New York Restaurants Are Slow to Get Health Inspections Due to a City Staffing Shortage

In May, steakhouse staple in the Theater District since 1927, Gallaghers was embroiled in a tizzy over a misleading grade “A” Department of Health inspection sign in the window. As it turned out, it had been waiting for the DOH to reinspect its restaurant for nearly a year — and posted an old “A” grade in the meantime rather than continuing to display its “C.”

When Eater reported the issue, the Department of Health confirmed that the restaurant had a “C” grade and was due for reinspection “this month.” Meanwhile, Gallaghers swapped its false “A” back to a “C” and, an additional four months later, they’re still standing by for reinspection, according to the DOH website. To make matters worse, if Gallaghers doesn’t continue to exhibit its “C” grade, it could be fined up to $1,000. The way things are looking, Gallaghers may not be reinspected anytime soon.

Conservatively, the DOH says it takes 11 to 13 months to dispatch a follow-up inspector, according to the website. But if Gallaghers is any indication, reaching out to DOH for updates is fruitless, the local government equivalent of reading tea leaves, to get an estimate for when they might be able to land a reinspection.

New York City restaurants are facing a shortage of Department of Health inspectors according to the newly released Fiscal 2024 Mayor’s Management Report (MMR). The report admits to a 17 percent reduction in initial health inspections, noting that it only inspected 66.4 percent of restaurants, down from 2023 when 83.4 percent of the city’s restaurants had been inspected.

“The Health Department is lagging significantly behind the target of 100 percent, a goal that it has traditionally met, including in Fiscal 2019 when the Health Department inspected 99.5 percent of restaurants,” the report continued. “This decrease is largely due to staffing shortages and the Health Department is actively recruiting to address this issue.”

The DOH is required to visit every food service establishment at least once a year and give each restaurant a letter grade, a system that comes with its faults and notoriously exacting standards. The difference between grades has the potential to drastically affect a business and its employees’ livelihoods overnight. To ward off less than an “A” grade, many restaurants have elaborate (and not so elaborate) alerts, such as one spot that has a “DOH” option on its point-of-sale system that goes to every receipt machine in the restaurant — warning employees, this “is not a test.” Another Times Square bar uses the code phrase “Beyonce is here” when an inspector arrives.

Sure, most restaurants would rather not have a health inspector visit for a variety of reasons, let alone the obvious fact that the ensuing chaos of daily restaurant operations isn’t conducive to a government representative hemming and hawing about the minor grading distinctions that could majorly impact the restaurant’s ability to attract foot traffic. But the fact is, delays in reinspection can be even more problematic than one might think.

If a restaurant does not score an “A” on its initial inspection, it must wait for reinspection; if that is delayed, the restaurant must keep either its “B” or “C” grade or “Grade Pending” sign in its window, which could be a serious deterrent to potential new diners and existing regulars alike. An extra-long delay coupled with the outsized influence of social media food reviewing and the negatives could be amplified. An online pile-on can mean that restaurants are less likely to get a second chance to redeem themselves if influencers visit the restaurant during a holding pattern.

Reinspections are also expensive can seems a bit slimy: To appeal a letter grade, a restaurant has to pay for an additional inspection: $400 for existing restaurants and $100 for new ones. It’s a fee that many owners say pads the Department of Health’s coffers, creates a conflict of interest, and challenges the objectivity of the entire system.

Some longtime restaurateurs point to year-long delays for even the initial inspection. Stephen Loffredo, who has been running restaurants in New York City since 1992, says his latest project, Midtown seafood spot Point Seven, did not get inspected for nearly a year after opening in September 2023. While the delay does not impact a restaurant’s ability to open, the waiting and wondering add to the stress of day-to-day operations.

“We are always on point. We do training. Our restaurant is immaculate, but that just kept us on our toes even more,” he said. “We were extra fastidious.” When he was inspected he received an “A.”

The numbers of “A” grades handed out otherwise declined; the report found the percentage of restaurants with an “A” grade decreased by 3.1 percentage points from 2023 to 86.9 percent of restaurants in 2024. Rather than blame the decrease in “A” grades on restaurant health and safety protocols, the Mayor’s Management Report attributed the decline to its lack of staffing, in what some restaurant owners feel has become an ouroboros of governmental inefficiency.

“Though the reasons why fewer restaurants are meeting the highest food safety standards are likely multifaceted and complex, the Health Department believes that one factor impacting restaurants’ performance is that the Health Department has been unable to consistently inspect them since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the MMR stated.

For the city’s restaurateurs who are still recovering from the COVID pandemic and continue to face their own staffing challenges — alongside higher labor and food costs — the sluggish rate of DOH reinspections doesn’t help.

“The Health Department works day and night to ensure livability, health, and hygiene are protected and promoted,” said the DOH in response to a request for comment on the report. “New Yorkers deserve rat-free streets and restaurants that follow food service rules.”

The DOH says they are actively recruiting to bring on staff and are currently training a class of new restaurant inspectors. “Over July and August of this year (Fiscal Year ’25), the Health Department inspected 37 percent more restaurants compared to July and August of 2023,” the spokesperson said.

In the meantime, Andrew Rigie, Executive Director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, says New Yorkers should not be concerned about the safety of dining out.

“The number of inspections has gone down because DOH has fewer inspectors post-pandemic, but we’ve been assured the agency is still very focused on food safety and reinspecting restaurants where there may be issues,” he said. “Additionally, many of the inspection stats are the same as they were back in 2015, so there’s not a major concern and the city’s restaurants are very safe.”

In other words, it appears all diners and restaurateurs can do is watch, wait, and continue to speculate as to when an inspector will next visit. That wait comes with knowing full well that the Department of Health letter grading system is falling victim to the very same staff shortages that harm the restaurants they’re inspecting.