The Villages & Sumter County Restaurant Inspections: 295 Restaurants on Record

The Villages has grown into one of the largest retirement communities in the country, and Sumter County’s restaurant scene has expanded right along with it. Town square restaurants, golf-cart-accessible strip centers along 466 and 466A, and a steady stream of new openings have pushed the dining footprint out into Wildwood, Lady Lake, and Bushnell as well. Florida DBPR currently licenses 295 active restaurants across The Villages and Sumter County — enough volume that inspection patterns are worth watching, not just individual scores.

This article reports on specific historical inspection events pulled directly from DBPR’s public record — not aggregate opinions or estimated grades. Each card below is a real, dated inspection with the disposition DBPR assigned to it. Restaurants improve and decline over time, and a single inspection is a snapshot, not the whole story. For the current InspectFL Health Score on any specific establishment, click through to its restaurant page; for the original, authoritative report, see myfloridalicense.com.

What Stands Out in the Recent Data

A few patterns are worth calling out before you get to the individual cards:

• Most of the heavier findings were complaint-driven, not routine. Of the 12 inspections below with the most documented observations, 6 were “Complaint Full” visits — meaning a customer or another party filed a report that triggered the inspection, rather than DBPR showing up on its normal rotation. That’s a higher share than you’d see in a purely routine sample, and it’s a reminder that complaint inspections tend to surface more findings than a scheduled check would.
• One location escalated further than the rest. Hungry Howie’s in Wildwood was the only restaurant on this list to receive an “Administrative complaint recommended” disposition — the most serious outcome shown here, one step beyond a standard warning.
• A previously flagged location cleared its emergency order. Sweet Licks in Bushnell shows up in the clean list with an “Emergency Order Callback Complied” disposition from September 11 — meaning the location had been serious enough to warrant an emergency order at some point, and this inspection confirms it’s now back in compliance.
• Same brand, different outcome, different city. Jersey Mike’s Subs in The Villages picked up a Warning Issued disposition after a complaint inspection, while a separate Jersey Mike’s Sub Shop location in Middleton had a clean, zero-finding inspection the same month. It’s the same national chain, but inspection outcomes are decided location by location — a useful reminder not to judge one restaurant by another’s history just because they share a sign. See how chains stack up statewide in our Top 10 Cleanest Restaurant Chains in Florida breakdown.

Recent Inspections With Findings

These are the specific inspection events with the highest documented observation counts in our recent Sumter County data. The number on each card reflects the imported rows for that exact inspection date, matching what you’d see on the restaurant’s own InspectFL page.

Recent Clean Inspections

These inspections came back with zero documented observations on the date shown. As with the list above, each card reflects that single inspection event — not the restaurant’s full history — so a clean visit here doesn’t erase an earlier one, and vice versa. For more perfect-score restaurants statewide, see Florida’s Cleanest Restaurants: 10,093 Perfect Scores.

Understanding the DBPR Inspection Process

Florida’s Division of Hotels and Restaurants (DHR) under DBPR conducts unannounced inspections of every licensed food service establishment in the state, typically one to four times per year depending on risk category.

When an inspector finds something, the disposition tells you what happens next:

• Inspection Completed - No Further Action — the establishment was compliant, with any issues resolved during the visit
• Call Back - Complied — a previous warning was issued, and a follow-up confirms the issue is fixed
• Warning Issued — the establishment received notice that issues must be corrected; a callback follows
• Administrative complaint recommended — the inspector escalated to formal regulatory action; the restaurant typically remains open during the process
• Emergency order recommended — the inspector identified a severe public health hazard
• Emergency Order Callback Complied — a follow-up confirms a prior emergency order’s issues are resolved

Every card above reflects one of those events — happened on the date listed, part of the official record, regardless of what’s happened at that restaurant since.

Check a Specific Restaurant

Planning a trip through The Villages, Wildwood, or Lady Lake and want to check a spot before you go? Click through any restaurant linked above for its full InspectFL page with inspection history and current Health Score, or search directly below. For the official, authoritative DBPR report, the source is always myfloridalicense.com.

Search any Florida restaurant →

Related: Land O’ Lakes restaurant inspections · Tampa restaurant inspections · Orlando restaurant inspections · Florida’s Cleanest Restaurants · Top 10 Cleanest Chains

Data sourced from Florida DBPR public inspection records. The InspectFL Health Score is our own time-weighted calculation that prioritizes recent inspections — it is not an official DBPR rating. Each inspection event described above is a permanent public record; restaurants’ overall grades may have changed since the inspection date listed.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many restaurants are in The Villages and Sumter County?

Florida DBPR currently tracks 295 active restaurants across The Villages and Sumter County.

How often are restaurants inspected?

Most sit-down and quick-service restaurants are inspected one to four times per year depending on risk category. Establishments with serious findings can be re-inspected within a few days as part of the DBPR callback process.

Where can I see the official DBPR inspection report?

The authoritative inspection record for any licensed Florida food service establishment is published by Florida DBPR at myfloridalicense.com.

What does “Warning Issued” mean on an inspection?

It means the inspector documented findings serious enough to require formal correction. The restaurant typically receives a callback inspection within a few days to weeks; if the issues are corrected, the disposition becomes “Call Back - Complied.”

Where does this data come from?

All inspection data is sourced from Florida DBPR (Department of Business and Professional Regulation) public records. The InspectFL Health Score is our own 0-100 calculation based on violation severity, frequency, and recency — it is not an official DBPR rating.