Roaches in ovens among the worst inspections at South Florida restaurants
You’ll read about roaches in ovens and a restaurant failing inspection for the third time since July if you continue on to learn about the nine South Florida restaurants that face-planted inspections last week.
The Sick and Shut Down List includes restaurants from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties that didn’t pass state inspection by the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation. That agency and customer complaints decide who gets inspected.
Restaurants must pass a callback inspsection, which usually occurs the following day, before reopening.
In alphabetical order:
Chow Time Grill & Buffet, 12375 Pembroke Rd., Pembroke Pines
Complaint inspection, 16 total violations, three High Priority violations
There was “heavy, mold-like substance buildup on the A/C vents and ceiling tiles throughout the kitchen.”
Four roaches died — and their bodies remained — under cookline cooking equipment. Five living roaches were on a double- decker oven. Two live roaches crawled on the floor, one next to the dishwashing area and another on the floor at the prep station.
Six flies “landed on walls and clean food preparation tables at the rear prep station.”
Hope nobody sneezed in the walk-in cooler near “several” containers of noodles and cut vegetables. They weren’t covered.
An “accumulation of grease” covered the kitchen floor under cooking equipment, and an “accumulation on old food residue buildup inside the reach-in coolers.”
The kitchen handwash sink lacked paper towels and a hand blower.
Don Rodone, 3383 Sheridan St., Hollywood
Routine inspection, five total violations, two High Priority violations
Of the four dead roaches, one was inside a cookline oven perhaps being mourned by two live roaches. A quintet of roaches sat in a drip pan and another was on the ground under a cooler on the cookline.
No soap at the kitchen handwash sink.
Golden Wok, 1428 W. Lantana Blvd., Lantana
Routine inspection, 11 total violations, four High Priority violations
When you see “hole in the wall above the triple sink,” then “screen in door torn/in poor repair,” you know what’s coming next: “30-plus rodent droppings sat on the floor under the shelf across from the cookline...10 rodent droppings on the cover of a flour container ... six droppings on food containers in dry storage ... 15-plus rodent droppings under a dry storage shelf.”
A cook came into the kitchen from the back door, “began working with food and preparing food in the wok without washing his hands first.”
Grace of God Restaurant, 360 S. State Rd. 7, Margate
Routine inspection, nine total violations, two High Priority violations
Even four dead roaches and 11 live roaches — three crawling on a bag of rice, three crawling on employee medicine and personal cups on a dry storage rack at the kitchen entrance, and five inside a reach-in cooler — doesn’t stink up an inspection like a drain backup.
“Sewage/wastewater was backing up through the floor drains. In the kitchen, brownish water with a pungent smell backed up through the floor drain when the handwashing sink faucet is open. Anytime the handwash sink is turned on, the brownish water is coming through the drain.
“This is the only handwash sink in the kitchen. The area cannot be blocked off.”
What can be blocked, however: the employee restroom handwash sink, sealed off by a mattress.
At the callback inspection, three live roaches on a wall and in the groove of a door in the kitchen entrance kept Grace of God closed another day.
Hibachi2U, 1121 Holland Dr., Unincorporated Palm Beach County
Routine inspection, six total violations, three High Priority violations
“Cardboard used to line food-contact shelves.”
Two roaches promenading on the wall at the dishwashing area.
The metal stem-type thermometer was “soiled.”
Iron Sushi, 9030 SW 72nd Pl., Kendall
Complaint inspection, 27 total violations, five High Priority violations
Now that this place has been once, twice, three times a Sick and Shut Down List member, is it named “Iron Sushi” because you need an iron stomach to eat here?
Iron Sushi also failed two inspections in September and five in July.
Last week, an inspector’s senses were assaulted by “objectionable odors” in the kitchen, under the three-compartment sink and at the floor drain in front of the cookline.
The unemptied glue trap under the kitchen reach-in cooler held 20-plus dead roaches and five live roaches attached to it.
One live roach crawled on the wall above dry food racks. Another one was in under a dining area table. Three dead roaches and two live roaches were scattered elsewhere.
The dish racks and dry food racks counted as “food-contact surfaces soiled with food debris, mold-like substance or slime.”
An employee used the restroom, then didn’t wash hands before “engaging in food preparation, handling clean equipment or utensils, or touching unwrapped single-service items.”
Then again, “no soap provided at the handwash sink” in the kitchen and front counter.
The kitchen walls were “soiled with accumulated grease, food debris, and/or dust.”
La Santa Taqueria, 2699 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
Routine inspection, seven total violations, two High Priority violations
The Edgewater La Santa location didn’t keep the rodents out and had a standing water problem.
READ MORE: An inspector found rodent poop and other problems at a Miami taco place
Masala Mantra Indian Cuisine, 11051 Southern Blvd., Royal Palm Beach
Routine inspection, five total violations, four High Priority violations
Cooked lentils had been in the reach-in cooler nine days. Cooked lamb had been there eight days. They need to be used within seven days. Stop Sales on both.
On a kitchen dry storage shelf, 10 live roaches crawled on bags of food and clean containers around 10 roach corpses. At the cookline area, 15 roaches ran around 20 dead roaches on clean dishes, silverware, prep counters and the floor. Four live roaches and two dead roaches were in storage cabinets on napkins, single service cups and bags. Seven dead roaches were on the floor of the dishwashing area.
Callback inspection No. 1: live roaches — three on counters and shelves, three in cabinets crawling on a coffee machine and bottles of alcohol, two on the cookline floor — ruined this re-inspection.
Callback inspection No. 2: Eight live roaches were spotted. One was in the oven. One was by clean dishes on a shelf. Another two were on the floor and wall near that shelf.
Callback inspection No. 3: Four live roaches “crawling on coolers, prep tables and the floor,” one roach in the dining room, one crawling on single service items at a server station, and five dead roaches around the restaurant.
Sticky Rice and Sushi, 5885 Lake Worth Rd., Greenacres
Routine inspection, 10 total violations, five High Priority violations
Three dead roaches, one hanging on the wall behind the handwash sink.
The rodents’ favorite place of relief was on the floor behind a white freezer, where they left 10 pieces of rodent regularity. One rodent left a poop pellet on a shelf with clean dishes.
Everyone, but especially restaurants, should take seriously the directions on commercially processed reduced-oxygen packed fish to either start cooking it frozen or remove it from the packaging before thawing. Do not thaw in the reduced-oxygen packaging as that creates a bacteria fertility clinic.
That’s why the Hamachi fish, thawed but still in reduced-oxygen packaging, got hit with a Stop Sale.
Also getting a Stop Sale for being out beyond four hours were tempura shrimp, cut tomato, cut lettuce, sushi rice, pooled raw shell eggs and bean sprouts.
An employee came into the kitchen from the dining area, “then handled clean equipment and utensils and utensils used to store or prepare food without washing hands.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2025 at 5:17 AM.
