New York City Restaurants - December 25, 2012

Westway Diner

I met a tourist on the plane and we went here together. Stranger danger?

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Location: 614 9 Avenue, Manhattan, 10036

Time: 10:00 am

Party Size: 2

Price: $8.48

Type of restaurant: Diner

Food consumed: 
- Lipton Tea - $1.59
- Two Fried Eggs with Sausage served with potatoes and toast - $6.89

Pictures of food consumed: (Click on images to enlarge)

Review of Restaurant:
New York City also has an inspection report. It is ran by the New York City Department of Health. Here is a link to the website: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/rii/index.shtml

Letter grades of A, B or C are given based on the number of points accumulated. The higher the points means more violations.

A - 0 to 13 points
B - 14 to 27 points
C - 28+ points

Source: http://a816-restaurantinspection.nyc.gov/RestaurantInspection/SearchDetails.do

I find the website more user-friendly and more informative than the City of Toronto's DineSafe. The latest result is posted above. It was inspected on June 25, 2012. You will notice that it has 13 points, just a borderline A. They did not fare well as noted in the "Ungraded section.

Ungraded, according to this link, are for failed re-inspections who do not score below 28. They are re-inspected monthly until it scores below 28 or else, it is forced to close.

This restaurant has a rocky past. With scores as high as 49! (hot food not held above 60 Celsius, evidence of mice present, food not protected from potential source of contamination, food contact surface not properly washed, etc, just too many to list). Of the 13 inspections since July 27, 2010 (first time the program was implemented), it passed 5 of them (3 As and 2 Bs). That's a 38% success rate.

Based on the latest results, flies were present in the facility's food and/or non-food area.

You might ask, why did I even come here? I blame it on ignorance, being unfamiliar in a new environment, was recommended by the concierge at my new friend's hotel and I couldn't check reviews because the internet connection at the hotel was very slow.

VERDICT: Easy one, BANNED! I do not know how my stomach survived this. Maybe Americans know how to keep food cleaner in a dirty environment than Chinese restaurants.

Son Ja Jang

Korea Town in New York City

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Location: 34 West 32nd Street New York, NY 10001

Time: 9:00 pm

Party Size: 1

Price: $16.98 before tax and tips

Food consumed: 
- Janchi Gugsu  (Hot Noodle in Broth) - $10.99
- Oriental Brewery beer - $5.99

Website: http://www.sonjajang.com/index.html

Pictures of food consumed: (Click on images to enlarge)

OB beer with the appetizers

I tried to capture the steam from the soup.

Yogurt drink as dessert

Review of Restaurant:
It was late at night and I wanted to eat something close by. I lived near Korea Town so I walked down the street to narrow my selection. For some reason, I picked this place.

The latest A grading is dated July 19, 2012.

Source: http://a816-restaurantinspection.nyc.gov/RestaurantInspection/SearchDetails.do

The inspection report was tricky. It is like two restaurants in one. I found it under Mukeunji II.

There is a flaw in the inspection report. The latest inspection is on December 5, 2012 (see below). They received 53 points, resulting in a C grading. However, If you look at the picture of the store front (above), the letter A is posted. As the December 5, 2012 is "Ungraded", this means that the uninformed and majority of the public will not know the true results of the inspection.

Source: http://a816-restaurantinspection.nyc.gov/RestaurantInspection/SearchDetails.do

Hot food and cold food at wrong temperature, mices, roaches, dirty wiping cloths, etc...

So the rumours about NYC having dirty restaurants are true. It's also truly unbelievable that my stomach did not react at all. Again, the display of the grading is flawed. The C grading should be displayed, no mercy granted.

VERDICT: BANNED! So far, it's 2 for 2.