Donald Trump’s luxury Chicago property, the Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago, failed a December 17, 2025 food and health inspection, according to city inspection records. City officials documented sanitation and food safety violations across the main kitchen, room service, and the Terrace 16 restaurant. The property cleared a follow-up review on December 23 with the exception of a cracked ice machine lid. Inspectors ordered the hotel to repair or replace that lid, records show, according to TMZ.
Pest activity
Inspectors identified multiple issues that triggered citations. A hot-water dish machine was not properly sanitizing utensils because it failed to reach the required 160ºF (71ºC). Plumbing problems in the prep area caused sinks to drain wastewater onto the kitchen floor. Pest activity was also recorded in food service spaces, with the inspector noting “more than 10 small flies” throughout a bar area and “more than three small flies” in a dish area. Management was directed to service “all areas affected by pests,” according to The Independent.
Additional violations involved food handling and storage. Perishable items such as cooked vegetables, shredded lettuce, and kale were stored above the safe cold-holding threshold of 41ºF (5ºC), with some between 46ºF and 53ºF (8ºC to 12ºC). Raw shellfish lacked required sell-by or serve-by date labels. Inspectors found debris and built-up gunk in prep coolers and noted accumulated debris on the floor under a sink. The ice machine’s lid had a cracked interior, and the inspector instructed management to repair or replace that equipment.
No soap in employee bathroom
Elsewhere in the kitchen, workers handled ready-to-eat food without gloves. The employee bathroom did not have hand soap available, leading to a directive to supply proper handwashing materials. The inspection covered the hotel’s main kitchen operations, room service preparation areas, and Terrace 16, which serve hotel guests and outside diners.
Plumbing issues extended to three-compartment sinks in the kitchen, which flooded the floor when drained and were flagged for corrective action. The report cited wastewater pooling on the kitchen floor from prep sinks and directed the property to address the drainage and sanitation failures.
In January 2024, the hotel failed a food inspection over issues that included food stored at the wrong temperature and a chef who reused cleaned mollusk shells to serve oysters. That practice is prohibited under food safety rules because shells are intended for single use.