Coming from San Francisco, where restaurants have been required to post their detailed health inspection reports for years, I was surprised to hear so much grumbling about New York’s letter grade system that went into effect in 2010. Restaurants are required to post their A, B, or C grade after each periodic inspection. Restaurants that get a B or C are allowed to post a “Grade Pending” sign while trying to literally clean up their act. A restaurant that doesn’t make at least the C level could be closed if the health violations are serious enough.

In fact, the system seems to have been set up to bend over backwards to help places get high scores. Places that get less than A scores are inspected more frequently — each time is another chance to improve their grade. And, only violations that directly affect food safety, such as food storage and handling or sanitation, are counted.

Now that the system has had its shakedown year, I think it’s reasonable to say that it is working well, at least for the consumer. Here are a couple of examples:

• A diner near Columbia University Medical Center that had a pretty good health record before the letter grades started earned a whopping 50 violation points when it was inspected in January 2011. It posted a “Grade Pending” sign until a re-inspection in March, when its 49 violation points meant a C went up in the window. With business noticeably down, the owners are trying, but still got 34 violation points on re-inspection in August (still a C.) Would I eat there? Maybe. The “critical” violations are for things like food handling, with mistakes common in a home kitchen but potentially hazardous in a commercial setting.
• A sushi restaurant on West 181st Street seemed to struggle complying with the health code, at least as best as I could discern from the information posted on the city’s website. Violations such as “evidence” of live rodents are enough to keep me from visiting a place, and when a sushi bar gets dinged for holding foods at the wrong temperatures, that’s another big strike. But this restaurant’s most recent inspection was on September 1, and the shiny “A” grade is posted on its door. Congratulations. Now I’ll see if the sushi is any good.
• Perhaps the grade change that has me most perplexed is that of a carry-out food place near my office. The inspection history indicates a good score last May, a terrible score last June, a good score in October, an acceptable score in March, and a terrible score in June. The list of violations includes cross-contamination of foods, no thermometers to check holding temperatures, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned, and flies in food prep and storage areas. Perhaps most disturbing: only two of the violations in the most recent inspection are repeat violations. This suggests that this cafe has acquired a whole new list of problems in just a few months. I am steering clear of this place for a while.

For more information on New York’s restaurant inspection system or to look up any restaurant’s latest inspection report, visit http://bit.ly/oJLVau.