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Salt & Pepper Indian restaurant located in midtown west Manhattan near Penn Station, has been reopened on October 27 after a follow-on inspection.
The restaurant at 139 W.33rd St had been closed by the New York City Health Department after a health inspection on October 22, 2010 uncovered serious hygiene-related violations.
Salt & Pepper received four violation points in the October 27 inspection.
Salt & Pepper Indian restaurant located in midtown west Manhattan near Penn Station has been closed by the New York City Health Department after a health inspection on October 22, 2010 uncovered serious hygiene-related violations.
Salt & Pepper located at 138 West 33 St in NYC received a whopping 127 violation points in NYC Health Dept’s inspection of October 22, 2010
Sanitary Violations observed at Salt & Pepper on October 22, 2010 health inspection:
(critical violations in red color)
1) Hot food item not held at or above 140º F.
2) Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation.
3) Eggs found dirty/cracked; liquid, frozen or powdered eggs not pasteurized. Continue reading »
Brick Lane Curry House on E.6th St in NYC which fared miserably in two recent New York City Health Department inspections has been issued a B Grade on October 19, 2010 by the department.
What a shame.
Some of Brick Lane Curry House‘s neighbors like Gandhi Indian restaurant and Banjara have managed to walk away with the coveted A Grade from the NYC Health Dept.
Brick Lane – B Grade Indian Restaurant
As per the NYC Health Dept. guidelines, an inspection score of 0-13 is an A, 14-27 points gets a B, and restaurants with 28 or more points are handed a C.
With 24 points (reduced from the original 43 after presumably an appeal), Brick Lane now has to suffer the mortification of displaying a B Grade where it can easily be seen by people passing by. Hopefully, the Brick Lane folks will learn some lessons and keep their premises clean.
Here are some of the hygiene issues cited by NYC Health Dept while issuing B Grade to Brick Lane Curry House on 10/19/2010:
* Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas
* Hot food item not held at or above 140º F.
* Cold food item held above 41º F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ºF) except during necessary preparation
* Facility not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to attracting vermin to the premises and/or allowing vermin to exist
Live Roaches, Not Vermin Proof…Yeeks, sure sounds un-appetizing.
Related Stories:
Hygiene Crisis at Brick Lane Curry (E.6th St) NYC
The New York Division of Labor Standards has pulled up Dinanath Mulloli, owner of Yogi’s Kitchen located at 182 Lexington Avenue, alleging Labor Laws violations pertaining to his previous Indian restaurant Indo Munch, which was also at the same address.
Trouble Over Wages
According to the NY Division of Labor Standards order number 10-00936 issued on August 19, 2010, Continue reading »
Remember Cafe Spice on University Place near Union Square in NYC?
Cafe Spice dared to be different and steered clear of the Buffets offered at a lot of NYC Indian restaurants.
It offered Platters wherein you ordered a vegetarian or non-vegetarian entree and got rice, one naan bread, raita, salad and vegetable of the day on the side.
But even with its different positioning of offering platters, Cafe Spice could not survive.
No Sir No.
Cafe Spice University Place, which opened its doors in 1998, has been gone for more than a year now.
Cafe Spice Union Square – Gone Baby, Gone
By the way, the Cafe Spice outpost in Midtown on West 55th Street has also been closed for a few years now.
Cafe Spice Midtown– Gone Baby, Gone
Does anyone even miss the two Cafe Spice restaurants in Manhattan?
We’ve visited both outposts of Cafe Spice. The W55th St location was the better one of the two.
By the way, here’s an excerpt from our review of Cafe Spice on University Place: Continue reading »
Indian restaurants Pongal at 110 Lexington Ave in NYC and Dosa Hutt on Bowne St in Flushing (adjacent to the Ganesh Temple in Flushing) have scored the coveted A grade under the NYC Health Department’s new grading system while bigger names like Chola and Brick Lane Curry House on E.6th St languish in ‘Grade Pending‘ limbo. What a shame!
Pongal – A Grade Lexington Ave Indian Restaurant
Pongal got 13 violation points in its 10/09/2010 NYC Health Dept. inspection while Dosa Hutt did even better with just 5 violation points in its 10/4/2010 inspection.
Dosa Hutt – A Grade Flushing Indian Restaurant
In contrast, Brick Lane got a shameful 43 and 42 violation points in its last two NYC Health Dept. inspections while Chola got a miserable 16 and 40 Violation points.
As per the NYC Health Department guidelines, an inspection score of 0-13 is an A, 14-27 points gets a B, and restaurants with 28 or more points are handed a C. The Grade Cards must be posted where they can easily be seen by people passing by.
When a restaurant contests the results of a graded inspection, it can post a ‘Grade Pending’ card until it has an opportunity to be heard at the Health Department’s Administrative Tribunal.
Ha ha ha, our favorite newspaper the New York Times today covered a favorite topic of this blog.
Yes, you guessed right.
The topic is NYC Restaurant Inspections by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Those much valuable inspections that ferret out the filthy conditions in which many NYC Restaurants function away from the eyes of the paying customers.
Here’s an excerpt from the NYT piece:
New York’s restaurants sprawl across a vast territory, from the pristine precincts of the multicourse tasting menu to the gritty backwaters of the takeout joint. But there is one grim corner where they all come together: the health department tribunal, a little-publicized court system that metes out penalties for violations of the city sanitary code.
It has been there for years, in a nondescript government office in Lower Manhattan where more than a dozen administrative law judges escort their charges into cramped rooms and hear them wrangle over infractions, in a ritual reminiscent of visiting the principal’s office.
But in the weeks since the city adopted a new system requiring restaurants Continue reading »
Surya NYC – Mice Haven on Bleecker St
Mice, mice and mice.
In the battle between Surya Indian restaurant (Bleeker St) and mice, the mice seem to have the upper hand.
Folks, in three out of the four NYC Health Department inspections conducted at Surya in 2010 the Indian restaurant was found to have evidence of mice or live mice in its food and/or non-food areas.
* Evidence of mice or live mice on 9/22/2010.
* Evidence of mice or live mice on 8/19/2010
* Evidence of mice or live mice on 1/5/2010.
Source: NYC Health Department Inspection reports, 2010
Yeeks!
Hey, what’s wrong with the folks at Surya restaurant that they can’t seem to maintain basic hygiene at the restaurant.
Surya NYC – Struggling with Mice Issues
Apart from the ugly issue of mice, the NYC Health Inspectors also repeatedly bring up potential food contamination issues at Surya NYC.
* Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service (9/22/2010).
* Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan (8/19/2010).
* Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service (1/26/2010).
* Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations (1/05/2010).
* Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred (1/05/2010).
Source: NYC Health Department Inspection reports, 2010
By the way, Surya’s latest NYC Health inspection report (9/22/2010) also mentions filth flies or food/refuse/sewage-associated (FRSA) flies in the facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Filth flies are house flies, little house flies, blow flies, bottle flies and flesh flies while food/refuse/sewage-associated flies include fruit flies, drain flies and phorid flies.
Surya in West Village of Manhattan received 24 violation points in the 9/22/2010 NYC Health inspection and its grade is pending.
Related Stories:
Surya, NYC Review – Lousy Food; So-So Service
Jackson Diner Indian restaurant in Jackson Heights, NY has been dropped from the prestigious Michelin Guide New York City 2011′s Bib Gourmand category.
Jackson Diner was included in Michelin’s 2010 Bib Gourmand category for New York City.
Bib Gourmand 2011
Only two Indian restaurants Saravanaas a.k.a. Saravanaa Bhavan ( Lexington Ave) and Surya (Bleecker St) figure in the Bib Gourmand category of the Michelin Guide New York City 2011.
Bib Gourmand restaurants are supposed to be the Michelin Inspectors’ Favorites for Good Value.
These are restaurants that provide the most value to customers. Continue reading »
I shall never again think that all tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect a beggar to be grateful when I give him a penny, not be surprised if men out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation Army, nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill, nor enjoy a meal at a smart restaurant.
- George Orwell in Down and Out in Paris and London cited in Yale Book of Quotations P.568.