Popular Indian restaurant Tandoor Oven was ordered closed by the Department of Health this week, according to official city records. The restaurant, located at 175 East 83rd Street, was slapped with 70 violation points (scores of 28 or higher receive a “C” health grade).
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The following six critical violations were issued after the November 19 inspection, according to public data from the Dept of Health:
- Food, supplies, or equipment not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display, service or from customer’s refillable, reusable container. Condiments not in single-service containers or dispensed directly by the vendor.
- Evidence of mice or live mice in establishment’s food or non-food areas.
- Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage associated with (FRSA) flies or other nuisance pests in establishment’s food and/or non-food areas. FRSA flies include house flies, blow flies, bottle flies, flesh flies, drain flies, Phorid flies and fruit flies.
- Food Protection Certificate (FPC) not held by manager or supervisor of food operations.
- No hand washing facility in or adjacent to toilet room or within 25 feet of a food preparation, food service or ware washing area. Hand washing facility not accessible, obstructed or used for non-hand washing purposes. No hot and cold running water or water at inadequate pressure. No soap or acceptable hand-drying device.
- Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.
The Health Department can shut down a restaurant if there’s a public health hazard which “cannot be corrected before the end of an inspection,” or if a restaurant scores higher than 28 on three consecutive inspections.
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Tandoor Oven’s last inspection, in May 2024, scored them 39 points. Before that, in August 2022, they got 12 points.
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Upon closure by the Health Department, “signs must be immediately posted in the window(s) and/or door(s) [and] all operations must cease…” However, on Friday, November 22, Tandoor Oven did not have these signs on display and had posted a “Grade Pending” sign in the window.
As of writing, the restaurant’s website has a pop-up stating that they had closed on November 19 and November 20 to make “urgent repairs.”
We connected with someone at Tandoor Oven on Saturday, and he informed us that they have reopened. He also claimed they only closed to “repair some maintenance issues in the basement,” and that their closing had “nothing to do with the Health Department.”
When we pointed out what’s (still) described on the Health Dept website, he simply told us we “must have gotten some wrong information,” insisting they were never actually closed by the city agency in the first place.
We reached out to NYC Health and a representative simply said, “It’s possible that Tandoor Oven passed their last inspection but the results haven’t been posted yet.”
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Hmmm…ongoing dispute with a particular inspector?