NEW YORK—Could your party of four be sharing a table with little six-legged critters? New York State Senator Jeff Klein released his third annual lists of cleanest and dirtiest local restaurants on Sunday, Sept. 14.
The report lists the names of the dozen restaurants that received the most and least violation points from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. This year, two restaurants made it into a new category—the dirtiest of the Michelin star-rated restaurants.
Each year, the Department of Health performs unannounced inspections of all food service establishments in the city. The establishments are rated based on how the food is prepared and served, and on compliance with licenses and laws. Three types of violations exist: general violations regarding the physical space of the restaurant, documentation violations regarding the possession and display of licenses and signs, and critical violations regarding factors directly affecting human health. Each inspection item is assigned a number of violation points based on the severity of the violation.
If an establishment exceeds 28 violation points, it is issued a warning followed by re-inspection. If the problems persist, it will be inspected every six months until it can pass two inspections in a row. During the re-inspections, the restaurants are allowed to remain open.
If diners find it hard to interpret the quality of a restaurant based on points, Klein agrees that the current point-based system is not very user-friendly. That’s why he is hoping to replace it with a letter-grade system. “There’s not going to be a single restaurant that wants to hang an ‘F’ for the public to see,” he said.
The City of Los Angeles has already implemented such a system, which resulted in a 20-percent decrease in food-borne illnesses, according to Klein.
The Dirty Dozen
Restaurants on the “Dirty Dozen” list all had some combination of mice, rats, cockroaches and insects. The biggest violator, El Barrio Restaurant in uptown Manhattan, received 204 violation points. A maximum of 28 violation points is considered passing.
Of the 100 most unsanitary restaurants, 87% had at least one pest violation, 45% had at least two, and 12% had at least three. By borough, 78% of the top violators are in Manhattan and Brooklyn, followed by 12% in Queens, 7% in the Bronx, and 3% in Staten Island.
The top 6 Dirtiest and Cleanest Restaurants:
The top six cleanest:
Artuso Pastry Shop 1/23/08 7
672 E. 187th St. Bronx
Blimpie 4/2/08 5
85 East Gun Hill Rd., Bronx
Caffe Italia 10/16/07 4
12-40 A Clintonville St. Queens
Carifesta Restaurant 4/2/08 4
4251 White Plains Rd., Bronx
Churrsacaria Platforma 4/22/08 6
316 W. 49th St., Manhattan
Ocean Grill 11/27/07 5
384 Columbus Ave., Manhattan
* Based on sanitary inspection scores and reports from the NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Restaurant Inspection Information website. All restaurants received Golden Apple Awards and are listed with the date and score of their most recent sanitary inspection.
The top six dirtiest:
El Barrio Restaurant
152 E. 110th St., Manhattan
7/24/08 – insects, cockroaches 204
Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery
1862 Nostrand Ave., Brooklyn
7/09/09 – mice, insects, cockroaches 182
Guacamole’X
1186 E. 180th St., Bronx
7/25/08 – mice, insects 126
Merry Jerry’s Jamaican Restaurant
102 Saratoga Ave., Brooklyn
7/10/08 – rats, insects 125
The Metropolitan Grill
1 Madison St., Manhattan
6/5/08 – mice, insects, cockroaches 100
Jimmy’s Coffee Shop
900 6th Ave, Manhattan
7/08/08 – insects, cockroaches 97
* Based on sanitary inspection scores and reports from the NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene’s restaurants inspection website.
