5 Florida Restaurants That Passed Inspection... But Probably Shouldn't Have

A “B” on a restaurant inspection sounds pretty good, right? And a “C” — well, at least it’s passing. That’s what most diners assume when they see a grade posted on the wall.

But here’s the thing: grades don’t tell the whole story. A restaurant can have rodent droppings in its dough mix, roaches crawling on clean dishes, or a toilet overflowing with feces — and still walk away with a passing grade.

We dug through thousands of Florida DBPR inspection reports and found five restaurants where the gap between the grade and reality is… alarming. Every quote below comes directly from a state inspector’s official observation notes.

1. CMX Downtown at the Gardens 16

Let that sink in. A B grade — 94.3 out of 100 — at a venue where inspectors found 35 flying insects swarming a toilet filled to the brim with feces. The initial inspection had already flagged 32 live flying insects in the men’s restroom landing on a broken toilet. The follow-up was somehow worse.

This is a movie theater restaurant in one of Palm Beach County’s most upscale shopping centers. Grade: B. Score: 94.3.

2. Masala Mantra Indian Cuisine

That’s roughly 32 live roaches found during a single inspection — on food, on clean dishes, on silverware, on napkins. But it gets worse: inspectors came back four consecutive days for follow-up inspections and kept finding live roaches every single time.

By the fourth follow-up on November 6th, inspectors noted: “Approximately 4 live roaches crawling on coolers, on prep tables and on floor. 1 live roach crawling on floor in dining room. Approximately 1 live roach crawling on single service items.”

Separate dead roach counts from the initial inspection topped 47 across the kitchen, dish area, cook line, and server station. They also found an employee touching their face and then handling food without washing hands. Grade: C.

3. Little Caesars 05

Over 46 rodent droppings across the dough prep area of a pizza restaurant. The bags of deep dish mix had been gnawed open by rodents. Inspectors issued a stop sale on the contaminated dough — dough that was being used to make pizza that people were eating.

The inspector also noted: “Dough prepared with open, gnawed on dry dough mix. Box stored on shelf under dough prep table.” And on top of the rodent infestation? The restaurant was operating with an expired license. Grade: C. Still technically passing.

4. BK#14812

Sewage water covering the kitchen floor — in the fryer area, in the prep area — and employees walking right through it. The inspector specifically noted the area “cannot be segregated” because it’s their primary cooking area. Inspectors also issued a stop sale on temperature-abused food from the walk-in cooler: tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, and half-and-half all sitting above safe holding temperatures.

A previous July 2025 inspection at this same location found live roaches in the kitchen, dead roaches under dining booths, and dead roaches in the employee break room. Grade: C.

5. Alberte’s Restaurant

That’s 30+ dead roaches and 11+ live roaches found across the kitchen in a single inspection. Twenty-two dead roaches on the floor of the dish washing area alone. And the inspector also noted: “Food-contact surface soiled with approximately 1 live roach walking on table.”

A roach was literally walking on a food prep surface while the inspector was there. Grade: B. Score: 90.5.

What This Means

Florida’s restaurant grading system — at least how InspectFL calculates it — weighs violations by severity and frequency. Critical violations count more than minor ones, and repeat violations drag scores down further.

But here’s the gap: a single inspection is a snapshot in time. A restaurant can have sewage on the floor one day and get a C. If they fix it before the follow-up, the grade stabilizes. The roaches you see today might be “corrected on-site” — meaning the operator killed them during the inspection — and the violation gets marked as resolved.

The grading system isn’t broken. But it has limits:

• “Corrected On-Site” doesn’t mean the problem is gone. It means the operator addressed it while the inspector watched. The underlying conditions (poor sanitation, structural issues, lack of pest control) often persist.
• A B grade can coexist with horrifying conditions if the restaurant performs well on most other metrics. A few critical violations get diluted by dozens of passing checks.
• Follow-up inspections don’t always happen quickly. In the Masala Mantra case, inspectors returned four days in a row — but that’s the exception, not the rule.

The takeaway: Don’t trust grades alone. Look up your restaurant on InspectFL and read the actual inspection observations. The details matter more than the letter.