Cooked?
The Highlight Room
- gradeGrade A
- inspection score7 pts
- critical violations1
- last inspectedSeptember 23, 2025
- address145 Bowery, Manhattan 10002
- cuisineNew American
- phone2124813763
Is The Highlight Room clean?
The Highlight Room is currently Grade A from NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), from an inspection on September 23, 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 The Highlight Room?
These are the violations recorded at the most recent inspection on September 23, 2025, in plain English, with the city's own wording underneath.
- 🛠️surfaces / setup not up to codeNon-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.
- 🧽surfaces not properly sanitizedcriticalFood contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
When was The Highlight Room last inspected?
The Highlight Room has 3 inspections on record going back to November 7, 2022, averaging 8 points.
| date | result | score |
|---|---|---|
| September 23, 2025 | Grade A | 7 pts |
| June 11, 2024 | Grade A | 12 pts |
| November 7, 2022 | Grade A | 5 pts |
The Highlight Room vs Chinatown
Chinatown runs 74% clean across 671 tracked restaurants — 443 clean, 46 mid, 106 cooked.
Against the 671 spots Cooked tracks in Chinatown, this one comes out cleaner than 83% of them.
Other spots in Chinatown
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 23, 2025. Inspection results describe one moment in a kitchen's life, not a permanent verdict.