vermin, Vermin, VERMIN!

The City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene unveiled a new easy-to-navigate website detailing recent restaurant inspections:

The Web site allows grazers to search restaurants by borough, neighborhood or inspection score, and it provides detailed information about the restaurant’s most recent inspection, as well as previous inspections.

A prior version of the site attracted more than 7 million hits last year, and officials expect the new-and-improved site will generate even more interest.

Yesterday, the initial flurry of activity crashed the site for much of the afternoon.

More than 1,000 of the restaurants on the Web site showed zero violations in their most recent inspections, including the Ruby Foo’s Pan-Asian restaurant in Times Square, and Cafe Boulud, the upper East Side mainstay known for its elegant French cuisine.

Other restaurants did not score as high (or low, as the rating system works):

Peter Luger Steak House, the legendary Brooklyn red meat mecca, scored a failing 58 violation points during a Dec. 19 probe. Inspectors found evidence of mice, and staffers who were strangers to soap.

Pat Smith, a spokesman for the restaurant, said the steakhouse quickly fixed the problems and passed reinspection on Jan. 10. City officials said Luger’s latest results will be online soon.

See also: City of New York Restaurant Inspection Information.