What’s that smell? A 40-year-old restaurant near Coral Gables fails inspection
The state inspector who visited Miami’s Habana Vieja Restaurant last week didn’t have the kind of experience that’s brought regulars back to the bar and dining room for 40 years.
Stink and bugs tend to hit inspectors that way.
The eyes and nose of the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation showed up at the Cuban restaurant at 2475 SW 37th Ave., across the street from Coral Gables, for a routine inspection on Sept. 29. Here are a few of the 18 total violations and five High Priority violations discovered:
MORE: Roaches tumbling out of an oven among South Florida’s worst restaurant filth
“Floor areas covered with standing water” under the three-compartment sink and in the back food preparation area.
Along with the standing water, the inspector smelled “objectionable odors in the back prep area of the establishment.”
Also, the air of the back prep area was filled with “10 flies flying throughout the back prep area, near the three-compartment sink” and landing on that sink. Another eight flies landed on dry storage area shelves. Six flies congregated in the airspace by an ice machine.
By that back area three-compartment sink lay two of the 10 dead roaches counted throughout the establishment. Three of them were between the ice machine and a walk-in cooler.
The 10 dead roaches were a testament to the efficacy of the tracking power pesticide. But using that kind of tracking powder in a restaurant is a violation, and the inspector saw a “white, powdery substance on the floor in the kitchen; by both cookline; dry storage area; by the walk-in cooler; and, in the back prep area.”
The warewashing machine had an “accumulation of debris” both inside the machine and on the outside.
“Throughout the kitchen,” there were “ceiling/ceiling tiles/vents soiled with accumulated food debris, grease, dust, or mold-like substance.
Underfoot, the “floor is soiled or has accumulation of debris throughout the entire kitchen, dry storage area, behind the ice machine” and in the back prep area.
That back prep area had “multiple containers soiled with old food.”
A kitchen worker touched the face, then touched the serving spoon to put lettuce on a customer’s plate. There should’ve been a handwash step in there between the face touching and spoon touching.
A can of whole tomatoes was dented badly enough to get hit with a Stop Sale, and was trashed.
This story was originally published October 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
