Rodents gnawing here. Roaches in oven there. Check South Florida restaurant filth
Regular rodents marking their territory — or at least their toilet spots. Bare-handed roach homicide by a kitchen worker who went back to work preparing food without washing his hands.
These and other violations shut down restaurants from the Keys to the Palm Beaches over the last week and a half. The Sick and Shut Down List of South Florida restaurants failing state inspection covers Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe and Palm Beach counties.
We’re giving you details on the failed inspections that closed restaurants. We don’t choose who gets inspected or do the inspecting. Both are done by the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation. If you want to file a complaint about a restaurant, contact the DBPR. Do not email us.
Restaurants stay closed until they pass re-inspection also called “the callback inspection.” The first re-inspection is usually the following day.
In alphabetical order:
Alleycat, 297 E. Palmetto Park Rd., Boca Raton
Routine inspection, seven total violations, one High Priority violation
One roach crawled in a container under a cooler and died. Three others expired “on the floor next to the stove.”
The kitchen floor and wall hosted five living roaches under a kitchen cooler. Six others were found under bricks behind a kitchen prep table.
The floor next to the stove was “covered with standing water.”
In the kitchen next to the sushi station, cutting boards had deep enough cut marks that they couldn’t be cleaned anymore.
Anyone washing hands at the sink at the kitchen entrance had to let them drip dry — no paper towels or blower.
Blue Anchor, 804 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach
Complaint inspection, 21 total violations, eight High Priority violations
The Panthers missed the playoffs, but that didn’t leave South Florida free of hat tricks. Check out Blue Anchor completing the hat trick of three inspection fails in three months.
Inspectors “observed hole in the walk-in cooler wall” and “hole in the wall next to the reach-in freezer,” so you know following that shot is the chaser: “Rodent activity present as evidenced by rodent droppings found.”
There were 114 total droppings, 50 in the area around the chest freezer. There were 20 droppings by a beer walk-in cooler. Another 15 were found in the tubs used to pick up plates and utensils off tables. The tubs were sitting under the expo line, where finished food gets distributed, and three rodent droppings sat under baskets on the expo line. Another 10 were under the dishwasher.
The inspector also saw “gnaw marks in a bag of fry mix on the cookline.” Stop Sale on the bag.
A chicken wing dated March 29, 15 days before Monday’s inspection, more than doubling the acceptable time of seven days, got hit with a Stop Sale.
A walk-in cooler door had “a large hole.”
There were about 10 flies in the bar area.
The “cook was cutting celery with no gloves” without washing his hands. Then again, the hot water tap at the handwash sink had no flow. The hot water behaved similarly at the three-compartment sink.
“Accumulation of lime scale on the inside of the dishmachine.”
“Multiple cutting boards at the flip top refrigerator have cut marks and are no longer cleanable.”
All the walls in the walk-in cooler were “soiled with accumulated grease, food debris, and/or dust.”
Someone preparing food wasn’t wearing a hair restraint.
At Wednesday’s re-inspection, the inspector counted five flies under the bar area’s ice well. That would have been enough for an inspection failure, but piling on were the “20 rodent droppings ... in the wall left of the white chest freezer,” two poop pieces on the cookline handsink and five elsewhere.
As of Thursday, the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation didn’t show a passed inspection for Blue Anchor.
Cafe Ruyi, 5300 NW Seventh Ave., Miami
Complaint inspection, 23 total violations, five High Priority violations
Six flies zipped about the kitchen air during Tuesday’s inspection. One fly landed on fried rice at the cookline. Stop Sale.
“Cardboard used on the floor as an anti-slip measure wasn’t replaced every day or when heavily soiled, whichever comes first.”
A white cutting board with cut marks in the kitchen was “no longer cleanable.”
The floor was “soiled throughout the establishment.”
The interiors of all the kitchen reach-in coolers were “soiled.”
“Packaged cooked beef was thawing in a container at room temperature by the kitchen entrance.” That could cultivate and pass along a foodborne illness.
“Food placed in a soiled container” as in “cooked chicken wings stored inside cardboard boxes.” Chicken wings tossed.
An “employee touched clothes then proceeded to cut vegetables without watching hands.”
But the employee handwash sink was blocked by the “container with cooked beef stored on top of handsink.”
And there were no paper towels or way to dry washed hands.
El Sabor Cubano, food truck, Belle Glade
Routine inspection, 13 total violations, seven High Priority violations
Whoever worked in the food truck shared their workspace with about 30 flies. Two flies landed on ham slices and cheese on the counter. Five landed on clean utensils and a fryer basket.
The chef “handled cellphone, wiped his hands on gloves, then began to handle utensils and prep press to prepare sandwich,” all without washing his hands.
“No sanitizer of any kind available for warewashing.” The handwash sink, which has one job, was being “used as storage for various items.”
When cooked pork couldn’t reheat from 68 degrees to 165 degrees in two hours, it got hit with a Stop Sale for temperature abuse. In the reach-in cooler, where food needed to be at or under 41 degrees, raw steak, cooked ground beef, raw shelled eggs and raw fish measured a balmy 55 to 59 degrees despite a sleepover in the cooler. Stop Sale, Stop Sale, Stop Sale and Stop Sale.
Tuesday’s callback inspection got ruined by three flies and whipped butter, eggs and Swiss cheese in the apparently still-ineffectual reach-in cooler measured 55, 45 and 55 degrees, respectively.
El Sabor passed the second callback inspection on Wednesday.
Green House, 721 Village Blvd., West Palm Beach
Routine inspection, 16 total violations, six High Priority violations
Whatever grows in Green House doesn’t get cleaned enough, as evidenced by a triple shot of failed inspections in March, May and July 2025.
Behind kitchen equipment, the inspector estimated 40 to 50 roach corpses.
Elsewhere in the kitchen, two roaches scaled the wall over the three-compartment sink; two moseyed across a cookline table near the microwave oven; one climbed the wall behind the stove; and one went solo under a cookline table.
Five flies landed on old equipment and an opened bag of flour.
A Stop Sale wasn’t fired at the bag of flour. But a barrage of Stop Sales riddled the contents of the uncool flip- top cooler with raw shrimp, cooked shrimp, egg rolls, tofu, raw beef and beef tendon all measuring at least 12 degrees above 41 degrees.
Magic Snack Bar, 4633 Lake Worth Rd., Greenacres
Routine inspection, five total violations, four High Priority violations
Eight flies landed “on the wall, prep table, coffee pot and soda machine.” Four flies landed on walls between flights around the cookline and prep area.
Raw shell eggs on a cookline counter measuring 64 degrees didn’t get zapped with Stop Sales because they’d been out of temperature control for only 40 minutes. The inspector let the manager put the eggs in a cooler for a “quick chill.”
The place also had an expired Division of Hotels and Restaurants license.
Meat Eatery and Taproom, 88005 Overseas Hwy., Plantation Key
Complaint inspection, nine total violations, five High Priority violations.
We told you about the rodent and roach issues at Meat Eatery earlier this week in a article that also included the issues in Key Largo at Party Cake.
READ MORE: Rodent poop gets two Florida Keys restaurants closed by inspection
Mochinut, 6722 Forest Hill Blvd., Greenacres
Routine inspection, 11 total violations, seven High Priority violations
The five dead roaches under or behind kitchen equipment weren’t as big as problem as the one dead roach “on a scoop inside the drink ice machine.” Stop Sale on all that ice.
“Employee picked up dead roach and smashed live roach with bare hand, then handled clean equipment and clean utensils used to prepare food for customers without washing hands.”
Someone “washed and rinsed soiled dishes and then handled clean equipment and clean utensils to prepare food or drinks for customers without washing hands.”
Someone else “washed (with detergent) and rinsed drink blenders and food service utensils then placed them to dry/reuse without sanitizing.” The sanitizing compartment of the three-compartment sink hadn’t been set up properly.
Next to the not-quite-three-compartment sink, the handwash sink didn’t have any way to dry your hands.
Hot dogs got smashed with a Stop Sale for still being four degrees too warm despite spending the night in the cooler. (45F - Cold Holding).
Moshi Moshi, 7232 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
Routine inspection, 15 total violations, four High Priority violations
Eight roaches lived, if not their best life, an unbaked one, inside a cookline oven during Tuesday’s inspection.
A dozen flies got all over “cases of sushi vinegar in the storage room where rice is washed.”
The kitchen walls, ceiling and vents were “soiled with accumulated food debris, grease, dust, or mold-like substance.” The outside of the cookline was “heavily soiled.”
Party Cake, 103200 Overseas Hwy., Key Largo
Routine inspection, 15 total violations, four High Priority violations
Rodents. Roaches. Ice machine mold. Sandwiches tossed out. We told you all about it earlier this week..
Strathmore Bagel & Deli, 4095 State Rd. 7, Unincorporated Palm Beach County
Complaint inspection, eight total violations, seven High Priority violations
A roach corpse sullied the top of the ice machine. Flies were the main problem here, though, starting with the three “landing and crawling on pastries in the display case at the front counter.”
Stop Sale on those pastries.
Also at the front counter, three flies kept landing on receipt tickets. Four flies used the microwave and an open box of paper liners for landing strips. One fly used a clean plate for the same reason. About 20 flies congregated “on dirty mops and in the mop sink at the entry to the walk-in cooler.” Another nine got together on boxes of single service items in front of that cooler.
Someone “handled soiled dishes and, without washing hands, removed cleaned and sanitized dishes from the dish machine.”
The sanitizer at the three-compartment sink was half as strong as it needed to be, 100 parts per million instead of 200 parts per million.
Temperature abuse of food that needed to be at or under 41 degrees got greeted with Stop Sales raining on pulled cooked tuna (51 degrees) chicken and cooked pasta (49 degrees each).
Inspection No. 2: Two flies were back in the front counter pastry case. About 11 flies swarmed on walls and sealed boxes at the dough area. Two flies played on a dish storage rack. About six flies hung out elsewhere.
Inspection No. 3: “Approximately 11 small live flying insects were landing on shelves, walls, open boxes of single service items at the front counter and throughout the kitchen.”
Strathmore passed a same-day callback inspection on Thursday.
