Lemongrass in Middletown

Saturday morning I went to have the car serviced, and when I do, I walk up to Breadworks for breakfast. Well, as I walked past Lemongrass, I noticed a big red "C" in the front window by the door....anybody got the scoop (it was 7:45 am when I went by, and of course, nobody was home).

I don't know Bill, but here are the past scores:

LEMON GRASS RESTAURANT 11606 SHELBYVILLE ROAD 5/7/2009 75 C
LEMON GRASS RESTAURANT 11606 SHELBYVILLE ROAD 12/15/2008 93 A
LEMON GRASS RESTAURANT 11606 SHELBYVILLE ROAD 5/23/2008 89 B
LEMON GRASS RESTAURANT 11606 SHELBYVILLE ROAD 5/14/2008 79 C


They , probably , will have a couple days to fix whatever the current problem is before another inspection is done of the premises.

I'm not in the restaurant biz, but frequent them on a daily basis. From what I've been told by my restaurant friends, I think the rating system is flawed. A "C" rating can be corrected within a few days by a revisit by the inspector, but if you get a "B" rating, that can hang with you for up to 6 months ??? I have been told by several restaurant owners that they would rather get a "C" than a "B". That doesn't sound quite right to me ? What am I missing here ?

I think it is important to establish a good relationship with your inspector. When we get inspections, I let them know up front that I'm shooting for 100, and that if they find anything wrong let me know. But you also need to be sincere about it. I think they can see through BS.

An inspector will nearly always find something wrong, but I've found that if you try hard (doing everything by the book, practicing good sanitation, etc) you can get pretty close to 100. I think we're at 99 right now....

Yeah, if a place has a C, I'd be hesitant to go there. Even a B worries me a bit.

Inspection scores ARE misleading. While I be the first to admit C rating raises red flags; I'd caution it could be for something unrelated to food. A few of these violations could be related to lights or permit violations; not handling of their food product. While I do not know the nature of this particular violation, it's my opinion these ratings things are slanted. However, they do remain an important tool. This was my experience when I worked in restaurants for six plus years.

As has been stated here before, it certainly would be nice if we could see the entire inspection online instead of just the result. That way we could see why a low score was given an determine for ourselves if we say the restaurant is worthy of our business. Hopefully the county will come around soon and give its citizens more information to make our choices with.

Mark, I agree. I'd like to see the nature of the infraction too; even if it's limited to categories. Food, building, etc. So, at least people know it's a problem not directly related to food 100% of the time.

I personally know of a restaurant which I am not going to name that got a "C" for a problem outside of the building. As others mentioned this was corrected upon re-inspection but the initial issue was not something that should have concerned a potential diner. Without more transparency they are only marginally helpful to identify establishments with chronic issues.