A city health inspection this month closed a longtime neighborhood takeout counter, and it wasn’t a borderline call. The inspector left with a violation score close to triple what it takes to earn the lowest letter grade the city hands out.
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Yoan Ming Garden, the Chinese restaurant at 1407 Madison Ave. between E. 97th and E. 98th streets, was closed by the Health Department following an Aug. 7 inspection that produced 75 violation points across eight separate citations. Six of those eight were flagged as critical.The critical items were:
- Hot foods that require temperature control weren’t being held at 140 degrees or above
- Cold foods that require temperature control weren’t being held at or below 41 degrees (with tighter limits for smoked or processed fish, raw eggs and vacuum-sealed items)
- Live roaches in the restaurant’s food or non-food areas
- A hand washing problem: either no sink where one is required, a sink that was blocked or being used for something else, no hot and cold running water at adequate pressure, or no soap and no way to dry hands
- Food, supplies or equipment left unprotected from contamination during storage, prep, transport, display or service
- Sanitized equipment and utensils, including utensils actively being used to serve food, improperly used or stored
The two remaining citations covered conditions inside the restaurant that attract or shelter rodents and insects, and non-food surfaces or equipment that were made of unacceptable material, weren’t kept clean, or weren’t sealed, raised or spaced far enough to be cleaned around and underneath.
That 75 is the part worth sitting with. New York’s inspection scores count upward, not down, so a higher number is worse. Inspectors start every restaurant at zero and add points for each violation they find. Under the city’s rules, a score of 0 to 13 earns an A, 14 to 27 earns a B, and 28 or more earns a C. There’s no grade below a C. Once conditions get bad enough, the city stops grading and starts closing.
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The point values themselves are tiered by risk. A public health hazard, like food held at an unsafe temperature, carries a minimum of 7 points. A critical violation carries at least 5. A general violation carries at least 2. Inspectors can then add points on top of those minimums depending on how widespread the problem is, which is how a single citation can be worth far more than its floor. Yoan Ming Garden’s eight citations averaged more than 9 points apiece.The city can order a restaurant closed when it finds a public health hazard that can’t be fixed on the spot, or when a restaurant is operating without a valid permit. A closed restaurant stays closed until inspectors return and confirm the conditions have been corrected.
East Side Feed tried to contact Yoan Ming Garden. You can view the full report here.
