Midtown Lunch

Hello,

I recently read about Margon’s whopping 60 violation points on
8/24/11. Then, the restaurant re-opened on 8/31 and only had 11
violation points.

I want to eat it but am pretty grossed out (60 is the worst I’ve ever
heard of). What’s your honest take?

Thanks,

Margon Fan

Honestly? Don’t even give it a second thought.

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This again? Last year when the DOH announced they would be giving letter grades to restaurants, there was also talk about doing the same for food carts. A few articles appeared this week in places like the NY Daily News and the NY Post saying that Mayor Bloomberg is pushing for the grading system, but the DOH says it is unlikely to institute it any time soon. They claim they don’t have enough inspectors (only 20 devoted to food carts) and it is difficult to do re-inspections since carts and trucks are not always in the same spot. It looks like we’re in the clear for now, but could this do more harm than good for the carts? I have no doubt the majority of them are just as clean (if not more so) than most restaurants in the city, but as we’ve recently witnessed at places like Cer Te, the DOH grading system doesn’t only include food safety and health concerns. On the other hand, this could help legitimize the cleanliness of food carts once and for all to the people who are hesitant to eat there in the first place.

Despite DOH vindication, Cer Te couldn’t help getting in one last upside down jab

It’s been one year since the DOH started giving out letter grades to restaurants in NYC, and to commemorate the milestone the Wall Street Journal has gone all Nate Silver on the data.  There are some interesting tidbits, and other sites are weighing in with their opinions, but we’re far more excited about the big DOH news that arrived in our inbox today.  “After a year of paying big bucks and sucking ass, we have finally received our duly earned “A” from the DOH.” Signed, Cer Te (on 55th btw. 5+6th).  You might remember Cer Te from such wonderful movies as “I Turned My B from the DOH Into Lemonade” and “Give Us a C and We’ll Get Even Angrier”.

Those grades didn’t seem to act as much of a deterrent for hardcore Midtown Lunchers, but it’s good to see that Cer Te’s letter finally matches the quality of their food.

Despite being one of our favorite places in all of Midtown for sandwiches, Cer Te (on 55th btw. 5+6th) has been battling  poor Department of Health scores ever since the city started hanging letter grades on the windows.  They dressed up their “B” back in September, and last week a tipster pointed out that the B is now a C.  And they’re hiding it all the way at the bottom of the door.

Two lunchers decided to take them to task in the comments, and Cer Te responded with this…

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I happened to walk past the generic salad bar/deli, Tomato (52nd St between Lexington & 3rd Ave.), and noticed they’ve been shuttered by the DOH with a whopping 93 violation points. Although we’ve never tried to food here, our condolences go out to the lunchers who relied on this place for their sushi, sandwich, and salad needs as well as the people that risked food poisoning by actually eating here.

Thanks to Lunch’er Copyboy for sending over this important news re: Hing Won, our favorite Chinese food place in Midtown (on 48th btw. 5+6th).  “Hing Won Gets a C.  It’s the only inspection grade of “C” I’ve seen, and as part of the restaurant’s knuckling under to the Health Dept., they stopped hanging their roast meats. But take heart Hong Kong food freaks: you can still order roast pig, and despite the low grade my favorites (sauteed udon w/roast pork, spicy beef stew, Indonesian curry chicken) continue to not sicken me. Nor has the grade had any apparent impact on the lunch crowd.” Whew. That was a close one. This isn’t the first time Hing Won has been in trouble with the DOH… let’s hope it doesn’t effect quality the way it did with Ying Du. (Ahem, sorry. Ming Du.)

Making jokes about how dirty Tad’s Steaks is standard practice around these parts. After all, any place that serves steaks within the Midtown Lunch price range is bound to raise some eyebrows. But Zach was a huge fan, and the DOH agrees as the 47th and 7th location is proudly displaying an A in their window. Maybe this will finally put to rest all those nasty rumors about Tad’s making people sick. Making people dodge falling light fixtures is a different story, of course.

We’ve seen a lot of DOH sign shenanigans.  Cover ups.  Camouflage. Comedic acceptence. But making up your own sign and hanging it in the window?  This is new even for us.  Luncher “Ambitious Delish” tweeted us this photo yesterday from S. Dynasty (on 48th btw. Lex+3rd).  “Is this allowed,”  she asked.  Honestly?  We have no idea, but utilizing our skills of judgement and basic common sense we’re going to go with…. no.

Anybody ever been to this place?  We couldn’t find it on the DOH restaurant inspection site (which can provide hours of fun, I assure you), but found A grades at three different restaurants in this building – including a Chinese one called Lo.  But nothing listed at all for S. Dynasty.  Then again, the 2 1/2 stars on Yelp worry us a bit more than the letter in the window.

Cafe Zaiya (on 41st btw. 5+Mad) has never really struck me as an “unsanitary” place, yet it always seemed like their practice of storing food out in the open might get the attention of the DOH.  That day may have finally come as the Japanese eatery now has a C hanging in the window. We’ve been afraid for awhile that the DOH would ruin everything we loved about Zaiya, but there was only one major difference I noticed on a recent trip.
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