The de Blasio administration boasted Thursday that 95 percent of the city’s restaurants received “A” ratings from the Health Department — but more than 4,000 eateries with grades pending weren’t included.
The upbeat numbers, released in the latest Mayor’s Management Report, covered the 2015 fiscal year and represented an improvement over the previous year, when 90 percent achieved the top grade.
But the Health Department’s website shows 20,018 restaurants got “A’s,” 468 received “B’s,” 489 were slapped with “C’s” and 4,143 were awaiting reinspection after getting a grade of less than “A” for the first time.
So of the 25,118 restaurants inspected, 80 percent currently are permitted to display “A’s” in their windows.
Officials defended the methodology, saying it hasn’t changed since the system was launched in 2010.
Industry experts said all the numbers should be taken with a grain of salt.
“Much of these violations that they cite restaurants for are so subjective,” said one industry source. “If they were told that restaurant letter grading needed to go up, it could very easily do so without posing any health risks to the public.”