buckets at zero parts per million.”
Stop Sales came down on 46-degree cooked potatoes and 46-degree cooked black beans, both in a walk-in cooler since 6 p.m. the previous day.
The Licking, 754-758 Washington Ave., Miami Beach
Routine inspection, 11 total violations, four high priority violations
Welcome to South Beach.
In addition to the “two dead roaches on the floor next to a prep sink at a prep area,” four livelier roaches made their way around the place, one of which was near the dead roaches and another of which was on the cookline floor.
The walk-in cooler shelves were “soiled with a mold-like substance.”
The trash can in the women’s restroom didn’t have a lid.
The mac and cheese might be good, but at 50 degrees after a night in the walk-in cooler, it’s not safe.
Longhorn Steakhouse, 6225 N. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale
Complaint inspection, five total violations, one high priority violations
Two roaches died on the prep area floor.
Of the 22 live roaches spotted, 15 of them were on a wall behind the three-compartment sink. One was on a cart in the prep area. One was on top of three-compartment sink “with cut lettuce being prepared in the three-compartment sink” but “cross contamination was not observed.”
Here’s another place where the wiping cloth bucket sanitizing solution was, essentially, just water with the sanitizer testing at zero.
Longhorn passed a same-day re-inspection.
Longhorn Steakhouse, 6225 N. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale Broward County Property Appraiser Marco’s Pizza, 8755 Hypoluxo Rd., Unincorporated Palm Beach County
Routine inspection, three total violations, one high priority violation
This Marco’s is where a rodent dumped on a prep table in June. This time, two rodent droppings were on a floor under a storage rack with sealed boxes of single service items and one was on the floor under a driver delivery check out table.
Also, there was standing water in the bottom of a reach-in-cooler.
Moonlite Diner, 6201 N. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale
Routine inspection, 15 total violations, six high priority violations
Roach corpses provided morbid insect decoration to the inside of a front counter reach-in cooler (three dead bodies), a wall above a wait station handwash sink (one) and under a cookline shelf (one).
A dozen of the living roaches idled on a wall behind a cookline flip-top cooler. Two roaches were on the ground behind a cookline chest freezer. One was under a wait station flip top cooler. Another strolled around the dishwashing area.
The wait station soap dispenser and a door at a front counter reach-in cooler were “in poor repair.”
What got a repair guy phone call while the inspector was there was a dishwasher that couldn’t sanitize dishes. “Operator set up the three-compartment sink and called for service.”
Stop Sales for improperly cooled food cascaded on cut tomatoes, diced tomatoes, turkey, feta, hard-boiled eggs, shredded cheese, sliced cheese, cooked meatloaf, raw shrimp, tuna, egg whites and liquid eggs. ALl trashed.
The restaurant didn’t follow instructions on the label to keep the food from being a mothership for bad bacteria. Despite the label saying not to thaw the commercially packed reduced oxygen salmon, the inspector saw “raw salmon stored fully thawed in commercially packaged reduced oxygen packaging.”
Stop Sale on the salmon.
Nueva San Salvador Restaurant, 1147 NW 22nd Ave., Miami
Routine inspection, 35 total violations, 10 high priority violations
“Establishment charging automatic gratuity without properly disclosing the information on the menu and the bill.”
State records say the president and director of this Nueva San Salvador is Mirna Salamanca. When a Miami Herald reporter called the restaurant and asked to speak to Salamanca about this violation, the person answering the phone hung up.
The restaurant also had 35 violations, including “approximately 50-plus droppings at shelves by the storage area, approximately 25-plus droppings under stored bags of flour, approximately 10-plus droppings on top of a cooking oil container by the storage area.”
Also, there was a “dead rodent stuck in a glue trap on top of the shelves, near bags of Maseca flour.”
The “exterior door has a gap at the threshold that opens to the outside. Observed by exit back door.” Also, the back exit screen door was “torn.”
Despite the rodents, someone left “a container with raw chicken uncovered in the walk-in freezer.” It wasn’t clear if that was also the “raw chicken container stored on the floor inside the walk-in freezer” or a different container. There were also “boxes of raw frozen meat stored on the floor by the freezer.”
“Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.”
The inspector also saw that, instead of safe refrigerator thawing of pork, cooked chicharrón sat on a prep table “thawing at room temperature.”
There was standing water on the cookline floor, by the walk-in coolers and the three-compartment sink.
Speaking of the three-compartment sink, Nueva San Salvador did have sanitizer in the third compartment. They just had too much of it.
“Wet wiping cloth not stored in sanitizing solution between uses.”
“Observed employee wearing gloves cleaning and preparing food with the same gloves.”
The cookline handwash sink didn’t have any paper towels.
Nueva San Salvador passed re-inspection on Tuesday.
Ocean Grill, inside Duval Square Mall, 1075 Duval St., Key West
Routine inspection, nine total violations, five high priority violations
Two roaches promenaded on a table slicer in the prep area. One roach crawled on glassware in the dishwashing area and eight were under the dishwasher. Three live roaches “crawled on the wall and on a shelf where plates and metal cook pans are stored.”
Four roaches crawled on the dishwashing area handwashing sink. One roach rolled solo on a “reach-in lowboy cooler at the cookline where food is prepared.”
“Nonfood-grade bags used in direct contact with food.” To-go bags are meant to carry containers of food, not just the food, such as the mixed greens and baby arugula here.
“Commercially processed reduced oxygen packaged fish bearing a label indicating that it is to remain frozen until time of use no longer frozen and not removed from reduced oxygen package.” Stop Sale on the thawed mahi.
A flip-top cooler needed to be recalibrated or fixed because a night holding raw chicken, crab cakes and cut tomatoes left each well above 41 degrees and smacked with Stop Sales.
At Wednesday’s re-inspection, four dead roaches and six live roaches kept Ocean Grill in the restaurant penalty box.
As of Friday morning, Ocean Grill’s online DBPR page didn’t show a passed re-inspection.
Rocco’s Taco & Tequila Bar, 5250 Town Center Cir., Boca Raton
Routine inspection, 18 total violations, 12 high priority violations
Rodents left their bodily waste on a kitchen ice machine ledge (three droppings), under a kitchen prep sink (one) and on the floor in front of the handwash sink next to the ice machine (one).
The line live roach in the kitchen strolled “on the prep table, crawling on a food processor.”
Two flies got “inside a seasoning storage container,” drawing a Stop Sale on the seasoning. Six kitchen flies were “flying around a prep table, landing on clean equipment clean utensils and containers of food products.” Another half dozen were “flying around the back cookline cooking equipment.” Two darted around the dishwashing area and expo line, where finished food awaits delivery.
An “employee touched tortilla chips with a bare hand while placing them into a basket to be taken immediately to customers.” That’s an inspection violation for the restaurant and a Stop Sale on the chips.
An “employee entered the kitchen from the dining room, then handled clean utensils, clean dishes and prepared/plates food for customers without washing hands.”
An “employee touched a visibly soiled wiping cloth, then continued handling clean utensils and preparing food for customers without washing hands.”
By the way, the handwash sink next to the ice machine with the rodent poop underneath was “blocked by a floor fan and ice buckets” and, if you could get there, didn’t have any soap.
Stop Sales hit milk and heavy cream for still being too warm after a night in the cooler.
Seph Restaurant & Bakery, 1362 NE 163rd St., North Miami Beach
Routine inspection, 10 total violations, three high priority violations
At the third of the restaurant’s along that North Miami Beach corridor, the inspector saw a “potato with gnaw bites by the hot water heater.”
Rodents left 10 doo-doo dots on the floor by the hot water heater. Then there were more than 20 droppings on the floor under seasoning shelves, 25-plus droppings on the floor under a steam table and the 50-plus droppings left under the kitchen handwash sink.
The “floors under the three-compartment sink, reach-in coolers, steam table, fryers and stove were heavily soiled.”
The front counter hot holding box counted as a “food-contact surface soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime.”
The front counter handwash sink was “blocked by plates.” No paper towels or hand drying device graced the kitchen handwash sink.
At the callback inspection, there were more than 10 rodent droppings under a kitchen reach-in cooler and four on the floor behind a reach-in freezer.”
By the second callback inspection, the rodents had left, the inspector saw no poop pellets and Seph reopened.
Tin Cup Chalice Bar & Grill, inside the Margaritaville Beach House Key West Resort, 2001 S. Roosevelt Blvd., Key West
Routine inspection, 24 total violations, eight high priority violations
The last place on the list starts as the first did: “Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin.”
The cookline oven contained 10 roach bodies. Six other roach corpses were on the kitchen floor.
“Three live roaches were crawling inside a bread toaster at a prep table.” Two other roaches moseyed across that prep table. More than eight roaches played in a cookline oven being used for metal pan storage. Four roaches were on the move behind that oven. Another quartet scurried around the trash can next to the dishwasher. Five other roaches were scattered about the house.
All these roaches and somebody left a “metal container of cooked onions not covered at the meat walk-in cooler.”
Also, “boxes of cups, gloves, and round plates were stored on the dry storage area floor.”
The inspector saw “three food employees begin working with food in the kitchen without washing their hands.”
Someone didn’t engage in handwashing “before putting on gloves to make a salad.”
An employee got caught “washing” hands with no soap at the cookline handwash sink. That’s because the cookline handwash sink lacked soap. The bar handwash sink lacked soap, paper towels and a blow dryer. The handwash sink near dry storage had all of the above, but also standing water.
The interior of the cookline microwave oven was “soiled.”
Instead of resting in a sanitizing solution, wet wiping cloths sat on a cookline preparation table.
Miami Herald
Since 1989, David J. Neal’s domain at the Miami Herald has expanded to include writing about Panthers (NHL and FIU), Dolphins, old school animation, food safety, fraud, naughty lawyers, bad doctors and all manner of breaking news. He drinks coladas whole. He does not work Indianapolis 500 Race Day.