Cooked?
Kai's Bistro & Lounge
- ratingRated Okay
- inspection score30 pts
- critical violations2
- last inspectedJuly 9, 2026
- address1312 Ne 43Rd St, Seattle 98105
Is Kai's Bistro & Lounge clean?
Kai's Bistro & Lounge is currently Rated Okay from Public Health — Seattle & King County, from an inspection on July 9, 2026. Inspectors wrote up 2 critical violations — the kind most directly linked to foodborne illness. On Cooked's ladder that reads mid 😬.
What did inspectors find at Kai's Bistro & Lounge?
These are the violations recorded at the most recent inspection on July 9, 2026, in plain English, with the city's own wording underneath.
- ⚠️3200 - Insects, rodents, animals not present; entrance controlled3200 - Insects, rodents, animals not present; entrance controlled
- 🧽surfaces not properly sanitized4100 - Warewashing facilities properly installed, maintained, used; sanitizer concentration; test strips available and used
- ⚠️1000 - Food in good condition, safe and unadulterated; approved additivescritical1000 - Food in good condition, safe and unadulterated; approved additives
- ❓food from an unapproved sourcecritical0600 - Adequate handwashing facilities
When was Kai's Bistro & Lounge last inspected?
Kai's Bistro & Lounge has 8 inspections on record going back to September 16, 2021, averaging 25 points.
| date | result | score |
|---|---|---|
| July 9, 2026 | Rated Okay | 30 pts |
| October 3, 2025 | Rated Okay | 15 pts |
| April 17, 2025 | Rated Okay | 25 pts |
| September 18, 2024 | Rated Okay | 38 pts |
| February 26, 2024 | Rated Okay | 15 pts |
| May 23, 2023 | Rated Okay | 35 pts |
| June 13, 2022 | Rated Okay | 25 pts |
| September 16, 2021 | Rated Okay | 15 pts |
Kai's Bistro & Lounge vs University District
University District runs 88% clean across 326 tracked restaurants — 286 clean, 39 mid, 1 cooked.
Against the 326 spots Cooked tracks in University District, this one comes out cleaner than 2% of them.
Other spots in University District
How Seattle grades restaurants
Public Health — Seattle & King County posts a word, not a letter: Excellent, Good, Okay, or Needs To Improve. The rating is deliberately not a snapshot — it averages the establishment’s recent routine inspections, so one bad day does not sink a consistently clean kitchen and one good day does not rescue a bad one. Inspectors score violations in red points for things that directly cause foodborne illness and blue points for everything else; around 45 red points triggers a mandatory re-inspection. Newly opened or recently changed spots can show as Not Rated until enough inspections accumulate.
Source: Public Health — Seattle & King County via King County Open Data. Cooked refreshes this data daily — this listing's most recent inspection is dated July 9, 2026. Inspection results describe one moment in a kitchen's life, not a permanent verdict.