NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene Restaurant Inspection

On the iPhone/​iPad there’s an even better app now, free! Check out Grade Pending in the App Store. Works even when you don’t have Internet access (in the subway, for example).

There is also an iPhone app for that called Grade Spotter. You can download it from the App Store here

I’ve spent so much time researching restaurants, Atif I. insists I should work for the NYC DOH and well, maybe if I did, there would be no more restaurants open! Well, either that or things would reallllly be clean!
I recently visited a restaurant who had an A. Shortly after my visit, they were awarded a Grade Pending. So the lesson is check out when they received their grade before thinking you’re in the clear; things may’ve changed greatly since.
And just because they have an A doesn’t mean it’s roach or mice free! A peek at a restaurant’s details showed they had live mice when they received that A.
Hey, NYC DOH! I know people are saying you’re giving restaurants a hard time and making things difficult, but I think you need to assign higher levels of points to live mice/​roaches and lack of washing availability!

Despite my opinion about the whole restaurant health inspection grading thing, I can’t dispute the awesomeness of this website. You can look up every restaurant in the city, and see their current grade and the results of every inspection they’ve ever had, and find out exactly what their violations were. It’s pretty addictive, and sometimes terrifying.
That said, the whole grading thing is a bit fishy (is there a pun in there somewhere?). A restaurant can get inspected without getting graded, they can petition the results of their inspection and get their grades changed, and a bunch of «critical violations» are things you see all the time and probably don’t think twice about, like a bartender not using tongs to place the lime on your gin and tonic, a waitress without her hair tied back, or a cook with tomato sauce on his apron.
As some of you may know, I don’t really care about the letter grade a particular restaurant may have received on their health inspection. I mean sure, I wouldn’t be inclined to drop a C-​note at a C graded establishment, but I couldn’t care less what grade The Man gave my favorite taco joint or dumpling hole. I say, whatever doesn’t kill you, yadda yadda yadda.
So relax, eat whatever looks and smells good to you, and if you’re a stickler about grades, remember that «Grade Pending» means the place is in the process of disputing their grade (read: they got a B or below).
NB: they grade movie theaters too! Even your overpriced popcorn and fountain soda are safe in the hands of the NYCDOHMH!

The restaurants police.

I recently created a site that makes searching much easier. Ironically enough I have the results integrated with Unilocal.There are two components a google maps based search, and a bookmarklet that integrates with the restaurant landing pages of


and
.

NYC Restaurant Inspection!
If you don’t like the idea of sharing your lunch with mice and rats or you are just curious how dirty your favorite restaurant is — visit this web site. Beware! Severe disappointments, loss of affection and a feeling of shear disgust are likely to occur.
Bön appetite.

I wasn’t able to get the inspection results at the government site, but this is an alternative that worked. You can search by restaurant name, neighborhood, and other categories (but not by cuisine, of course!). The site shows when the inspection was done and what the breakdown of the score is.