King County Restaurant Inspection Reports

[tighe]

Maybe others are already familiar with this feature of the King County web site, but scrat recently discovered that you can look up the inspection history of any food-service business in the county. It's pretty interesting (and addictive) to browse my favorite places. One thing that is clear is that even high end places are not immune from getting dinged for fairly serious transgressions (Canlis). Our friends at Jumbo had a VERY rocky inspection last July, but appear to have righted the ship. I don't know if anything I've seen will change where I eat.

King County Restaurant Inspections Online

Edited February 19, 2003 by tighe (log)

[Schielke]

heh heh, check out Bahn Mi 88. Tee hee.

Ben

[col klink]

"Make another batch of special sauce, put that mayonnaise in the sun."

[girl chow]

That is WRONG about Bahn Mi 88! Say it isn't sooooo!

I am not reading any more of those reports. I'd rather just risk it. I'm much more likely to give myself food poisoning than anyone else, just based on the ratio of homemade meals I eat vs. restaurant meals. Although I always do refrigerate my mayo....

[col klink]

I use the site not necessarily so I know what happening at my favorite restaurant but for ammo against the restaurants I absolutely dispise, like Gaspare's Ristorante Italiano. Not only do they not know how to store food or wipe their counters, THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO COOK PASTA.

They're a friggin' Italian restaurant!@#$!!@%$^!@!!!!

[tighe]

One of the more common violations that I've noticed is termed 'pooling of eggs'? Can anyone share some insight on what that means?

Edited February 19, 2003 by tighe (log)

[mb7o]

One of the more common violations that I've noticed is termed 'pooling of eggs'?  Can anyone share some insight on what that means?

That's when they write numbers on the bottom of each egg. Then the you hand the waiter a few dollars. If the first egg they break that day has your table number on it, you win.

[Blue Heron]

There is only 1 restaurant that I ever stopped going to because of their King County Health record, and that was Honey Court in the Int'l district, who racked up an amazing score of 153 points! I'd like to hear if anyone could top that ! They must have violated every infraction in the books to get a score like that. It was a couple of years ago, and they have improved since then, but their record is still nothing to be proud of. Click here for Honey Court violations

[thelastsupper]

Pooling eggs refers to the number of eggs that can be stored together after cracking them. The more there are, the greater the chance of contamination.

[Eat_eat_eat]

Most Asian restaurants have a lot more violations than non-Asian joints. I don't understand why they just can't clean up! I ate in one in Chinatown recently and there were 6 flies overhead (I counted), although they were well-behaved enough not to dive for my food.

[Coop]

I can't imagine that ones heritage or place of birth would allow them to corner the market on filth. I have found people of many heritages and background to be complete slobs. on the other hand I have also found the opposite. That is why I don't let the colour of ones skin or thier ethnic background affect my judgement.

Can you say the same eat eat eat?

Check out the report for Canlis or Sazarec. Or even the much loved Le Pichet.

[Eat_eat_eat]

I speak from my experience. I won't say the same has happened to you since I don't know your experience.

Le Pichet has very few violations.

[mamster]

If you want to start a different stereotype, Japanese restaurants tend to have fewer than average violations.

[Blue Heron]

Nha Trang (Vietnamese) in Little Saigon, our beloved restaurant of Seven Courses of Beef fame, had 0 violations.

However, I think Chinatown/Intl'l District in general, perhaps receives a higher percentage of violations on average. Has never slowed me down from wanting to eat there (except in the case of Honey Court with their whopping score of 153 points against them).

[Coop]

I think it probably has more to do with funding then location, although the two can be related. also every restauranteur has a differnt tolerance for cleanliness.

I love Le Pichet, however I would say that the back of the house appears to be less than clean. I also thought thier inspection appeared to be less then stellar.

It is a constant battle to keep restaurant clean. I have found the inspectors here in Vancouver to be much harder on new locations that seem to have some money behind them. Although it caused me grief in the past it is probably fair.

[Schielke]

I just checked out the Le Pichet inspection and think that all of those are minor infractions. The largest total points on a visit was 10. Mistral is one of the cleanest kitchens that I know and it had a 3 at most.

I would say that both of those scores are stellar considering it takes 35 red points (most of Le Pichet were blue) to warrant any kind of action.

Ben

[mamster]

Mostly I come away from this hugely impressed with the King County inspection program. They're clearly doing a thorough job. Did anyone else read the piece in the New Yorker's "food issue" about spending a day with the New York restaurant inspectors? After watching restaurants get busted for some shocking violations, the reporter asked the inspectors, "Do you still eat out?"

"Of course," they said, going on to imply that nothing they saw on their rounds would deter them from eating almost anywhere in town. Me too.

[Blue Heron]

I was recently talking to a guy who used to work as a King County Health violations inspector. After we talked about various restaurants, I asked him what's the deal with sushi chef's having to wear gloves (which came up in one of klink's reviews on Mashiko). He said that sushi chef's can write and ask for an exception to this rule if they can show they have a method for keeping their hands clean while they are preparing sushi. So the rule is not written in stone.

[col klink]

Good work Heron!

[scrat68]

On one of my recent visits to Jumbo, I was appalled by the bathroom. I sent an e-mail via the KC site and had an amazing, fast response:

**********

On "02/12/2003" at "03:30PM": A customer comment from Pat O'Neill was posted from the King County webpage http://www.metrokc.gov/health/foodsfty/whyclose.htm and mailed to jeff.ing@metrokc.gov

Subject: Jumbo Restaurant on Rainier Ave S

Comment Type: Problem

Email Address: vinceandpat@seanet.com

I love the food there but the "single" bathroom was atrocious when I went there a few weeks ago. Toilet did not flush properly and was constantly running. Two signs inside the door asked that "paper" not be put into toilet. People were/had been clearly using the trash can for disposal of their toilet paper. Bathroom in gerneral was filthy in appearance.

********

Wednesday 02-12-03

Hi Pat, thanks for the heads up on Jumbo Restaurant. I've forwarded your message to the manager or our Food Safety Inspection Team who will assign an inspector to visit the restaurant within the next few business days. The inspector will talk to the manager about ensuring that the they regularly clean the bathroom, keep it well-stocked with supplies and that the plumbing is functional. After the inspection is complete, the inspector will write back to you with details of the visit including what action was taken to address your complaint. Your complaint may be mentioned as necessary to complete the investigation but your name and email address will remain confidential to protect your privacy.

If you have further questions or concerns about this process, please feel free to reply.

Jeff Ing, Public Health Webmaster

Public Health - Seattle & King County

999 3rd Avenue, Suite 1200

Seattle, WA 98104-4039

www.metrokc.gov/health

*********

Tuesday 02-18-03

The reply was written by Anne Alfred the Environmental Health Specialist that is inspecting that area.

Hi Pat-I went to Jumbo Chinese Restaurant on Friday, February 14, 2003. The men and womens' restrooms were all quite dirty as you described, and actually the three stalls were dirtier than the single bathroom. They all had the sign that said "please do not put paper in toilets". I took down all the signs and took them to the owner. We made some new signs that said "...toilet paper only in toilets" and "...no paper towels in toilets"

Then we discussed his cleaning schedule. The owner informed me they are cleaned every morning. I said they need to be checked and cleaned, i.e. floor picked up and sinks wiped up at least two more times each day, after lunch and in the evening. He agreed. Then he and an employee went in and cleaned the restooms.

I will make sure that I check them when I am at the restaurant inspecting. Thank you for your email. Customer input is a very important to protecting public health and safety.

**********

I was very impressed by the speed and thoroughness of their response. It's times like these that really show us that the KC government is truly working for us. I plan to send them a thank you e-mail!

[Schielke]

Damn! A government organization that actually works!

Ben

[girl chow]

Scrat, I had a similar experience with the health department about 5 years ago when I reported a restaurant in Kent that had bugs crawling all over the dining room (ants and an assortment of other critter wildlife. Ewww).

They got back to me in a few days and told me the owner had scheduled a fumigation and cleaning. They called back after they did another inspection to say the bug problem had been taken care of and they thanked me for calling them... much like your experience. I thought that was pretty cool.

I, however, have never been able to return to that restaurant. If there are that many bugs in the dining room, then what does the kitchen look like? Uck.

[malarkey]

girlchow, I am honored to be quoted by you

[Deacon]

I put in the names of all the Seattle restaurants I could think of off the top of my head. Only The Herbfarm had no "red criticals," just a couple of "blues," each on a separate occasion. This isn't encouraging: Campagne had a few "red criticals," and I've eaten there. Glad I found out about Canlis, though.

[tsquare]

Hey, keep trying:

Matt's in the Market - no red

Market Street Grill - last routine inspection - 0 points red or blue!

Eva - perfect record!

Restaurant Zoe - no red

BOB - no red

frightening is Farestart - "training people to work in the food service industry" and they had 78 points! But a week later - they had zero.