Cafe Joah

• gradeGrade C
• inspection score35 pts
• critical violations3
• last inspectedSeptember 12, 2025
• address212 Avenue A, Manhattan 10009
• cuisineAmerican
• phone6463704114

Is Cafe Joah clean?

Cafe Joah is currently Grade C from NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), from an inspection on September 12, 2025. Inspectors wrote up 3 critical violations — the kind most directly linked to foodborne illness. On Cooked's ladder that reads cooked 🪳.

What did inspectors find at Cafe Joah?

These are the violations recorded at the most recent inspection on September 12, 2025, in plain English, with the city's own wording underneath.

• 📋no certified food supervisor on dutycritical
  Food Protection Certificate (FPC) not held by manager or supervisor of food operations.
• 🕳️basically rolling out the welcome mat for pests
  Establishment is not free of harborage or conditions conducive to rodents, insects or other pests.
• 🪰flies in the housecritical
  Filth flies or food/refuse/sewage associated with (FRSA) flies or other nuisance pests in establishment’s food and/or non-food areas. FRSA flies include house flies, blow flies, bottle flies, flesh flies, drain flies, Phorid flies and fruit flies.
• 🔪cross-contamination riskcritical
  Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.
• 🛠️surfaces / setup not up to code
  Non-food contact surface or equipment made of unacceptable material, not kept clean, or not properly sealed, raised, spaced or movable to allow accessibility for cleaning on all sides, above and underneath the unit.

When was Cafe Joah last inspected?

Cafe Joah has 3 inspections on record going back to September 28, 2023, averaging 21 points.

Cafe Joah vs East Village

East Village runs 77% clean across 732 tracked restaurants — 477 clean, 41 mid, 105 cooked.

Against the 732 spots Cooked tracks in East Village, this one comes out cleaner than 4% of them.

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  clean · November 21, 2023
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See every restaurant inspection in East Village →

How New York grades restaurants

New York City health inspectors score violations in points, and lower is better: 0–13 points earns an A, 14–27 a B, and 28 or more a C. Every restaurant is inspected at least once a year, and the letter has to be posted in the window. A restaurant that scores 14 or more on the first inspection of a cycle does not get a letter right away — it stays “Grade Pending” until a re-inspection settles it, which is why some spots here show an hourglass instead of a letter. Cooked only ever shows a letter the city actually posted; we never infer one from a score.

Source: NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) via NYC Open Data. Cooked refreshes this data daily — this listing's most recent inspection is dated September 12, 2025. Inspection results describe one moment in a kitchen's life, not a permanent verdict.