Cooked?
Zen Restaurant
- resultFail
- critical violations1
- last inspectedJuly 22, 2026
- address21 Beacon St, Boston 02108
Is Zen Restaurant clean?
Zen Restaurant is currently Fail from Boston Inspectional Services, Health Division, from an inspection on July 22, 2026. 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 Zen Restaurant?
These are the violations recorded at the most recent inspection on July 22, 2026, in plain English, with the city's own wording underneath.
- ⚠️Linens and Napkins Use Limitations (C) • Noted linen being used in direct contact with food.DiscontinueLinens and Napkins Use Limitations (C) • Noted linen being used in direct contact with food.Discontinue
- ⚠️Repairing-Premises Structures Attachments and Fixtures-Methods (C) • Noted broke light bulb in the exhaust hood.RepairRepairing-Premises Structures Attachments and Fixtures-Methods (C) • Noted broke light bulb in the exhaust hood.Repair
- ⚠️Cleaning Frequency and Restrictions (C) • Noted grease on the floor behind the equipment on the cookline.Clean Clean behind the dish machine on the 1st floor near the 3 bay sink.Cleaning Frequency and Restrictions (C) • Noted grease on the floor behind the equipment on the cookline.Clean Clean behind the dish machine on the 1st floor near the 3 bay sink.
- ⚠️Sanitizers Criteria-Chemicals (P) • Noted quat sanitizer in the red bucket measured with the strip at 1000PPM.Retrain staff to measure the correct amount water to chemical ratio follow the recomended direction on the sanitizer containercriticalSanitizers Criteria-Chemicals (P) • Noted quat sanitizer in the red bucket measured with the strip at 1000PPM.Retrain staff to measure the correct amount water to chemical ratio follow the recomended direction on the sanitizer container
When was Zen Restaurant last inspected?
Zen Restaurant has 29 inspections on record going back to November 21, 2018. The 12 most recent are shown below.
| date | result | score |
|---|---|---|
| July 22, 2026 | Fail | |
| February 2, 2026 | Pass | |
| January 30, 2026 | closed by the city | |
| January 28, 2026 | closed by the city | |
| October 24, 2025 | Pass | |
| October 14, 2025 | Fail | |
| February 13, 2025 | Pass | |
| October 31, 2024 | — | |
| October 31, 2024 | Pass | |
| February 12, 2024 | Pass | |
| January 31, 2024 | Fail | |
| August 7, 2023 | Pass |
Zen Restaurant vs Beacon Hill
Beacon Hill runs 85% clean across 149 tracked restaurants — 123 clean, 10 mid, 11 cooked.
Against the 149 spots Cooked tracks in Beacon Hill, this one comes out cleaner than 4% of them.
Other spots in Beacon Hill
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 July 22, 2026. Inspection results describe one moment in a kitchen's life, not a permanent verdict.