Cooked?
Banyan Bar & Refuge
- resultFail
- critical violations0
- last inspectedFebruary 5, 2026
- address537 Tremont St, Boston 02116
Is Banyan Bar & Refuge clean?
Banyan Bar & Refuge is currently Fail from Boston Inspectional Services, Health Division, from an inspection on February 5, 2026. No critical violations were recorded at that visit. On Cooked's ladder that reads mid 😬.
What did inspectors find at Banyan Bar & Refuge?
These are the violations recorded at the most recent inspection on February 5, 2026, in plain English, with the city's own wording underneath.
- ⚠️(A) Ceasing Operations and Reporting (Pf) • PIC Liz Brown present Fire in kitchen overnight. Soot and damaged equipment at cookline. Loss of electricity to cookline refrigeration. All food affected by loss of power discarded by staff. Contact ISD Health when cleaning of hood and kitchen is complete Building Department has signed off on life safety equipment and ansul system has been reset.(A) Ceasing Operations and Reporting (Pf) • PIC Liz Brown present Fire in kitchen overnight. Soot and damaged equipment at cookline. Loss of electricity to cookline refrigeration. All food affected by loss of power discarded by staff. Contact ISD Health when cleaning of hood and kitchen is complete Building Department has signed off on life safety equipment and ansul system has been reset.
When was Banyan Bar & Refuge last inspected?
Banyan Bar & Refuge has 30 inspections on record going back to July 10, 2015. The 12 most recent are shown below.
| date | result | score |
|---|---|---|
| February 5, 2026 | Fail | |
| June 30, 2025 | closed by the city | |
| May 13, 2025 | — | |
| July 12, 2024 | — | |
| April 23, 2024 | — | |
| January 3, 2024 | — | |
| August 28, 2023 | Pass | |
| August 21, 2023 | Fail | |
| January 18, 2023 | — | |
| July 27, 2022 | Pass | |
| July 20, 2022 | Fail | |
| June 1, 2022 | Pass |
Banyan Bar & Refuge vs South End
South End runs 80% clean across 691 tracked restaurants — 489 clean, 61 mid, 65 cooked.
Against the 691 spots Cooked tracks in South End, this one comes out cleaner than 18% of them.
Other spots in South End
How Boston grades restaurants
Boston reports inspections as a pass or a fail, with no score and no letter. What separates a bad fail from a trivial one is the violation severity ladder: a single star is a minor issue, two stars is more serious, and three stars marks a critical foodborne-illness risk factor — temperature abuse, bad handwashing, cross-contamination. A restaurant can fail on paperwork alone, which is not the same as failing on food safety. Cooked splits Boston fails accordingly: a fail with a three-star violation reads cooked, a fail on minor items only reads mid.
Source: Boston Inspectional Services, Health Division via Analyze Boston. Cooked refreshes this data daily — this listing's most recent inspection is dated February 5, 2026. Inspection results describe one moment in a kitchen's life, not a permanent verdict.