{"id":60778,"date":"2026-01-07T18:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T23:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=60778"},"modified":"2026-01-07T18:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T23:37:16","slug":"polk-county-restaurants-closed-by-inspectors-because-of-roaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/01\/07\/polk-county-restaurants-closed-by-inspectors-because-of-roaches\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County restaurants closed by inspectors because of roaches"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"968167\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #968167;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RestAURANT-INSPECTION.webp?resize=1024%2C576&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-60780 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RestAURANT-INSPECTION.webp?resize=1024%2C576&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RestAURANT-INSPECTION.webp?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RestAURANT-INSPECTION.webp?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RestAURANT-INSPECTION.webp?resize=1536%2C864&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RestAURANT-INSPECTION.webp?w=2000&amp;ssl=1 2000w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Dec. 2,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/data.theledger.com\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/shanghai-chinese-restaurant\/sea6306543\/4388726\/\"><strong>Shanghai Chinese Restaurant<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;at 2344 Griffin Road in Lakeland was temporarily closed after an inspector noted 14 live roaches (high priority) and 15 dead roaches (basic violation), mostly near a dry storage area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another high-priority violation was for raw shell eggs stored over sauce in a walk-in cooler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And there were two other basic violations: soiled floors and walls behind kitchen equipment; and a container of cooking oil stored on the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a call back the next day, the restaurant met standards with zero violations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation describes an inspection report as a \u201csnapshot\u201d in time, and not an indication of normal conditions at a restaurant. For instance, in January 2025, the last inspection before its disastrous one in December, Global Foody Lovers was perfect, with zero violations.<strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/data.theledger.com\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/abuelos-mexican-food-embassy\/sea6307628\/3234773\/\">Abuelo&#8217;s Mexican Food Embassy<\/a><\/strong>, 3700 Lakeside Village Blvd., Lakeland: On Dec. 2, the restaurant had seven violations, none high priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three were intermediate: a black substance on the margarita machine at the bar; a strainer in the hand wash sink at the bar; and no proof of required state approved employee training for any employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other four were basic: packs of mahi and sea bass were thawing on the cook line without being removed from their reduced oxygen packaging; employee drinks were sitting next to soda bibs on the cook line; cracked sheet pans by the salsa station and cracked plastic tortilla chip bins by the fryers; and no handwashing sign provided at a hand sink used by employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A warning was issued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/data.theledger.com\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/palace-pizza\/sea6305942\/2243096\/\"><strong>Palace Pizza<\/strong><\/a>, 114 S. Kentucky Ave., Lakeland: On Dec. 2, the restaurant had seven violations, none high priority.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two were intermediate: A bar area was added without plans submitted for approval; and required employee training was expired for all employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other five were basic: A cup with no handle was used in the sugar bin; gaskets in a reach-in cooler were soiled; pizza boxes were stored on the floor; catering pans were stored upright and not protected from contamination; and a wet mop wasn\u2019t stored in a manner to allow the mop to dry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A warning was issued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/data.theledger.com\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/the-lakeland-country-club\/sea6308497\/6963232\/?next=\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/\">The Lakeland Country Club<\/a><\/strong>, 929 Lake Hollingsworth Drive, Lakeland: On Dec. 16, the restaurant had seven violations, none high priority.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three were intermediate: no written procedures for employees to follow in response to a vomiting or diarrheal event; the person in charge lacked proof of food manager certification; and no proof of required training for any employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The rest were basic: An employee\u2019s drink cup was on a cutting board; pans were wet nesting on a shelf; a light under the hood system wasn\u2019t functioning; and an employee had a wiping cloth hanging off his belt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A warning was issued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/data.theledger.com\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/geico-direct\/sea6306429\/9089401\/?next=\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/\">Geico Direct<\/a><\/strong>, 3535 W. Pipkin Road, Lakeland: On Dec. 10, the restaurant had six violations, none high priority.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three were basic: no written procedures in response to a vomiting or diarrheal event; a hand wash sink was blocked by a black utility cart; and the person in charge lacked proof of food manager certification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And three were basic: A case of SwissMiss hot chocolate was stored on the floor; reach-in cooler shelves were pitted with rust; and a case of 12-ounce paper cups were stored on the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A warning was issued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/data.theledger.com\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/carrabbas-italian-grill\/sea6305785\/4046781\/?next=\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/\">Carrabba&#8217;s Italian Grill<\/a><\/strong>, 4829 S. Florida Ave., Lakeland: On Dec. 8, the restaurant had four violations: A clogged drain was causing wastewater backup from the three-compartment sink floor drain (high priority); a hand wash sink was blocked by a ladder (intermediate); the operator was conducting reduced oxygen packaging of a sauce without an approved HACCP plan (intermediate); and food packaged with this process wasn\u2019t removed from the packaging within 48 hours (basic).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An administrative complaint was recommended. In a call back on Dec. 9, the restaurant was given a time extension on two remaining violations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/data.theledger.com\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/texas-cattle-company\/sea6300544\/2241076\/?next=\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/\">Texas Cattle Company<\/a><\/strong>, 735 E. Main St., Lakeland:\u00a0 On Dec. 10, the restaurant had four violations: A box was sitting on top of cut lettuce in the kitchen (high priority); several items were cold held at greater than 41 degrees, including blue cheese, cut tomatoes, dang bang sauce and beef (high priority); an employee hand wash sink was blocked with a chair and mop bucket (intermediate); and broccoli was stored uncovered in a walk-in cooler (basic).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A warning was issued. In a call back on Dec. 11, the restaurant met standards with zero violations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/data.theledger.com\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/hakucho\/none\/9127440\/?next=\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/\">Hakucho<\/a><\/strong>, 207 E. Main St., Lakeland: On Dec. 11, the restaurant had four violations: no proof of required training provided for any employees (intermediate); no written procedures for use of time as a public health control to hold time\/temperature controlled food (intermediate); the operator was conducting cook-chill sous vide cooking without an approved HACCP plan (intermediate); and a cloth was touching bean sprouts in a walk-in cooler (basic). A warning was issued.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/data.theledger.com\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/the-chop-shop\/sea6306032\/5566826\/?next=\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/\">The Chop Shop<\/a><\/strong>, 118 S. Kentucky Ave., Lakeland: On Dec. 10, the restaurant had three violations: Renovations were made without a plan submitted for approval (intermediate); a soda machine ice chute was soiled with food debris or a mold-like substance (intermediate); and to-go items were stored on the floor (basic). An administrative complaint was recommended.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/data.theledger.com\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/the-olive-garden-italian-restaurant-4432\/sea6308031\/5248150\/?next=\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/\">The Olive Garden Italian Restaurant #4432<\/a><\/strong>, 1340 Lakeside Village Circle, Lakeland: On Dec. 10, the restaurant had three basic violations: Eleven dead roaches were found by the inspector; the floor was soiled with an accumulatio, including grease under cooking equipment and debris under dry-storage shelves and a beverage station; and shelves under a stove and gaskets on a reach-in cooler were soiled.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A warning was issued. In a call back on Dec. 11, the restaurant met standards with one remaining violation: the soiled shelves and gaskets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/data.theledger.com\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/celeste-brazil-steak-n-burger\/none\/9427894\/?next=\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/\"><strong>Celeste Brazil Steak &#8216;N Burger<\/strong><\/a>, 3800 U.S. 98 N., No. 684, Lakeland: On Dec. 8, the restaurant had two intermediate violations: The person in charge lacked proof of food manager certification; and no proof of required training for any employees. A warning was issued.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/data.theledger.com\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/mootown-scoops\/none\/9074439\/?next=\/restaurant-inspections\/polk\/\">Mootown Scoops<\/a><\/strong>, 723 E. Palmetto St., Lakeland: On Dec. 11, the restaurant had two intermediate violations: The person in charge lacked proof of certification; and no proof of required training for any employees. A warning was issued.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Dec. 2,&nbsp;Shanghai Chinese Restaurant&nbsp;at 2344 Griffin Road in Lakeland was temporarily closed after an inspector noted 14 live roaches (high priority) and 15 dead roaches (basic violation), mostly near&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDFcL1Jlc3RBVVJBTlQtSU5TUEVDVElPTi53ZWJwP2ZpdD0xMDI0JTJDNTc2JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiUG9sayBDb3VudHkgcmVzdGF1cmFudHMgY2xvc2VkIGJ5IGluc3BlY3RvcnMgYmVjYXVzZSBvZiByb2FjaGVzIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.FixQHRvdS-4YqNQVUiE_2nokFJkQtNYW4POsXw-ZQBYMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":60780,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RestAURANT-INSPECTION.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[13130],"class_list":["post-60778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-polk-county-restaurants-closed-by-inspectors-because-of-roaches"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60778"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60781,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60778\/revisions\/60781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}