Empanadas Cafe

• gradeGrade A
• inspection score5 pts
• critical violations1
• last inspectedSeptember 26, 2025 →
• address56-27 Van Doren Street, Queens 11368
• cuisineLatin American
• phone7185927288

Is Empanadas Cafe clean?

Empanadas Cafe is currently Grade A from NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), from an inspection on September 26, 2025. Inspectors wrote up 1 critical violation — the kind most directly linked to foodborne illness. On Cooked's ladder that reads clean 😇.

What did inspectors find at Empanadas Cafe?

These are the violations recorded at the most recent inspection on September 26, 2025, in plain English, with the city's own wording underneath.

• ⚠️Failure to display required signage about plastic straw availability
• 🍽️food left out / unprotectedcritical
  Food, supplies, or equipment not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display, service or from customer’s refillable, reusable container. Condiments not in single-service containers or dispensed directly by the vendor.
• ⚠️Allergen or intolerance notice not translated into common language when required
• ⚠️Failure to post or conspicuously post healthy eating information
• ⚠️Providing single-use, non-compostable plastic straws to customers without customer request (including providing such straws at a self-serve station)

When was Empanadas Cafe last inspected?

Empanadas Cafe has 3 inspections on record going back to April 7, 2023, averaging 4 points.

Empanadas Cafe vs Corona

Corona runs 69% clean across 82 tracked restaurants — 49 clean, 12 mid, 10 cooked.

Against the 82 spots Cooked tracks in Corona, this one comes out cleaner than 92% of them.

Other spots in Corona

• A Corona Pizza
  clean · September 24, 2025
• A Tacos Gloria
  clean · April 1, 2026
• B Nutripan Colombian Bakery
  mid · August 10, 2026
• A Tacos Y Quesadillas Mexico
  clean · July 17, 2026
• A Lefrak Pizza
  clean · July 8, 2024
• C Lorenas Fruit
  cooked · March 20, 2025

See every restaurant inspection in Corona →

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.

Read the New York 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: 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 26, 2025. 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.