Ask the Critic: S. Irene Virbila

Question: What influence would a restaurant’s health code rating have on your reviews and personal dining? For example, we stopped going to L’Orangerie when we learned that they had received a C rating in February 2004. And at their prices!

John Rechy

Los Angeles

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Virbila: Honestly, I don’t pay much attention to the health code rating.

If a restaurant has a big fat C posted in the window, it might give me pause, but a B doesn’t bother me that much. The grade is a snapshot of the restaurant on the day the inspector visited.

Any problems found I’m sure the restaurant hurries to correct, so, in fact, the kitchen is probably in better shape on the day you visit than it was when the inspector was there. (By the way, L’Orangerie currently has an A.)

What are some of the restaurants with the highest grades? Fast-food restaurants, precisely because food is not prepared from scratch and goes from freezer straight to the microwave or oven.

I eat out six nights a week in all sorts of places and have never gotten sick from a restaurant. And I eat everything.

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