Hundreds of Restaurants Fail to Post Letter Grades, DOH Says

A year after the city began issuing letter grades to eateries based on their sanitary inspection records, hundreds of restaurants still aren't displaying their grades to the public as required by law, according to the Department of Health.

There are 704 restaurants that have been fined by the city for not displaying their grade at all, according to the DOH, which said it's stepping up its search for violators. Fines for failure to post letter grades start at $1,000

Daniel Kass, Deputy Commissioner for Environmental Health, said the rules on displaying letter grades are actually very flexible.

"The only requirement is that it be visible to passersby, it be close to the entrance of a restaurant and that it be between four and six feet off the ground, meaning at eye level," he said, adding that the vast majority of restaurants are complying with the rules.

Kass said the department has conducted inspections on nearly all of the city's roughly 24,000 eateries.