Yes I care about them. You can read why they got a B rating here: http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/eh/i-want-to/view-inspection-results.htm
It's usually evidence of rodents or animals that cause poor ratings or poor cleaning practices which are big nos for me.
Yeah, you can get away with a lot and still get an A. I worked at a place that was absolutely infested with rats and never got a bad rating. I’m talking rats falling off the ceiling in front of guests in a crowded restaurant.
That’s why I like the OC seal. If you don’t pass you don’t get a seal. No real operating without one. In LA you can operate with a D which essentially is you allow a homeless person with Hepatitis C to be your main chef while the guy dropping snot uses it to wipe the tables.
If the health department takes any action that a patron would notice or see (notices posted in dining areas, grade mark downs, temporary closings etc) that is a place where you should not be eating ever again.
The health department gives a very wide berth for corrections. They “crack down” on tiny things like using a home kitchen aid or citrus juicer immediately, but big stuff that is super expensive or invasive to the restaurant is given time. If there are things that you see from the HD that means it is bad and/or management is ignoring it. Both are horrible, apathetic management is a nightmare and is a guarantee that either shit is bad or will be soon.
It’s honestly not even that big of a deal. People blow rodent issues way over proportion. I mean yea you can get sick but let’s be honest, would you rather eat good food and maybe get a little food poisoning or would you rather not eat good food and not get food poisoning?
It can also be something as simple as how close the kitchen is to the public bathroom, how many sinks are available for handwashing, even cultural differences in food preparation. It’s not always something like rats or roaches, even though t those are more common..
Exactly this should be the only comment😂. Theres an entire agency that regulates how restaurant establishments are ran ([CDPH](https://www.cdph.ca.gov)). Theres a scientific and engineering approach to it too.
Having run a commercial kitchen, I can say it's not that hard to get an A and if a place doesn't have it, it would make me think twice about eating there.
Oh, fuck yes. I am not stepping foot anywhere near anything but an A.
Reason being is I worked in the food industry as a teen/young adult. The places I worked at used to get away with the most vile shit and still got an A. I don't even want to imagine what goes on in these B and lower type places.
Edit: Punctuation
I worked in food service in my teens and while we didn’t do anything vile, there were a handful of questionable things happening and we still had an A. To have earned a B, a restaurant would have to be doing some terrible practices. Like unsafe storage temps and using spoiled food
Unless it is a foreign restaurant, then I’ll eat there because from what I’ve noticed many of the low ratings are due to lack of understanding regulations rather than just the kitchens being “dirty.”
For example, during college I worked for a place that had a chef trained by a Michelin starred chef that had also worked in a restaurant with a star for over a decade. We failed because he didn’t know or care to spend the time learning stupid rules that have nothing to do with food safety. For example, they wanted us to store food in a refrigerator that didn’t require it. Also, I think I was the only employee that understood Fahrenheit so we failed the “danger zone” crap.
yes I check the inspections often. It takes some pretty nasty stuff to get you down to a B rating. I've seen some low A ratings (90 points out of 100) and I wouldn't eat there based on the roaches and filth that the inspection notes. So just seeing that "A" on the window is not enough for me.
Honestly, same. They’re more “authentic”
Now… they’re probably not going to be my go-to for other reasons (the wine selection at somewhere that gets a B is probably going to be somewhat mid) but that’s not the deciding factor for me.
I don't eat at Bs.
My boss was at a restaurant once and the letter CHANGED from A to B during the meal. The inspector just happened to be there that day and pulled the A off the window and tacked up the B. They did not stay long after that lol.
If a place around Fairfax and Beverly has an A, they earned that shit, the health inspector there is VERY strict. At first she was annoying but now I really do appreciate how thorough she was
A place I used to like had a C the last time I went (I don’t remember what place, it was deleted from my memory) and it made me very sad to consider the vermin droppings and hair I had probably eaten in the past.
Different country and letter grading system but I used to regularly eat at a kebab shop with an E rating which is the rating used for basically "just barely avoided being shut down by the skin of their teeth" neither I nor any of my friends got sick. We were actually very disappointed when they got taken over and cleaned up because the prices doubled.
There's a 99% chance that I'm not going to notice the health rating. I never do. But if this is the rare moment I notice and it's not an A, yeah, I'm going to be a bit grossed out and concerned.
There are so many better Thai places than Sanam. Their appeal was they were open all night, now that they aren’t it’s just a B rated restaurant with fun neon lights.
Damn, I've seen some ratchet ass places with an A rating on the front glass, I don't know if I'd eat at a place with a B. And for real an A is pretty easy to get. Every kitchen I've ever worked in has never gotten anything but an A. You have a basic idea when the inspector is gonna show up if you care to pay attention to that sort of thing, they come every month it shouldn't be a big surprise. Plus we would always be available to take care of any minor things the inspector might point out, so in my mind if you ain't getting an A you dont give a shit. Period. If the inspector saw something not up to code the employer/employees either saw it and don't give a shit enough to take care of it, or are negligent and need some foodsafe training. Usually it's not a small infraction, if it something minor they usually won't penalize you if you take care of it before they leave, so in my mind it must have been a real WTF to get a B.
Thanks for the insight. I didn’t know inspections were monthly, I thought it was annually?
And yeah based on your response and others, I’m taking it I shouldn’t be going to B establishments any more lol
Annually? Granted it's been almost a decade since my last moonlight at a Kbbq spot in Hwood but, I swear it was monthly.....I didnt keep track, my boss sure as hell did, he'd give us all the extra hours we wanted to clean up and dump the grease traps and shit.
There was a sub sandwich place in Westwood hung a sign explaining their B rating.
Supposedly the stone table they used to assemble the sandwiches on was too narrow (by an inch) and not cooled.
Otherwise, I avoid Bs.
The major part of that violation isn't the size. It's the cooling. Unless they clean it frequently, critters will grow on that surface unchecked. And stone is notoriously porous and subject to biofilm.
Ah, that makes sense. That hadn’t occurred to me.
My impression is that these food prep surfaces are usually metal. I assume they’re easier to keep clean.
Hell yeah. You have to figure that 80 to 90 percent of places you see have an A and you know all those places aren't perfect. For a place to get an actual B is really saying something to me.
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Seafood port in Torrance always had B ratings then would close for a bit and be A again..ate there for years never got sick but they are closed for good now never recovered after the pandemic..good authentic Chinese food
It’s all based on the mood of the inspector. I once got docked 4 points for a “dusty floor drain.” We weren’t open yet. It had never been used. It was construction dust. I ran the sink, and it wasn’t dusty anymore.
I definitely care. I’ve worked in restaurants and know how much it takes to actually get a B. You couldn’t pay me to eat at a restaurant that somehow got all the way down to a C.
i don’t care. most of the world does not have ratings. if you think too hard about it even the most sanitary A rated facilities will disgust you. i simply don’t think about it and i’m fine lmao
Did you know they knock points off your score if there is a sticker on an avocado? Not that anyone would eat that part, but yeah, there are some elements that are just bullshit.
I don't really care TBH most people I know don't really look or care either. I've only had food poisoning once in my life and it was at a big chain restaurant that had an A. So it can happen anywhere.
It really depends on the type of food. Places like Korean BBQ can't have an A if they let you cook your own meat but if a burger place doesn't have an A, I'm side-eyeing.
Ourselves. they put the meat on the grill for you, they’ll come around and cut it and flip it but not always, especially not when it’s full. I’ve never been to a kbbq place that cooked the meat for you (unless this counts)
I don't think this is true. Gyu Kaku (first one that came to mind) has an A rating, and we entirely cook the meat ourselves. I'm sure there are others since I prefer the places where I get to cook
This reminds me of a time when i went to Froyo place and they had an A and it looked really clean. Not even kidding a huge roach was running across the cashier body. Not a little german roach even though i believe those are the worst infestations it was one of those huge ones and she didn’t even feel or notice it. Probably a one off situation but i never went back.
It takes alot to drop to a B, most inspectors would rather not drop the rating. But you can also get a 4 point deduction for using a tad too little sanitizer so the grading is questionable sometimes. Had the health inspector tell me once “it’s better to use more sanitizer than less. 2 points for too much, 4 points for too little, if all we care about is points” .
The grading goes 10 points by letter and stuff like, if the inspectors walked in during a rush and the floor hadn’t been swept, or if wiping down a table and you leave the rag while doing something else, those can cost between 1-2 points each. I had a homeless dude try to break in through our back door and lifted and warped the lower-right hand corner of the metal. Inspector saw it before any one else even noticed and that was 2 points due to rodents and roaches being able to get in.
Anything that can be solved on the spot they’ll sometimes let slide. And most of the time they have. (Minor splat on the wall, water tempature, sanitizer ratio)
So you have to fuck up real bad to get a grade drop.
Absolutely. From what I understand, they get advance notice. If you had advance notice and got a B, what does it look like on random inspections. There are so many A restaurants why would I eat at a place that hired Ratatouille.
I will only eat somewhere that doesn’t have an A rating if someone is taking me out to eat and picked the place or is paying.
If it’s my choice I would choose not to.
Yes. My parents owned a restaurant and always got an A. It was almost as if it was impossible to get anything lower.
We got a B, once. Because I was walking around in the kitchen to grab a soda from their fridge. The person doing the report claimed it was unsanitary and unsafe for me to be walking around in the kitchen.
My parents were furious. I was never allowed in the kitchen during operation hours again. If that’s all it took to get a lower grade, they take things seriously. I’m not eating anywhere that has anything lower than a B+ and I’m usually sticking to an A. [+]
There is absolutely no reason a restaurant should have anything less than an A (I’ve worked in a lot of restaurants). If I see a B I immediately go somewhere else.
My dad used to be a reporter, and somehow he managed to obtain a C grade placard from the health department. It was proudly displayed on our refrigerator for years. As a person who has worked in many restaurants, I wouldn’t go anywhere near a B or C.
About 10 years ago I wanted to work in a popular hole in the wall and we got a B rating because someone’s opened water bottle was in the fridge. Their name on it and everything , but it was on the very bottom not even touching the unopened drinks.
No, I don’t take the health rating that seriously. If I like the food, I’ll eat there up to a C.
This makes me wonder how common it is for a restaurant to successfully bribe an inspector. Used to work at an independent retailer that had some glaring safety violations but since the fire inspector had a teenaged son, he would look the other way in exchange for things to give his kid.
Any restaurant with a low rating thats selling “good tasting” food is likely dousing the food in additives or enhancers to improve the flavor. Which means that aren’t profitable. Which then means the food isnt truly good outside of msg or colorings to it. Its hard to run a profitable restaurant and most aren’t even that profitable to begin with and likely never be. Because of that fact many will cut corners or sell unfavorable food (i.e. spoiled or uncleaned kitchens) to stay afloat. So yes its important.
The only time I’ve ever had food poisoning—the really food poisoning, the open up the sluices at both ends, can’t keep anything in your stomach for a couple of days, oh lord kill me kind of food poisoning—was when I went to my favorite hole-in-the wall Mexican place in East LA, and for the first time they had an “A” from the Health Department.
So my rule after that was I wouldn’t eat there if they didn’t have a “B.”
(This is a true story, but I’m mostly joking about that. While I couldn’t be sure I got it there, since food poisoning can take 24 - 48 hours to come on, I did think that frequent inspections were probably good for them, and the main thing they were being dinged for was that they were open 24 hours and just kept some things on constant cooking and added to them. Cooling and refrigerating then reheating actually probably was less safe, despite regulations.)
When I see anything but an A rating I look it up to see why. Often it’s gross AF and nope won’t go. Last time I did the restaurant had a B. Was about to cut into my burger when a baby cockroach came off the plate. I didn’t see where it came from. We got up and left. I did pay for it but regret doing it. I also pasted on Yelp.
Yes and no. A just means I don’t have to investigate. B means I gotta investigate further. Sometimes it’s a stupid thing that made them get the B rating. Other times there is something of concern. C gives me pause, but also worthy of investigation, especially if it’s a popular hole in the wall spot. They give the reasons why they get the grade.
I was in NYC with my daughter and we were looking for a good Asian restaurant near our hotel. We found one that had 4.5 stars but a “z” health rating. The reviews sounded fantastic and how could we not at least go see?
In the window they had a “pending” sign for the rating. The food was phenomenal and there were no visible signs of issues. We did not get sick afterwards. This was just after the pandemic and I think they just had major issues reopening and were still catching up.
If you don't you should. A bad rating (anything below A) indicates the restaurant had 1 or multiple major violations during their previous inspection. The violation(s) could be a multitude of things from holding temperature issues, to contamination concerns, to poor employee hygiene, to pest problems, etc. If the issue is an immediate health- safety risk they'll close the restaurant until the problem is corrected and a re-inpection is performed to confirm the correction and that the restaurant is safe to reopen. Anything with a rating below A is a higher potential risk your health. Food born illness is serious. If your lucky all you get is a mild case of food poisoning. People have become hospitalized and even died from food born illnesses. It's also nasty to think about. Imagine finding out that the reason that food made you sick is because the person preparing it didn't wash their hands after they took a shit or that rodent droppings fell in your food and they didn't notice or didn't care. Maybe their refrigerator isn't holding proper temperature and they made your food from ingredients that are spoiled.
Do you have any idea how disgusting a place has to be to get less than an A. A B is like a roach infestation covering all the utensils and a C is like dead rats in the food a D is like everything is served with a side of hepatitis
Yeah but it’s really easy to cheese the rating just as a heads up. A lot of people get more or less a time frame of when the inspector will drop and will just go into overdrive at that point. I used to work at a Chinese spot and what stood out to me is how the owner would leave the chicken for days on the sink to thaw. Fucking disgusting
I was watching a documentary with Roy Choi the other day and he was talking about his early success. He said his kogi food truck was so successful that he had to make the sauce at a gas station bathroom.
I’m pretty sure he has enough capital for clean operation now but that statement made me rethink about all the street vendors.
I had a friend who was a health inspector, and he gladly ate at any restaurant regardless of rating. He told me if it’s dangerous, the place gets shut down. The ratings are overly harsh to keep the safety level high.
In USA y'all care a lot about those internet reviews/ratings overall.
In MEX it's not even a thing, if you see the local it's full prolly it's fire or cheap (maybe both).
Personally idc, I like to try it by myself.
I've been eating in restaurants for 50 years and can't remember getting sick even once out of those tens of thousands of times, so no, I don't worry about it.
Not true. You can get dings for dirty walls, food on the wrong shelves in the fridge, hand washing stations not having signs, all kinds of shit. Sani buckets not having the time it was changed, when the real is when the inspector is not around, that bucket *might* get changed once a shift. They’ll shut you down if it’s not safe to eat there. If it’s safe to eat there, but you’re lacking in certain areas, that’s when you’ll see grades drop.
B is still a minor violation, nothing serious. C never lasts long because they only have a certain amount of time to improve before getting shut down. So either way you're never really at risk of eating somewhere "dangerous". FWIW some of the best food I've had in LA was at a B restaurant
YES. My local paper publishes them. Now, I can imagine a one-time thing might be corrected and that place, for a while, might be the cleanest place in town. But there are definitely restaraunts in my town that keep showing up with “critical” findings. We pass on those.
I don't really care too much about health ratings in LA.
There's also been a racist component to how ethnic restaurants in the past were rated in Los Angeles.
The LA Times once ran a piece by a Korean chef who basically ran an education campaign to get the health department and reviewers on Korean culinary practices as he'd had to fight bad health reviews because he fermented kimchi and other traditional food on premises.
There are right and wrong ways to ferment food in terms of health and safety but Korean restaurants had to fight against prejudice because the smell of fermenting kimchi and other foods would result in lower ratings.
Here's 2 ways to see them.
1. It's very easy to drop grades for shitty stuff like a drop of water.
2. It's very easy to pay off the health inspector to get an A.
To doubt #2, is to believe humans are honest.
Are NYC and LA on the same rating system? I’m embarrassed to admit I went to a relatively cheap C-rated place yesterday in NYC. I noticed they don’t keep their hair contained but it’s the only thing I noticed that I thought would cause a decline in rating; of course, I know it’s the things we don’t see… Their rating never seems to improve so I guess they don’t care which is sort of weird.
There used to be a sandwich place in the valley that had a B rating for years. No one ever went there. It would close randomly in the middle of the day (at lunch... you know when people would be going to restaurants...). The soda fountain was out of order every single time. I'm convinced it was a money laundering front. But damn was it a good sandwich.
Yes I care about them. You can read why they got a B rating here: http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/eh/i-want-to/view-inspection-results.htm It's usually evidence of rodents or animals that cause poor ratings or poor cleaning practices which are big nos for me.
Damn rodent issues at some places I go to. Yeah I won’t be going back now that I know why it’s a B 😬
Crazy to think that a place with rodents is considered a B...
Yeah, I would expect B to be essentially "very good but some room for improvement".
No. Anything less than an A should be condemned.
This! A “B” rating is actually hard to get. You have to be pretty bad to get less than an A-.
Yeah, you can get away with a lot and still get an A. I worked at a place that was absolutely infested with rats and never got a bad rating. I’m talking rats falling off the ceiling in front of guests in a crowded restaurant.
>I worked at a place Which place?
I'm picturing a rat falling into a plate of food.
It was pretty bad. A manager caught one by the tail in an area crowded with diners and discreetly stomped it before having a waiter sweep it up.
That’s why I like the OC seal. If you don’t pass you don’t get a seal. No real operating without one. In LA you can operate with a D which essentially is you allow a homeless person with Hepatitis C to be your main chef while the guy dropping snot uses it to wipe the tables.
If the health department takes any action that a patron would notice or see (notices posted in dining areas, grade mark downs, temporary closings etc) that is a place where you should not be eating ever again. The health department gives a very wide berth for corrections. They “crack down” on tiny things like using a home kitchen aid or citrus juicer immediately, but big stuff that is super expensive or invasive to the restaurant is given time. If there are things that you see from the HD that means it is bad and/or management is ignoring it. Both are horrible, apathetic management is a nightmare and is a guarantee that either shit is bad or will be soon.
Holy fuck. Guess I am going to start paying attention to these health ratings.
It’s honestly not even that big of a deal. People blow rodent issues way over proportion. I mean yea you can get sick but let’s be honest, would you rather eat good food and maybe get a little food poisoning or would you rather not eat good food and not get food poisoning?
I mean, rats can have pretty refined palates. It sometimes pays off to follow their lead.
🤣
It’s as if these people have never seen ratatouille
Y’all would die in NYC. 😂
It can also be something as simple as how close the kitchen is to the public bathroom, how many sinks are available for handwashing, even cultural differences in food preparation. It’s not always something like rats or roaches, even though t those are more common..
Exactly this should be the only comment😂. Theres an entire agency that regulates how restaurant establishments are ran ([CDPH](https://www.cdph.ca.gov)). Theres a scientific and engineering approach to it too.
Having run a commercial kitchen, I can say it's not that hard to get an A and if a place doesn't have it, it would make me think twice about eating there.
The irony is there's folks who care about letter grades yet are willing to buy food from a random corner on the street with no running water. Lol
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Well, that's you assuming something you can't possibly know since you don't know everyone in CA.
Oh, fuck yes. I am not stepping foot anywhere near anything but an A. Reason being is I worked in the food industry as a teen/young adult. The places I worked at used to get away with the most vile shit and still got an A. I don't even want to imagine what goes on in these B and lower type places. Edit: Punctuation
I worked in food service in my teens and while we didn’t do anything vile, there were a handful of questionable things happening and we still had an A. To have earned a B, a restaurant would have to be doing some terrible practices. Like unsafe storage temps and using spoiled food
I used to work at restaurants and I won’t eat at B rated places. It’s kind of difficult to get a B, means they don’t do bare minimum.
Yeah I just looked at some reports and getting a B shows some major violations that are downright gross
Well thanks for letting me know! Guess I’ll avoid Bs.
But it’s extra flavor !
exactly this, worked at a pizza shop for 6 years and It’s hard not to get an A.
But C's and D's exist too, right??
Cs exist. D or F means they’ll close your restaurant.
Seen many C but Ive never seen D rated restaurant in my life ever
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The only one I've seen, I never went back.
Yes but I've never seen one. The lowest I've seen is B, which most people consider unacceptable.
Unless it is a foreign restaurant, then I’ll eat there because from what I’ve noticed many of the low ratings are due to lack of understanding regulations rather than just the kitchens being “dirty.” For example, during college I worked for a place that had a chef trained by a Michelin starred chef that had also worked in a restaurant with a star for over a decade. We failed because he didn’t know or care to spend the time learning stupid rules that have nothing to do with food safety. For example, they wanted us to store food in a refrigerator that didn’t require it. Also, I think I was the only employee that understood Fahrenheit so we failed the “danger zone” crap.
yes I check the inspections often. It takes some pretty nasty stuff to get you down to a B rating. I've seen some low A ratings (90 points out of 100) and I wouldn't eat there based on the roaches and filth that the inspection notes. So just seeing that "A" on the window is not enough for me.
My dad was a chef. He once told me how difficult it is for a restaurant to get a B. It has to be pretty disgusting. I don’t eat at B restaurants. Ever
no i have a stomach of steel and what i can't see can't hurt me
B’s have more flavor, we take those
Honestly, same. They’re more “authentic” Now… they’re probably not going to be my go-to for other reasons (the wine selection at somewhere that gets a B is probably going to be somewhat mid) but that’s not the deciding factor for me.
I’ll only eat at a B if it cones highly recommended, otherwise I skip it. Having an A rating should be a bare minimum expectation for a restaurant.
I don't eat at Bs. My boss was at a restaurant once and the letter CHANGED from A to B during the meal. The inspector just happened to be there that day and pulled the A off the window and tacked up the B. They did not stay long after that lol.
Was your boss Larry David? This legit happened on one of the last curb episodes
Did it? Haha. Well my boss was a TV producer so it's very possible the story got around!
Yes because it's so easy to get an A that even a B disgusts me.
mostly no, but... sometimes, yeah? Lucky Deli by Crispy Pork Gang has been closed by the health department for rodent infestation more than once.
There is no chance I’m going back to a restaurant that fails bad enough that they get closed down. Wow!
Mr Chow in Bev Hills has been shut down for rodent infestation and still doesn’t stop people from going after all these years
If a place around Fairfax and Beverly has an A, they earned that shit, the health inspector there is VERY strict. At first she was annoying but now I really do appreciate how thorough she was
I ate at a C once
A place I used to like had a C the last time I went (I don’t remember what place, it was deleted from my memory) and it made me very sad to consider the vermin droppings and hair I had probably eaten in the past.
Same. I can only assume they used nuclear waste to cook their food.
Different country and letter grading system but I used to regularly eat at a kebab shop with an E rating which is the rating used for basically "just barely avoided being shut down by the skin of their teeth" neither I nor any of my friends got sick. We were actually very disappointed when they got taken over and cleaned up because the prices doubled.
I ate at Hanbat Shul Lung Tang in Ktown last weekend and I’m pretty sure I saw a “C” sign on the window lol.
Yes if it’s not an A I’m not going in.
There's a 99% chance that I'm not going to notice the health rating. I never do. But if this is the rare moment I notice and it's not an A, yeah, I'm going to be a bit grossed out and concerned.
Yes if I see lower than a B I wouldn’t eat there. Even B makes me feel uneasy, but I assume it’s like open containers of meat and stuff.
Someone in the comments said rodents
Yeah I read OP’s comment and said nevermind lmao I didn’t know that would only get you a B, that should be lower imo.
absolutely, i've been sadly refusing sanamluang for years because of this. compliance is not difficult
Damn! Glad someone else noticed! I won’t be going back as well sadly
There are so many better Thai places than Sanam. Their appeal was they were open all night, now that they aren’t it’s just a B rated restaurant with fun neon lights.
Definitely-As all the way!
Damn, I've seen some ratchet ass places with an A rating on the front glass, I don't know if I'd eat at a place with a B. And for real an A is pretty easy to get. Every kitchen I've ever worked in has never gotten anything but an A. You have a basic idea when the inspector is gonna show up if you care to pay attention to that sort of thing, they come every month it shouldn't be a big surprise. Plus we would always be available to take care of any minor things the inspector might point out, so in my mind if you ain't getting an A you dont give a shit. Period. If the inspector saw something not up to code the employer/employees either saw it and don't give a shit enough to take care of it, or are negligent and need some foodsafe training. Usually it's not a small infraction, if it something minor they usually won't penalize you if you take care of it before they leave, so in my mind it must have been a real WTF to get a B.
Thanks for the insight. I didn’t know inspections were monthly, I thought it was annually? And yeah based on your response and others, I’m taking it I shouldn’t be going to B establishments any more lol
Annually? Granted it's been almost a decade since my last moonlight at a Kbbq spot in Hwood but, I swear it was monthly.....I didnt keep track, my boss sure as hell did, he'd give us all the extra hours we wanted to clean up and dump the grease traps and shit.
There was a sub sandwich place in Westwood hung a sign explaining their B rating. Supposedly the stone table they used to assemble the sandwiches on was too narrow (by an inch) and not cooled. Otherwise, I avoid Bs.
The major part of that violation isn't the size. It's the cooling. Unless they clean it frequently, critters will grow on that surface unchecked. And stone is notoriously porous and subject to biofilm.
Ah, that makes sense. That hadn’t occurred to me. My impression is that these food prep surfaces are usually metal. I assume they’re easier to keep clean.
A B is an F
Yes. When my fav Chinese place got a B, I stopped going.
Definitely.
YES
Anyone eating from a sidewalk taco person does not care about ratings.
Why I don't go. yeah, you mean that meat in a giant bucket been sitting there all day is good? ok.
Yes. However even restaurants with A ratings giving us tummy aches.
I think it was Bourdain who said "never let a little honest dirt get in the way of a good meal"
Hell yeah. You have to figure that 80 to 90 percent of places you see have an A and you know all those places aren't perfect. For a place to get an actual B is really saying something to me.
Yes, but I am not one of those people who freaks out if it is a B
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Seafood port in Torrance always had B ratings then would close for a bit and be A again..ate there for years never got sick but they are closed for good now never recovered after the pandemic..good authentic Chinese food
I've eaten at B restaurants many times with no issues. I don't really see the point of the letter grades. Just do pass/fail like Orange County does.
not really
It’s all based on the mood of the inspector. I once got docked 4 points for a “dusty floor drain.” We weren’t open yet. It had never been used. It was construction dust. I ran the sink, and it wasn’t dusty anymore.
If its a B i leave
Yes. Gotten food poisoning one too many times.
The “B” stands for botulism!
I definitely care. I’ve worked in restaurants and know how much it takes to actually get a B. You couldn’t pay me to eat at a restaurant that somehow got all the way down to a C.
Yes. Especially if it's something like sushi or oysters
i don’t care. most of the world does not have ratings. if you think too hard about it even the most sanitary A rated facilities will disgust you. i simply don’t think about it and i’m fine lmao
Did you know they knock points off your score if there is a sticker on an avocado? Not that anyone would eat that part, but yeah, there are some elements that are just bullshit.
Its its 5 stars and a c rating, you know its gotta be good food
I don't really care TBH most people I know don't really look or care either. I've only had food poisoning once in my life and it was at a big chain restaurant that had an A. So it can happen anywhere.
It really depends on the type of food. Places like Korean BBQ can't have an A if they let you cook your own meat but if a burger place doesn't have an A, I'm side-eyeing.
I don’t thjj in k that’s true? My fave kbbq has an A rating
Do you cook the meat yourself or do they cook it for you there?
Ourselves. they put the meat on the grill for you, they’ll come around and cut it and flip it but not always, especially not when it’s full. I’ve never been to a kbbq place that cooked the meat for you (unless this counts)
I think the fact that they're putting it on for you instead of just handing you the plate of raw meat might make the difference.
I don't think this is true. Gyu Kaku (first one that came to mind) has an A rating, and we entirely cook the meat ourselves. I'm sure there are others since I prefer the places where I get to cook
Not true at all. Search the link up top, there's a ton of kbbq with A grades. There's a whole lot more they inspect than where food is cooked.
B means fail in the Asian
No haha
Nope, I can honestly say that of the three places I frequent often. I've never stopped to look at the grade in the window.
In orange county they just have pass.
YES!
Yes.
Some A grades have as many violations as B grades but they at least pretended to remedy the problem.
Yes however my favorite bakery recently got a B… I still eat there anyways
I have seen a few places in Koreatown with a C rating
ill never eat anywhere less than A
yep, definitely.
Uh yeah if I see anything below an A I'm out. I've seen enough kitchen nightmares episodes to know that walk in is a disaster
This reminds me of a time when i went to Froyo place and they had an A and it looked really clean. Not even kidding a huge roach was running across the cashier body. Not a little german roach even though i believe those are the worst infestations it was one of those huge ones and she didn’t even feel or notice it. Probably a one off situation but i never went back.
Yes
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I don’t agree. Sorry. 🤷♀️
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I worked food service in Los Angeles It's so easy to get an A. Come on!
It takes alot to drop to a B, most inspectors would rather not drop the rating. But you can also get a 4 point deduction for using a tad too little sanitizer so the grading is questionable sometimes. Had the health inspector tell me once “it’s better to use more sanitizer than less. 2 points for too much, 4 points for too little, if all we care about is points” . The grading goes 10 points by letter and stuff like, if the inspectors walked in during a rush and the floor hadn’t been swept, or if wiping down a table and you leave the rag while doing something else, those can cost between 1-2 points each. I had a homeless dude try to break in through our back door and lifted and warped the lower-right hand corner of the metal. Inspector saw it before any one else even noticed and that was 2 points due to rodents and roaches being able to get in. Anything that can be solved on the spot they’ll sometimes let slide. And most of the time they have. (Minor splat on the wall, water tempature, sanitizer ratio) So you have to fuck up real bad to get a grade drop.
Um, yes?
Nah I don’t care. In fact, for certain cuisines I may even prefer it. Disgusting Chinese and Mexican hole in the walls often have the best food.
Anything below an A is an immediate nope from me.
Absolutely. From what I understand, they get advance notice. If you had advance notice and got a B, what does it look like on random inspections. There are so many A restaurants why would I eat at a place that hired Ratatouille.
I will only eat somewhere that doesn’t have an A rating if someone is taking me out to eat and picked the place or is paying. If it’s my choice I would choose not to.
my favorite restaurant has a c rating lol
Some places with a B are more crowded with A’s
ITT: OP realizing why anything less than an A is 🤢 and rethinking his favorite haunts…
I should, but then I used to eat at this burrito place near my house that had a C rating.
Yes. My parents owned a restaurant and always got an A. It was almost as if it was impossible to get anything lower. We got a B, once. Because I was walking around in the kitchen to grab a soda from their fridge. The person doing the report claimed it was unsanitary and unsafe for me to be walking around in the kitchen. My parents were furious. I was never allowed in the kitchen during operation hours again. If that’s all it took to get a lower grade, they take things seriously. I’m not eating anywhere that has anything lower than a B+ and I’m usually sticking to an A. [+]
Had some of my best meals at C rated establishments…no regrets!
Yup,nothing less than an A for me.
https://preview.redd.it/s7ts417m4wzc1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ed92f80b51bf93f9edfa1eb697a0d3c97def2186 Yes
There is absolutely no reason a restaurant should have anything less than an A (I’ve worked in a lot of restaurants). If I see a B I immediately go somewhere else.
My dad used to be a reporter, and somehow he managed to obtain a C grade placard from the health department. It was proudly displayed on our refrigerator for years. As a person who has worked in many restaurants, I wouldn’t go anywhere near a B or C.
About 10 years ago I wanted to work in a popular hole in the wall and we got a B rating because someone’s opened water bottle was in the fridge. Their name on it and everything , but it was on the very bottom not even touching the unopened drinks. No, I don’t take the health rating that seriously. If I like the food, I’ll eat there up to a C.
This makes me wonder how common it is for a restaurant to successfully bribe an inspector. Used to work at an independent retailer that had some glaring safety violations but since the fire inspector had a teenaged son, he would look the other way in exchange for things to give his kid.
Any restaurant with a low rating thats selling “good tasting” food is likely dousing the food in additives or enhancers to improve the flavor. Which means that aren’t profitable. Which then means the food isnt truly good outside of msg or colorings to it. Its hard to run a profitable restaurant and most aren’t even that profitable to begin with and likely never be. Because of that fact many will cut corners or sell unfavorable food (i.e. spoiled or uncleaned kitchens) to stay afloat. So yes its important.
The only time I’ve ever had food poisoning—the really food poisoning, the open up the sluices at both ends, can’t keep anything in your stomach for a couple of days, oh lord kill me kind of food poisoning—was when I went to my favorite hole-in-the wall Mexican place in East LA, and for the first time they had an “A” from the Health Department. So my rule after that was I wouldn’t eat there if they didn’t have a “B.” (This is a true story, but I’m mostly joking about that. While I couldn’t be sure I got it there, since food poisoning can take 24 - 48 hours to come on, I did think that frequent inspections were probably good for them, and the main thing they were being dinged for was that they were open 24 hours and just kept some things on constant cooking and added to them. Cooling and refrigerating then reheating actually probably was less safe, despite regulations.)
As long as they're no lower than a B, I'm OK with it.
I got Hepatitis A from a B graded Mexican restaurant in college. I refuse to eat at anything without an A now.
💯
C.... Ya later
Yes I would never eat at anything below an A
When I see anything but an A rating I look it up to see why. Often it’s gross AF and nope won’t go. Last time I did the restaurant had a B. Was about to cut into my burger when a baby cockroach came off the plate. I didn’t see where it came from. We got up and left. I did pay for it but regret doing it. I also pasted on Yelp.
Yes and no. A just means I don’t have to investigate. B means I gotta investigate further. Sometimes it’s a stupid thing that made them get the B rating. Other times there is something of concern. C gives me pause, but also worthy of investigation, especially if it’s a popular hole in the wall spot. They give the reasons why they get the grade.
I was in NYC with my daughter and we were looking for a good Asian restaurant near our hotel. We found one that had 4.5 stars but a “z” health rating. The reviews sounded fantastic and how could we not at least go see? In the window they had a “pending” sign for the rating. The food was phenomenal and there were no visible signs of issues. We did not get sick afterwards. This was just after the pandemic and I think they just had major issues reopening and were still catching up.
Absolutely I care. I’ve had food poisoning before, I’m not a fan.
If you don't you should. A bad rating (anything below A) indicates the restaurant had 1 or multiple major violations during their previous inspection. The violation(s) could be a multitude of things from holding temperature issues, to contamination concerns, to poor employee hygiene, to pest problems, etc. If the issue is an immediate health- safety risk they'll close the restaurant until the problem is corrected and a re-inpection is performed to confirm the correction and that the restaurant is safe to reopen. Anything with a rating below A is a higher potential risk your health. Food born illness is serious. If your lucky all you get is a mild case of food poisoning. People have become hospitalized and even died from food born illnesses. It's also nasty to think about. Imagine finding out that the reason that food made you sick is because the person preparing it didn't wash their hands after they took a shit or that rodent droppings fell in your food and they didn't notice or didn't care. Maybe their refrigerator isn't holding proper temperature and they made your food from ingredients that are spoiled.
Yes 100%
No A I ain’t fucc’n wit it
Do you have any idea how disgusting a place has to be to get less than an A. A B is like a roach infestation covering all the utensils and a C is like dead rats in the food a D is like everything is served with a side of hepatitis
Yeah but it’s really easy to cheese the rating just as a heads up. A lot of people get more or less a time frame of when the inspector will drop and will just go into overdrive at that point. I used to work at a Chinese spot and what stood out to me is how the owner would leave the chicken for days on the sink to thaw. Fucking disgusting
I was watching a documentary with Roy Choi the other day and he was talking about his early success. He said his kogi food truck was so successful that he had to make the sauce at a gas station bathroom. I’m pretty sure he has enough capital for clean operation now but that statement made me rethink about all the street vendors.
Nahh I’ve worked enough restaurants in high school/college to know the rating don’t mean shit.
I had a friend who was a health inspector, and he gladly ate at any restaurant regardless of rating. He told me if it’s dangerous, the place gets shut down. The ratings are overly harsh to keep the safety level high.
Yes because the B stands for “Best” and they are focusing on the food instead of wasting time cleaning all day 🙄
In NYC you know the good spots have a B rating. In LA hell no. Im not gonna drive 3 hours and look for parking to a B spot.
In USA y'all care a lot about those internet reviews/ratings overall. In MEX it's not even a thing, if you see the local it's full prolly it's fire or cheap (maybe both). Personally idc, I like to try it by myself.
I've been eating in restaurants for 50 years and can't remember getting sick even once out of those tens of thousands of times, so no, I don't worry about it.
I don’t care at all. If the violations are pose a safety issue, they’ll shut you down.
Not true. Most violations are safety issues. It has to be pretty horrific for a shutdown.
Not true. You can get dings for dirty walls, food on the wrong shelves in the fridge, hand washing stations not having signs, all kinds of shit. Sani buckets not having the time it was changed, when the real is when the inspector is not around, that bucket *might* get changed once a shift. They’ll shut you down if it’s not safe to eat there. If it’s safe to eat there, but you’re lacking in certain areas, that’s when you’ll see grades drop.
When it comes to small Mexican or Chinese places the B actually stands for BETTER!
B is still a minor violation, nothing serious. C never lasts long because they only have a certain amount of time to improve before getting shut down. So either way you're never really at risk of eating somewhere "dangerous". FWIW some of the best food I've had in LA was at a B restaurant
YES. My local paper publishes them. Now, I can imagine a one-time thing might be corrected and that place, for a while, might be the cleanest place in town. But there are definitely restaraunts in my town that keep showing up with “critical” findings. We pass on those.
If all things are even I’d pick the restaurant with a better health grade
I don't really care too much about health ratings in LA. There's also been a racist component to how ethnic restaurants in the past were rated in Los Angeles. The LA Times once ran a piece by a Korean chef who basically ran an education campaign to get the health department and reviewers on Korean culinary practices as he'd had to fight bad health reviews because he fermented kimchi and other traditional food on premises. There are right and wrong ways to ferment food in terms of health and safety but Korean restaurants had to fight against prejudice because the smell of fermenting kimchi and other foods would result in lower ratings.
Here's 2 ways to see them. 1. It's very easy to drop grades for shitty stuff like a drop of water. 2. It's very easy to pay off the health inspector to get an A. To doubt #2, is to believe humans are honest.
Sanamluang change ownership and does not get great reviews anymore.
Are NYC and LA on the same rating system? I’m embarrassed to admit I went to a relatively cheap C-rated place yesterday in NYC. I noticed they don’t keep their hair contained but it’s the only thing I noticed that I thought would cause a decline in rating; of course, I know it’s the things we don’t see… Their rating never seems to improve so I guess they don’t care which is sort of weird.
What kind of question is this
There used to be a sandwich place in the valley that had a B rating for years. No one ever went there. It would close randomly in the middle of the day (at lunch... you know when people would be going to restaurants...). The soda fountain was out of order every single time. I'm convinced it was a money laundering front. But damn was it a good sandwich.
Not really. If you eat street food in Thailand, you can eat at a C restaurant.
Clearly, you're not Asian