Roach on onions, rodents in kitchen: South Florida’s worst restaurant issues
You’ll find roaches, other vermin, seemingly unrelated restaurants with the same name and the usual Iron Sushi on this week’s Sick and Shut Down List of South Florida restaurants that failed inspection.
We don’t do the inspections — that’s the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation. We don’t choose who gets inspected. That’s the DBPR for routine inspections, and you, the customer, should you file a complaint with the agency.
All restaurants closed by a failed inspection can open again after passing a re-inspection or callback inspection. The first one of those is usually the day after the failed inspection.
In alphabetical order:
Iron Sushi, 9030 SW 72nd Pl., Kendall
Complaint inspection, 10 total violations, two high priority violations
After failing its four first inspections in 2025, 15 inspections and re-inspections overall, you might see it as progress that the Dadeland Iron Sushi took until April 28 to fail inspection in 2026.
READ MORE: Why has this Kendall sushi place been closed by inspectors 4 times since July?
As the inspector walked into the kitchen, eight flies were on the wall and an extension cord. Three sat on dry food and a dish rack, next to the cookline reach-in cooler. Three flies rested on the wall next to the cookline. Another three were “above the front counter where miso soup, utensils and plates are held.”
No soap at the kitchen handwash sink. And “ceiling/ceiling tiles/vents soiled with accumulated food debris, grease, dust, or mold-like substance ... in the kitchen and the front counter.”
La Jato Restaurant, 3970 W. 16th St., Hialeah
Routine inspection, 20 total violations, five high priority violations
The inside of the ice machine at the front counter was “soiled with a black mold-like substance.”
Of the three roach corpses in the kitchen, one roach died on top of a metal tray inside the three-compartment sink.
The live roach on the floor in front of the three-compartment sink was a violation. But the roach “crawling on top of cut red onions inside a container and on top of cut tomatoes inside a container at a reach-in cooler next to the stove” earned La Jato a BOGO violation — one for being a live roach and a “stop sale” for walking across the onions and tomatoes.
More stop sales crashed down on minced ginger, sliced tomatoes, raw beef and raw shrimp, all measuring 63 to 68 degrees inside a reach-in cooler. That pile of mechanical malfunction had the sole job of keeping food at or under 41 degrees. Inside another reach-in, a 45-degree boiled egg and 46-degree cut tomatoes also got smacked with stop sales.
The can opener under the kitchen area prep table was “soiled.”
Washed and sanitized equipment and utensils should be allowed to dry, but these were “observed wet nesting inside the reach-in cooler.”
Someone left “several containers of food inside the reach-in coolers and the walk-in cooler were stored uncovered, all around the kitchen area.”
Los Catrachos, 755 W. Flagler St., Miami
Routine inspection, 14 total violations, four high priority violations
The kitchen was swarmed with 30 flies “landing on clean food equipment” and zipping about the food prep area.
The three shell eggs with broken shells in the reach-in cooler? Stop sale, stop sale, stop sale.
The person sanitizing utensils wasn’t actually sanitizing them and, when asked, didn’t know how to sanitize them.
Plastic cups stored over the three-compartment sink weren’t drying, but “wet nesting.”
Also not drying was the floor covered with standing water under an air-conditioning unit in the kitchen.
A check of state corporate records shows this Los Catrachos run by president Delcy Campos and vice president Gustavo Campos.
Los Catrachos Restaurant, 4654 Gun Club Rd., Unincorporated Palm Beach County
Complaint inspection, nine total violations, four high priority violations
This Los Catrachos, state corporate records say, is under the guidance of president Carlos Guerra and vice president Victalina Guerra. Also, while thetwo restaurants on this list share the same name, the graphics on their doors and exterior signs don’t resemble each other.
Speaking of exteriors, the “exterior door has a gap at the threshold that opens to the outside.” The inspector also spotted a “hole in the wall under the sink at the front service area” and other one “in the bottom of cabinetry at the front service area.”
So, that’s two possible come-on-in places for whatever left “four rodent droppings on the kitchen floor under rice and bean storage shelves.”
Inside a front service station cabinet, five roaches died. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, 10 roaches “crawled on a wall, over and under the prep table and behind electrical conduits and shelf supports.”
A server took menus from customers and wrote down orders with pen and paper, but didn’t wash her hands before “handling clean equipment, clean untensils and clean glasses to scoop ice and prepare drinks for customers.”
Mr. and Mrs. Bun, 15572 SW 72nd St., West Miami-Dade
Routine inspection, 38 total violations, six high priority violations
Earlier this week, we detailed the evidence from the inspection — including a complete lack of sanitizer.
READ MORE: Roaches, no sanitizer, plenty of filth among a Miami restaurant’s 38 violations
