.png "Punta Cana Restaurant, located at 9119 Taft St. in Pembroke Pines, was ordered to temporarily close on Dec. 10.")
Punta Cana Restaurant, located at 9119 Taft St. in Pembroke Pines, was ordered to temporarily close on Dec. 10.
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A Dominican restaurant in Pembroke Pines was forced to close after a recent inspection found more than a dozen cockroaches, according to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
Punta Cana Restaurant, located at 9119 Taft St., was cited for a total of 16 violations during a Dec. 10 inspection, including three high-priority violations deemed by DBPR to be “likely to directly contribute to foodborne illness or injury,” forcing the restaurant to temporarily close its doors.
According to the DBPR website, the department will only issue emergency closures if a facility’s violations “pose a high risk to the health, safety, or welfare of the public or the facility’s employees.”
Inspectors visited the restaurant, which has a sister location in Kissimmee and claims on its website to be the “best Caribbean restaurant” in both cities, as part of a routine inspection.
When they arrived, they found live cockroaches crawling in the kitchen around the hand sink, “on top of a clean pot on the shelf above the triple sink,” behind the flip-top unit and on the wall next to the ice machine, according to the report.
Add to that the dozen or so dead cockroaches found under the sink and on the kitchen floor and walls.
In addition, raw shrimp was observed being stored on top of cooked beef and chicken, leading to a cross-contact violation, while a cream-based drink in the cooler had no time marks indicating the date it was cooked, inspectors said.
While less serious, the restaurant also had basic violations, including water on the floor, bags of beef improperly thawed in the sink, and uncovered oil and vinegar bottles in the hand sink splash zone.
Inspectors also noted that the reach-in cooler was “contaminated with spilled food debris” and that some type of grease and debris was on the walls and shelves of the eatery.
A follow-up inspection the next day corrected most of the violations and allowed the restaurant to reopen.
DBPR says that according to the restaurant’s “Follow-up Inspection Required” status, a return visit will be required. As of December 19th, no evaluation has yet been conducted.
Punta Cana Restaurant’s Kissimmee location, last visited by inspectors in July, met the department’s standards and had a total of five violations, including one high-priority violation.
This story was first published December 19, 2025, 12:45 PM.
