Roaches, poor hygiene: Pines restaurants hit with high-priority violations in April
Pembroke Pines — ready to see how your local haunts fared in last month’s food inspections?
Two restaurants racked up the highest amount of serious violations during April’s assessments, according to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
Nine earned infraction-free results from inspectors.
Those that underperformed include a Peruvian franchise with over a dozen Florida locations and a Cajun staple at South Florida food courts.
One eatery passed despite racking up several serious infractions. The other had to close its doors, earning itself 15 minutes of infamy on the internet.
High-priority violations include any practices that “could contribute directly to a foodborne illness or injury,” according to DBPR. This covers live flying insects, improper sanitation techniques, contamination of raw food with cooked food and other offenses that bacteria like Salmonella and Listeria thrive on.
Eateries with spotless records had no critical or noncritical issues and met the state’s standards during their reviews.
Here are the local restaurants that missed the mark during their April 2026 inspections:
Kelly’s Cajun Grill, 11401 Pines Blvd.
Complaint full inspection, five total violations, two high-priority violations
This South Florida food court chain earned itself a temporary shutdown from DBPR on April 15 after inspectors spotted two roaches crawling on top of its “prep table in the rear food preparation area.”
An employee killed both and sanitized the table following correction, the department noted.
According to the division’s website, DBPR 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.”
“I’m so upset. ... I fed my son this,” Broward mom Bianca Gutierrez told her followers in an April 14 TikTok, the day before the restaurant was shut down.
The video shows her raking through an order of lo mein and chicken with a fork, revealing a dead roach nestled inside the meal.
After raising the issue to the Kelly’s Cajun Grill team, Gutierrez received a refund for her meal and reported the incident to the health department, the Broward mom told her followers the following day.
Inspectors also cited the restaurant for cross-contamination, including a worker who handled raw beef and failed to change their gloves or wash their hands before preparing cooked chicken.
Those were in addition to an employee wrongly leaving their phone on a food preparation area, an uncovered container of beans inside a walk-in cooler and a wet wiping cloth that was not kept in a sanitizing solution between uses.
All three infractions were fixed after inspectors’ warnings, the report says.
DBPR found no violations at a follow-up inspection the next day, allowing the restaurant to reopen.
La Brasa Grill, 295 N University Drive
Complaint full inspection, five total violations, four high-priority violations
Handwashing fails at this self-proclaimed “Latin comfort” franchise caught inspectors’ attention April 20 when an employee put on a new pair of gloves to handle food without sudsing up first.
The worker corrected his mistake after DBPR lectured the restaurant’s manager and employees on proper precedures.
Two desserts — the house flan and house mousse — were improperly chilled, stored above “cold-holding” temperatures needed to prevent bacteria growth and keep food safe to eat.
Inspectors also spotted a container of raw prepped steaks stacked atop a container of raw fish, leading to a cross-contamination citation from inspectors.
Depsite the infractions, La Brasa Grill, which has 15 sister locations in Central and South Florida, managed to meet DBPR’s standards and passed its inspection.
Infraction-free restaurants
Here are the restaurants that aced their April inspections:
- Oasis Cafe on the Green, 701 SW Flamingo W Drive
- Dairy Queen, 8364 Pines Blvd.
- China Pavilion, 10041 Pines Blvd.
- Cracker Barrel, 1960 NW 150th Ave.
- J.A.W Deli & Restaurant, 12141 Pembroke Road
- Popeye’s, 1450 N University Drive
- Agave Bandido, 14531 SW 5th St.
- Casa Padron Paella, 15749 Pines Blvd.
- 3-0-Slide, 18830 SW 4 St.
