Cooked?
Boston News Cafe
- resultPass
- critical violations0
- last inspectedNovember 24, 2025
- address28 State St, Boston 02108
Is Boston News Cafe clean?
Boston News Cafe is currently Pass from Boston Inspectional Services, Health Division, from an inspection on November 24, 2025. No critical violations were recorded at that visit. On Cooked's ladder that reads clean 😇.
What did inspectors find at Boston News Cafe?
These are the violations recorded at the most recent inspection on November 24, 2025, in plain English, with the city's own wording underneath.
- ⚠️Food Storage Containers Identified with Common Name of Food (C) • Multiple squeeze bottles observed without labels. Provide labels when removed from original containersFood Storage Containers Identified with Common Name of Food (C) • Multiple squeeze bottles observed without labels. Provide labels when removed from original containers
- ⚠️(A)(1) Time/Temperature Control for Safety Food Hot and Cold Holding (P) • Food Item on the steam table chicken 125 F degrees/ Products must be 135 degree or above / PIC reheated the chicken to 165F and up.( corrected on site) train staff on monitoring temperaturecritical(A)(1) Time/Temperature Control for Safety Food Hot and Cold Holding (P) • Food Item on the steam table chicken 125 F degrees/ Products must be 135 degree or above / PIC reheated the chicken to 165F and up.( corrected on site) train staff on monitoring temperature
- ⚠️Food Labels (Pf) • Display case / provide proper labeling to all prepackaged fruit cupsFood Labels (Pf) • Display case / provide proper labeling to all prepackaged fruit cups
- ⚠️Wiping Cloths Air Drying Location (C) • observed soiled wiping cloths on the counter/properly store all wiping cloths in a sanitizing solution at the required 200ppmWiping Cloths Air Drying Location (C) • observed soiled wiping cloths on the counter/properly store all wiping cloths in a sanitizing solution at the required 200ppm
- ⚠️Backflow Prevention Air Gap (P) • Prep sinks without proper air gap for backflow prevention.Please provide a plumbers report and a permit to do work will need to be pulled so it can be inspected.criticalBackflow Prevention Air Gap (P) • Prep sinks without proper air gap for backflow prevention.Please provide a plumbers report and a permit to do work will need to be pulled so it can be inspected.
- ⚠️Sanitizers Criteria-Chemicals (P) • Sanitizer solution set up in red bucket at the front counter at below 0ppm quats- Review procedures for sanitizer set up with employeescriticalSanitizers Criteria-Chemicals (P) • Sanitizer solution set up in red bucket at the front counter at below 0ppm quats- Review procedures for sanitizer set up with employees
When was Boston News Cafe last inspected?
Boston News Cafe has 41 inspections on record going back to December 15, 2010. The 12 most recent are shown below.
| date | result | score |
|---|---|---|
| November 24, 2025 | Pass | |
| November 17, 2025 | Fail | |
| April 16, 2025 | Pass | |
| December 9, 2024 | Pass | |
| March 13, 2024 | Pass | |
| December 6, 2023 | Pass | |
| June 6, 2023 | Pass | |
| December 15, 2022 | Pass | |
| June 22, 2022 | Pass | |
| March 15, 2022 | — | |
| February 17, 2022 | Pass | |
| October 8, 2021 | Pass |
Boston News Cafe vs Downtown
Downtown runs 90% clean across 1,016 tracked restaurants — 866 clean, 53 mid, 42 cooked.
Against the 1,016 spots Cooked tracks in Downtown, this one comes out cleaner than 10% of them.
Other spots in Downtown
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 November 24, 2025. Inspection results describe one moment in a kitchen's life, not a permanent verdict.