Roaches and food mold at a Coral Gables restaurant that failed 2 inspections

Food admin October 7, 2026 0 Comments

Roaches and food mold at a Coral Gables restaurant that failed 2 inspections

A Coral Gables restaurant with “Contemporary Mediterr-Asian Cuisine” was shut down Monday and Tuesday by filth, mold and roaches.

That’s what a state inspector chronicled about the visits to Sawa, 360 San Lorenzo Ave., in Coral Gables’ Shops of Merrick Park. Monday’s routine inspection found 15 total violations, including five high priority ones.

The inspector slammed a Stop Sale on “two strawberries in a container with mold-like growth.”

Overhead, the inspector saw “ceiling and vents throughout the kitchen were soiled” “with accumulated food debris, grease, dust, or mold-like substance.”

READ MORE: Coral Gables lawyer charged with lewd and lascivious behavior on minors

In the corner of a prep area, “where sushi rise is stored,” were four dead roaches. Another 11 roach corpses were between cooling units and shelves.

Two roaches moseyed on a prep counter, “crawling under a rice cooker.” Two other roaches hid in a reach-in cooler’s gaskets. Another roach was under a reach-in cooler.

The cookline’s hood filters were “soiled with grease buildup.”

Commercially processed reduced oxygen packaged fish carries a label telling you to keep the fish frozen and in the packaging until you’re ready to use it. Otherwise, the fish turns into a big bacteria growth area. But workers ignored that warning, so Stop Sales hit two packages of minced tuna that were thawing in the reach-in cooler.

Online records say Sawa didn’t get reopened after Tuesday’s re-inspection after the inspector saw a dead roach in the coffee station handwash sink, four live roaches in a reach-in cooler’s gaskets, two live roaches under a kitchen prep cooler and another live roach under another reach-in cooler.