Another roach-tinged inspection failure at this South Beach restaurant
For the second consecutive summer, roaches and other cleanliness problems caused a failed state inspection that closed South Beach’s Ocean Enoteca e Forno restaurant.
The restaurant at 444 Ocean Dr., under the Ocean Five Hotel and in state records as “Ocean 5 Cafe,” almost made it out of August, getting closed on Thursday before passing re-inspection Friday with a “Follow-Up Inspection Required.”
If this sounds as familiar as summer rain, the same thing happened at the same place in July 2024.
READ MORE: Roaches and basic cleaning failures got a South Beach restaurant closed by inspection
This year’s inspection included 15 total violations (five fewer than last year) of which three were High Priority violations (two more than last year).
Roach-wise, until the inspector, apparently nobody noticed the 10 dead roaches on the floor. Four bodies decorated the floor by the cookline area. Another three sat on the floor by the food storage area with the bread crumbs container. Three were on the floor by the food equipment storage area
Living roaches moved as a trio on the floor by the food storage area and as a duo on the dishwasher area floor.
The floor was “soiled throughout the kitchen” and “behind the cookline.”
The cookline cutting boards were “no longer cleanable.”
Also “soiled” were the gaskets on the reach-in cooler and the hoods, the latter “with heavy grease accumulation.”
This story was originally published September 1, 2025 at 5:35 PM.
