A Kendall restaurant’s 70 violations among 4 Miami-Dade inspection failures
A restaurant with rodent, roach and restroom problems, among 70 total violations, takes up much of this Miami-Dade “Sick and Shut Down List” of inspection failures. Another restaurant racked up 46 violations.
In alphabetical order:
Amavi Miami/Heal Cafe, 3252 NE First Ave., Suites 109 & 111, Miami
Routine inspection, 19 total violations, six High Priority violations
This Mediterranean restaurant and comfort cafe sit side by side in Midtown.
More than 20 live flies landed on sweet potatoes inside a container outside the walk-in cooler. Nine flies played in the Heal coffee bar area, “on walls and flying near coffee syrups.” Five flies zipped about the office.
“Throughout the kitchen,” the inspector saw “ceiling/ceiling tiles/vents soiled with accumulated food debris, grease, dust, or mold-like substance.”
A Stop Sale dropped on quinoa that measured 80 degrees on the Heal cookline more than four hours after preparation. It needed to be down to 70 degrees in two hours.
The inspector saw an employee on the Heal side “touching face repeatedly and continuing food prep.”
One handwash sink was removed from the Heal cookline and two handwash sinks were gone from the hookah bar area. The inspector said they have to be reinstalled in the same place.
Another handwash sink lacked paper towels, a blower or any way to properly dry washed hands.
READ MORE: See which Miami bakery had to trash pastelitos, chicken and pork
La Vita E Bella, 9485 Harding Ave., Surfside
Complaint inspection, seven total violations, one High Priority violation
One roach died in front of a restroom and two roaches died in a restroom.
Of the five live roaches spotted, one was crawling on a handwash sink inside the kitchen and two ducked under a coffee machine nearby.
Some employees “engaged in food preparation without hair restraint.”
On the re-inspection, the dead roach count went up to seven, with four passing in a kitchen handwash sink and another three at the kitchen coffee station. Two of the nine live roaches moseyed along near the register at the front counter. One crawled on a kitchen prep table. One crawled on a ceiling vent.
La Vita passed its third inspection.
Mesa’s BBQ, 1125 W. 29th St., Hialeah
Routine inspection, 46 total violations, nine High Priority violations
A total of 46 violations would put a restaurant at the top of this list. But Mesa’s will have to settle for being second worst of the worst.
“Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin” and that machine’s insides also had “rust accumulation.”
“In-use knife/knives stored in cracks between pieces of equipment” as in “clean knives stored between wall and equipment next to a kitchen oven.”
Six flies flitted about next to the orange juice machine while another six flies were “flying inside the orange juice machine.” Two other flies landed on two pieces of bread on a prep table. Stop Sale on the bread.
“Cardboard used on the floor as an anti-slip measure wasn’t replaced every day or when heavily soiled, whichever comes first.” There was “soiled cardboard on the floor at the oven room in front of the walk-in cooler.”
“Observed standing water on the floor under the dry storage shelves next to the reach-in cooler” in the kitchen.
“Cutting board has cut marks and is no longer cleanable.”
An “employee engaged in food preparation with an ineffective hair restraint at the front counter.”
“Single service containers and cups were stored on the floor” in a storage area.
“Several wet wiping cloths sat on top of a preparation table” instead of being stored in sanitizer solution.
The walk-in cooler and walk-in freezer housed “several containers of raw pork, raw chicken and cooked pork that were not covered.” It also housed raw pork inside a non-food grade bag.
They also housed 200 pounds of pre-cooked pork belly that was prepared two days before the inspection but only to 130 to 135 degrees instead of 165 degrees. Stop Sales came down on all 200 pounds of that pork as well as two dented cans of red pepper on a kitchen shelf.
Cooked pork in the walk-in cooler since 11 p.m. the previous night still measured 53 degrees, well above the 41 degree threshold. Stop Sale on that pork, too.
A slicer machine on top of a table was “soiled.”
An employee working food prep “touched his pants and touched single service containers at the front counter without washing his hands.”
There was no soap at the handwash sink next to the three-compartment sink in the kitchen. The handwash sink next to the restrooms and kitchen had a malfunctioning soap dispenser.
“Nonfood-grade basting brush used in food.” The inspection didn’t specify the kind of brush.
The “sink compartments of the three-compartment sink are too small to accommodate utensils or equipment.”
Peking One, 16229 SW 88th St., Kendall
Routine inspection, 70 total violations, 12 High Priority violations
Charge your phones and buckle up, this is going to be a long trip just through the lowlights of the most total violations on any inspection we’ve seen in the decade of doing this list.
Let’s start with the “male employee working at the cookline with a persistent cough preparing food” and that he coughed and “immediately touched clean utensils at the cookline.”
Now, to the restrooms, which seemed to truly disgust the inspector.
The “personal employee restroom is in complete disrepair,” including a toilet that didn’t work, no toilet paper, being “soiled” and without a self-closing door.
The public restroom was “not clean” and the “door was left open,” instead of being a self-closing door.
The “public unisex bathroom waste receptacle is uncleanable.”
Only one dead roach, but “30 roach droppings on top of a plastic container inside the empty walk-in cooler.”
That same walk-in cooler, used for storing single service items, also was decorated with 40 rodent droppings. Another 15 rodent droppings were behind a storage area water heater. Eight poop pieces were on a dry storage shelf.
“Several food containers at the prep station are soiled.”
The “door handles are soiled with grease on all the reach-in coolers and the reach-in freezer.”
“Clean utensils are stored next to soiled utensils in the back storage area.”
A “white cutting board at the prep table” has “cut marks and is no longer cleanable.”
An “employee wore no hair restraint while engaging in food preparation.”
There was a “heavy accumulation of grease and grime on floors throughout the kitchen, including underneath the fryer, behind the chest reach-in freezer, and along floor surfaces throughout the cooking area.” Workers stored a bag of sugar directly on that floor.
“In-use knife/knives were stored in cracks between pieces of equipment” as in knives shoved between two reach-in coolers.
The kitchen lights weren’t working properly.
There was “no container installed for catching grease from the hood’s drip tray.”
A handwash sink had a broken pipe and the pipes under the three-compartment sink were “in disrepair.”
“Single use cans were being reused to store other sauces.”
A “soiled wet wiping cloth sat on top of a prep area.”
The wall behind the cookline and the wall next to the cookline were “soiled with accumulated grease, food debris, and/or dust.”
Shrimp and pork sat in non-food grade bags in a chest freezer.
The handwash sink next to the three-compartment sink proved worthless without soap, paper towels or a mechanical blower.
Slow golf clap for Peking One getting the total violations down to 66 for Tuesday’s re-inspection.
There were still six pieces of rodent dung on the floor under the cookline, six on “shelves above and behind the food preparation counter and steam table and five pieces of rodent regularity on the floor inside the walk-in with the single serve items.
About 10 or more pieces of roach excrement were on shelves behind the steam table.
Peking One stayed closed until Friday, when it passed inspection to get out of restaurant jail.
This story was originally published April 5, 2026 at 6:15 PM.
