• resultFail
• critical violations1
• last inspectedSeptember 19, 2016 →
• address217 Newbury St, Boston 02116

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Is Sofa Cafe clean?

Sofa Cafe is currently Fail from Boston Inspectional Services, Health Division, from an inspection on September 19, 2016. Inspectors wrote up 1 critical violation — the kind most directly linked to foodborne illness. On Cooked's ladder that reads cooked 🪳.

What did inspectors find at Sofa Cafe?

These are the violations recorded at the most recent inspection on September 19, 2016, in plain English, with the city's own wording underneath.

• ⚠️Food Protection
• ⚠️Adequate Handwashing/Where/When/Howcritical
• ⚠️Equipment Thermometers
• ⚠️Wiping Cloths Clean Sanitize
• ⚠️Non-Food Contact Surfaces Clean
• ⚠️Improper Cleaning of Receptacles
• ⚠️Improper Maintenance of Floors

Sofa Cafe inspection and administrative history

Sofa Cafe has 10 inspections on record going back to March 24, 2014.

Sofa Cafe vs Back Bay

Back Bay runs 81% clean across 503 tracked restaurants — 405 clean, 51 mid, 42 cooked.

Against the 503 spots Cooked tracks in Back Bay, this one comes out cleaner than 4% of them.

Other spots in Back Bay

• ✕ Blue Cross Blue Sheild Of Ma. Cafe
  cooked · August 17, 2026
• ✕ Supreme Pizza
  mid · June 22, 2026
• ✓ Accents
  clean · June 27, 2019
• ✓ Crossroads
  clean · December 22, 2016
• ✓ B. Good Burger
  clean · April 26, 2021
• ✓ Economy Hardware
  clean · February 20, 2018

See every restaurant inspection in Back Bay →

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.

Read the Boston ratings guide →

Inspection findings and available history come from the authority’s published records. Cooked checks daily; publication can lag behind an inspection. Read the date on each result and check the official source for newer information.

Source: Boston Inspectional Services, Health Division via Analyze Boston. Cooked refreshes this data daily — this listing's most recent inspection is dated September 19, 2016. Inspection results describe one moment in a kitchen's life, not a permanent verdict.

check your own block 📸

Cooked covers 10 cities on official inspection data — see who's clean, mid, or cooked near you.