Canter’s Carries a C Rating After Recent Health Department Review

Don’t mistake the letter C in the Canter’s window as part of their logo: It’s a very real, very mediocre recent grade given by the LA County Department of Public Health.

LAist first uncovered the low rating, who notes that an August 7 inspection showed some serious health code violations — foremost among them an infestation violation (it’s listed as either insects or rodents). That’s not to say that bugs or rats were directly visible in the kitchen or anything, just that the health inspector found cause to suspect their presence at one point or another, and dinged Canter’s accordingly.

Perhaps not surprisingly, much of the restaurant was also closed for a few days this month (LA Observed says it was to address the C grade issues, but reps for Canter’s tell LAist it was more general maintenance), ultimately reopening with the C grade in the window. The letter will remain until the restaurant is inspected again, though restaurants do often correct issues and then ask to be re-inspected again as soon as possible.

The LA County Department of Public Health has long been the overseer of the city’s restaurant grading systems, but that’s not to say there aren’t some opponents to the current process. Early last year, the department was even the target of a prolonged cyber attack for ransom scheme.

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