Does anybody eat at "B" or (gasp) "C" restaurants?
... why? What is so good?
I don't think I've actually SEEN a restaurant that didn't have an "A" rating. Am I living a sheltered life?
The other day as I was watching the owner of a Deli talk on the phone and pull cherries off of the whole cheese cake with his fingers and pop them in his mouth, I wondered "How bad do you have to be to get a rating other than "A"?
What's the lowest you can go? Should this be changed to a color scheme ... green, yellow, red?
Stanley Stephan
Jan 12, 2004 08:22PM
i ate a c restaurant in ktown the other day. didn't get sick or anything.
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I'll eat at a B, but think twice on a C...
I wonder how many C's and below I ate at prior to the grading system...ewwww
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I frequently eat at restaurants (often Chinese) displaying less than "A" grade rating. But I'm the type of guy who loves eating at streetside stalls in Asia. I'm more concerned with how good and authentic the food tastes than the cleanliness of the establishment.
Come to think of it, I've come to have some misgivings about Chinese places that have cleaned up enough for an "A" grade, wondering if somehow they've "sterilized" their food too. It's not logical, I know.
Hey, as far as I'm concerned, if the roach turds add an extra zing to the flavor, go for it. :)
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Way, way down on this board, back in July, there was a quick discussion about this very issue, prompted by an eye-opening LA Times article. Scroll for it or use the link below.
Times Article:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/valley/la-he-food28jul28,0,6403112.story?coll=la-editions-valley
A thread from 2002:
http://www.chowhound.com/california/boards/losangeles8/messages/38841.html
Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...
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I had the misfortune of eating at Sushi Roku, Santa Monica, Saturday night with a group of people. On the way out I noticed a "B" placed discreetly in the window behind plants in the front of the restaurant.
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Personally, I draw the line at "D". Anything above that's okay. Maybe it's cuz I've been desensitized to sanitation due to living with kids, living in Asia/Middle East, or because - like WBGuy - I like to search out street vendor type food wherever it's found. I dunno. (for the record, it's not for lack of information about the dangers of unsanitary food preparation, handling, etc. ...willful disregard, sure...)
Actually, it's probably because I've had food poisoning from "A" places and chains (e.g., Cheesecake Factory, Chevy's, Citrus, Empress Pavilion) more often than from "B" and "C" type dives, so I'll continue to take my chances (knock on wood) with some of my favorite "B" and "C" places in LA, like Yi Mei and Ding's and Young Ho Tou-chiang and so on.
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It should be noted that I've seen a Cheesecake Factory with a "C" rating. It's not just the hole-in-the-walls that get them, and as others have mentioned there are lots of technical violations that don't necessarily have much direct effect on the food.
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It was my understanding that D places are shut down until they clean-up their violations. I don't think it's physically possible to enter a D.
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"It was my understanding that D places are shut down until they clean-up their violations. I don't think it's physically possible to enter a D."
>>>That's pretty much what it takes to keep me out!
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Great question!
And it is kind of scary to see what violations even "A" rated restaurants have.
But it is only one factor that I would use in choosing a place. Heck in my zip code - 90013 - the restaurants with the highest ratings are the soup kitchens.
And more power to them! Everyone deserves food prepared in safe conditions. That said a "B" rating has never made me shy away from a place. A "C" though...
Link: http://www.lapublichealth.org/rating/
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I have in the past, and would continue to do so. I guess it partly depends on why the establishment has received the rating. I'm not particularly interested in a "rat & roach" combo burrito.
That said, there are many technical violations that are somewhat arbitrary. I've eaten in several fine, fancy restaurants in France that would probably not even pass an inspection here because they don't refrigerate things that the health dept. says should be refrigerated (or the refrigerator is kept at a much higher temperature than over here), or because patrons' dogs are allowed to sit at the (indoor) tables.
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As someone of Chinese descent, I have eaten at many B's and C's in addition to the Sam Woo on Garvey that occasionally sports a "55" or lower. The joke in my family is, "If it doesn't have a "C" rating, it's not authentic."
A "C" rating doesn't necessarily mean the place is rat infested. There was an article in the LA Times a few weeks back (don't know the exact date, but it was a Thursday), and the columnist wrote that her favorite restaurant had a "C" on the door one day, so she stopped going. After some research, she found that the health inspector came for a visit on a day when the toilet was clogged. Apparently, that's a MAJOR infraction (20 points), which pretty much led to the rating.
I have friends and family in the restaurant business, and am told that there are plenty of infractions that count for alot of points that aren't even food related. Stained ceiling tiles, cracks in the walls, etc. all count towards the final letter grade.
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I believe that restaurants would ordinarily be shut down if the toilet is clogged. I've noticed "sewage system failure" given as the reason for closure in the restarant inspection reports.
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I believe for a long time they had a C, although they don't anymore. I think a lot of sushi places that leave their fish out can't get an A, since it always has to be stored at a very low temperature.
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YES!
Image: http://home.pacbell.net/dagravy/B-BBQ...
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That's my kind of "A-List" eats. This is "Chowhound," is it not? What's with the "A" obsession? Thanks for the image.
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I almost always eat at "A" places, but I'll eat at a "B" if I'm very familiar with the place. Never a "C". Hey, Matsuhisa had a "C" for a while which I couldn't believe. I'd never eat at a sushi restaurant that didn't have an "A". I really missed the rating system while I was living in the Bay Area. I have a very smart friend who doesn't trust the rating system and says that any restaurant that gets an "A" got it purely by accident since no restaurant is that perfect and immaculate.
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Here's how I see it and it might be naive, but we were eating in C places before the ratings system postings....and we lived.
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These ratings are pretty much meaningless, IMO.
Now if they had chowhound ratings in the window instead...
Coachboy
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Stan, you've clearly been leading a sheltered life. Take a look at the LA Health Dept. rating web-site, which is searchable by name, city and rating. Take a look at the "B" or even "C" list; I'll bet you've eaten in some of those places.
Me. I'll tolerate a steady "B" in anything other than sushi. I'm more leary of a place with a grade that fluctuates
down to a "C" occaionally; it may mean, in my book, they're getting caught, cleaning up the immediate problem, and then going back to doing things the way they were before until they get caught again.
rfgs
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Isn't a "C" rating like being put on probation.
Doesn't the the eatery have to bring it to an "A" or "B", or risk closure?
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Grade consistancy (or lack thereof) is a big part of whether I'd go there or not. If a place usually has an "A" but for some reason got knocked down to a "C" on the most recent inspection, I'd still go there. However, if the place is ALWAYS a "B", I'd probably avoid it. I mean, if they can't take the time or effort to get their restaurant up to an "A" for at least one inspection, I'm not sure I want to go there.
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Only if the food's good.
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I certainly eat at 'B' ratings all the time. How do you avoid it if you don't want to spend 15 bucks on a meal? For a while I thought that it was a criteria to be listed in 'counter intelligence' to have a B rating since every place i seemd to find myself at was thus labelled.
As far as a C rating goes I once went to the southern place in a strip mall around western and the 10. I was there for something else, but couldn't resist the bright red C luring me in and the "smothered pork chops" painted on the window. Excellent collard greens, fantastic smothered pork chops in gravy and onions, and acceptable cornbread. Somebody in the place was looking for a ride down to la brea and jefferson, which i offered, so i also made a friend.
If you really want to investigate what goes into food safety and sanitation, there was an article in the New Yorker about 2 years ago in an issue devoted to food which featured a reporter following along two food sanitation inspectors to restaurants all over the city, and talking about what they're checking for, etc. No matter what kind of place they're talking about, if food sanitation concerns you, prepare to be ultra-concerned. Or let the beauty of the red C seduce you...
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Ah, sweet seduction! (See discussion re Tommy's et al. below.)
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Friends of mine in San Diego keep one of those red 'C' things hung up in their home kitchen. Good for a laugh, yes?
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I like your friends.
I eat at B's all the time. I don't see too many C's; but if it looks good the posting doesn't stop me from trying it.
I remember a Thai place on Westwood Boulevard about 5 years ago that got a number rating (below a C). I loved that place. I ate there all the time, even with the number rating.
I think the rating system keeps the issue of cleanliness on the restauranteurs minds, and thats a great service of the health department. However I dont believe the food is necessarily worse at a lower-rated restaurant.
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I was once at Kiriko for lunch and the ratings inspector came in while I was there. She was shoving a thermometer into all kinds of places. The owner/chef, Ken, was all in a tizzy although he was trying to play it cool. Ken said that one of the difficult things is the temperature of the sushi rice. I guess it's held at a temp which is neither hot enough nor cold enough. He said if it was hot enough (I'm presuming over 140 degrees but I don't recall exactly ) it wouldn't be palatable for sushi, and under 41 degrees obviously doesn't work either. I don't know if rice itself grows bacteria, or if bacteria is transferred from the sushi chef's hands into the rice, or both. Ken didn't seem at all concerned about the fish in the case which I guess is easy to keep below 41 degrees if the refrigeration works and they keep the fish in the case when they're not slicing it. Anyway, I think he got an A on that inspection. My favorite local sushi place, Iwata, once got a B and the owner was pissed as all get-out, he felt they'd been hosed but I don't remember why. They went right back to an A on the next inspection and have been at an A ever since and that was quite some time back. We kept going there while he had the B because we were so familiar with the place and never had any problems and still haven't, six or seven years and countless pounds of raw fish and shellfish later.
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I can't recall an "A" rated Chinese restaurant that was particularly good. At least with Chinese food, the place has to be a little gritty to be worth eating at. So long the restaurant isn't shut down there's nothing wrong with a B or even a C.
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