SWFL restaurants cited for mislabeling food on menus

FORT MYERS, Fla. – The farm-to-table movement is a growing trend, but a WINK News Call for Action investigation found not every Southwest Florida restaurant is being honest about what they’re serving.

Restaurant inspectors ask for an invoice if the restaurant claims to be offering a certain local, organic or farm-to-table food. If the chef or restaurant manager can’t provide an invoice for what the menu claims to be offering, the restaurant could be fined up to $1,000 per occurrence or face license suspension or revocation.

Our Call for Action team requested restaurant inspections dating back three years and sorted through them to find restaurants cited for “misrepresentation” in Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties. We found 13 restaurants who had been cited, three of them multiple times.

The No. 1 violation was for the misrepresentation of seafood, including grouper, scallops and white tuna. Restaurants were also cited for incorrectly claiming to not have MSG in their food. One restaurant was cited for incorrectly labeled Kobe beef.

All but two of the restaurants changed their menu after they were cited. Our team reached out to the restaurants that changed their menu and most told us it was a clerical error or weren’t aware of some of the rules.

Menu discrepancies

WINK News went to two restaurants that hadn’t changed their menu after being cited: Origami Korean-Japanese, 8911 Daniels Parkway, Suite 5 in Fort Myers, and China Wok, 4891 Golden Gate Parkway in Golden Gate.

In March, inspectors cited China Wok for advertising “fried scallops” that were actually “imitation seafood nuggets.” WINK News purchased 10 “fried scallops” as listed on the menu and asked a China Wok employee whether they had changed the product or failed to update the menu.

When questioned if the scallop was imitation, employee Mindy Ye responded, “They’re imitation. On our menu it says imitation.”

But the menu didn’t say imitation. We asked if they planned to change the menu.

“A lot of times people will know what is a scallop, but when they ask we say it’s like an imitation seafood,” Ye said. “… We just ordered a new menu. It will say imitation on the menu. … Every time we order a menu it’s supposed to be a lot of them, so we’re not going to print the menu every month. But we do every year so when the new menu [is] coming it’s definitely going to say imitation.”

Origami was cited in May for listing “white tuna” on the menu, but the restaurant was actually serving escolar, another a species of fish. WINK News purchased the Bella Rosa sushi roll, which the menu listed as containing white tuna. WINK News went back inside to ask why the menu still had white tuna listed.

“We’ve been trying to move so many things,” co-owner Ichi Mura said. “I know it’s not really right for the people but usually most people order, who ordered white tuna years ago, know what it is. And then we always explain because they, you know, are suspicious of us. So we have nothing to hide. I’m sorry about that, supposed to correct the menu, but not 100 percent yet….I don’t want excuse. We’re going to correct ASAP.”

The next day the owner reached out to us and sent WINK News a photo of an updated menu with escolar in place of white tuna.

Local rancher keeps eye on violators

Keith Mann started his Punta Gorda ranch after he couldn’t find a local and traceable protein in Southwest Florida.

Five years ago, Mann bought several thousand acres and started Three Suns Ranch, where he breeds, raises, slaughters and processes grass-fed bison and beef.

“It is very difficult as a consumer to really get in touch with all the processes and individual entities involved in the production of meat, and the more hands in the cookie jar for me, the less wholesome the product is,” Mann said.

Mann said he does his own policing when he hears about restaurants that incorrectly claim to be selling his beef or bison. He said in the last five years, he has been alerted to roughly a half-dozen such restaurants.

“We consider it theft of the product and a good name,” Mann said.

Mann said those restaurants apologized and cited “oversight, clerical errors [and] administrative items” and quickly changed the menu.

Be a smart consumer

If you are ever eating out and aren’t sure if what’s advertised is really what you’re eating, ask the chef to see an invoice. If you want to file a complaint against a restaurant you believe to be misrepresenting its food, call 850-487-1395 or click here.

You can look up restaurant inspection reports by clicking here.

And you can check out details on Southwest Florida restaurants incorrectly labeling food on their menus below.