Letter Grades for Island Restaurants

Next year we will get to see letter grades in the window at each of Roosevelt Island's restaurants and food service establishments as issued by the NYC Department of Health. Under the current system the DOH posts online the number of violation points each establishment was issued at their last inspection. The lower the points the better the grade.

The New York Times has run a few articles and blog posts in the past week about restaurant inspections. One long time Roosevelt Island resident had the following to say in response to one piece:

This is VERY GOOD news. Restaurant inspection results and grades should be posted on front doors or front windows. Works very well in LA and other cities. Makes owners and staff concentrate on food safety AND sales.

Too bad the city’s deli’s & supermarkets are not covered by this requirement. The state does a terrible job of responding to complaints and supermarket and deli owners and staff make the barest attempts to comply.

As a 26-year resident of Roosevelt Island, it is outrageous that our Deli and Gristede’s pass (just by a rodent’s tail) their regular and/or requested inspections. One of our Island restaurants was closed 2 times by the NYC DOH and now are probably the better for it…

— anonymous

EveryBlock Exposes 72 Health Violation Points at Local Restaurant

NOTE: Follow Up Visit and Improvements Updated Below

This evening while perusing the EveryBlock web page for Zip Code 10044 I immediately saw that the site had info for one single NYC restaurant inspection on the Island: China One on Dec 27, 2007. Unfortunately for China One and for us is that the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found nine violations (see above image) for a total of 72 violation points.

Following the link provided by EveryBlock to the NYC Health Department web page for China One we learn that the average violation points total is 14 and above 28 requires a follow up visit.

Serendipity III, located on East 60th Street, when it was recently closed down by the DOHMH on November 14th had only 33 violation points but then again they had a mice problem and China One amazingly did not have that.

Kind of makes you think about your food a bit more. When I see their next inspection listed I will post the links here.

UPDATE: Midnight 1/25/08

As noted by the Anonymous commenter the violations and violation points IMPROVED GREATLY upon China One's followup visit by the DOHMH on January 18th. Link HERE. I missed the follow up when I viewed the DOHMH site earlier this evening. The violations dropped down to 2 with a total of 14 violation points. As of today China One is actually doing better than all of the other food establishments on the Island. The link for all Roosevelt Island eateries is HERE.