Health Inspection Scores of NYC's Best Restaurants

New York City, like many of the major metropolitan areas across the country, keeps detailed records of all health inspections conducted at restaurants across the city. Foodista looked into those records in order to determine the overall cleanliness of the city's best restaurants. Using the most recent Michelin Star Guide for the city, Foodista identified the restaurants that earned three stars and rated them below. A second post looking at two star restaurants will come next week.

How NYC Health Inspections Work: The Health Department inspects more than 24,000 restaurants annually and looks for public safety hazards. For every violation found, a certain number of points is assigned. A public health hazard such as keeping food at an improper temperature to prevent bacteria growth automatically earns 7 points. A critical violation such as the presence of rodents earns a minimum of 5 points. A score between 0-13 earns an A, 14-27 a B and 28+ a C.  Unfortunately, the Health Department does not detail the violations on publicly available documents. For consistency, Foodista has included the four most recent inspections for each restaurants when available.

Three Star Restaurants (by average health score):

Masa: 7.75 (A)

Per Se: 7.75 (A)

Daniel: 9.25 (A)

Le Bernardin: 14 (B)

Jean Georges: 15.5 (B)

Top 3 Best Scores

1. Per Se: 0 (twice, 4/13/2010 and 11/5/2009)

2. Masa: 0 (3/24/2008)

3. Daniel: 2 (12/13/2010)

Top 3 Worst Scores

1. Jean Georges: 29 (2/16/2010)

2. Per Se: 23 (11/8/2010)

3. Le Bernardin: 22 (8/26/2010)

Note: Keep in mind this data just applies to the four most recent health inspections at each restaurant.

Photo by: wwarby