Having been through many an inspection myself over the years, I have mixed feelings about this new system, as many people do. On one hand its good for the public; easy to find, clear and easy to understand, and very to the point. On the other hand, it doesn't specify what the grade was given for, and the NYC Health Department has a pretty interesting and as far as I am concerned, poorly created list of what they deem to be "Critical Violations". An example of a Critical Violation from the article on the new grading system in yesterdays NY Post (Read it HERE) is; "...an employee put on rubber gloves to split a strawberry with a steak knife to garnish a yogurt and he didn't have a hairnet on...". I don't know about you, but thats not my idea of critical. Spoiled food (and not just one single item, as in one tomato, in a kitchen that has hundreds), roaches, bugs, mice, etc., thats my idea of critical (and those are included in critical). The problem is, it wont say what the exact incidence or infraction was either on the door posted letter grade, or on the website, it just gives the pre-set category the Health Dept. uses, which may or may not be accurate or representative of what the actual offense was.
As for my opinion of the NYC Health Departments online Restaurant Inspection Database (See it HERE); the user interface is in two words, not great. A search for the bar "Lansdowne Road" using the name and zip code yields.....nothing. Ok, so I figured I would click on the "search by alphabetical listing" and choose "L"....nothing. It could be that they are using "Trade Names" not "Premise Names", in some cases, but in all fairness, a search for Mr. Biggs & River, yielded correct results with just their premises name (and for the record, both scored a B last time around, though neither has been re-scored since the new system has been implemented), so I am not sure whats up with the database or why Lansdowne Road is not listed .
As an FYI, if you wanted to find the trade name, in other words, the name they filed as their corporate papers, which is likely something like, "123 West 42nd Street, Restaurant, Inc.", you would have to go to the State Liquor Authority Website (HERE). Its worth noting that while there are some restaurants who use the premises name in their trade name, its not most, which means you wont find them in a database that uses only premises names. Now the State Liquor Authority, who are most certainly not the brightest bulbs from my many experiences with them, have a better database, though it still is pretty poorly constructed with a pretty awful user interface. Interestingly, though I picked them randomly (I swear I am not picking on them or singling them out), Lansdowne Road is nowhere to be found in the SLA database either by Trade/Premises name, or by address. Hmmm, thats a little odd...
Like most things in this city, particularly in government agencies, the NYC Health Department needs a lot of work. I give them a D.
