Over a dozen roaches shut down Pembroke Pines Dominican restaurant, inspectors say
.png "Punta Cana Restaurant at 9119 Taft St. in Pembroke Pines was temporarily ordered shut down Dec. 10.")
A Pembroke Pines Dominican restaurant was forced to close over the presence of more than a dozen roaches found during a recent inspection, according to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
Punta Cana Restaurant — located at 9119 Taft St. — raked in 16 total violations, including three high-priority offenses that DBPR considers able to “contribute directly to a foodborne illness or injury,” during a Dec. 10 assessment that required the department to temporarily shut its doors.
According to DBPR’s site, the division only doles out emergency closures when an establishment’s violations “pose an elevated risk to the health, safety or welfare of the public or the establishment’s employees.”
Inspectors visited the eatery — which has a sister location in Kissimmee and claims to be being the “best Caribbean restaurant” in both cities on its website — as a routine check-up.
When they arrived, they found live roaches crawling around its kitchen hand sink, “above clean pans at [a] shelf above [the] triple sink,” behind a fliptop unit and on a wall by the ice machine, according to the report.
To that count, they added a dozen dead roaches spotted under the sinks, as well as on the kitchen’s floors and walls.
Additionally, raw shrimp was seen stored above cooked beef and chicken, leading to a cross-contact infraction, while a cream-based drink in the cooler had no time mark to indicate the date it was prepared, inspectors said.
Though less severe, the restaurant was also hit with basic violations, including standing water on the floor, bags of beef improperly thawing out in a sink and uncovered oil and vinegar bottles sitting in the splash zone of a hand sink.
Inspectors also noted a reach-in cooler was “soiled with spilled food debris,” and that some type of grease or debris was on the eatery’s walls and shelves.
A follow-up inspection the next day allowed the restaurant to reopen after it corrected most of its infractions.
DBPR will have to pay another visit, according to the restaurant’s “follow-up inspection required” status. An assessment has yet to take place as of Dec. 19.
Punta Cana Restaurant’s Kissimmee location — which inspectors last visited in July — met the department’s standards, receiving five total violations, including one high-priority offense.
This story was originally published December 19, 2025 at 12:45 PM.
