Sam's Tavern South Lake Union

• ratingRated Okay
• inspection score70 pts
• critical violations6
• last inspectedAugust 24, 2026 →
• address400 9Th Ave N, Seattle 98109

Is Sam's Tavern South Lake Union clean?

Sam's Tavern South Lake Union is currently Rated Okay from Public Health — Seattle & King County, from an inspection on August 24, 2026. Inspectors wrote up 6 critical violations — the kind most directly linked to foodborne illness. On Cooked's ladder that reads mid 😬.

What did inspectors find at Sam's Tavern South Lake Union?

These are the violations recorded at the most recent inspection on August 24, 2026, in plain English, with the city's own wording underneath.

• 🧽surfaces not properly sanitized
  4100 - Warewashing facilities properly installed, maintained, used; sanitizer concentration; test strips available and used
• 🧻grimy wiping cloths
  3400 - Wiping cloths properly used, stored; sanitizer concentration
• 🚰handwashing sink issuescritical
  0500 - Proper barriers used to prevent bare hand contact with ready-to-eat foods
• ⚠️0100 - PIC present, demonstrates knowledge and performs duties to maintain AMC; certified manager on staff unless exemptcritical
• 🥩raw meat handled sketchycritical
  1400 - Raw meats below and away from ready-to-eat food; species separated
• ⚠️2300 - Proper consumer advisory posted for raw or undercooked foodscritical
• 🦪shellfish with no paper trailcritical
  1100 - Proper disposition of returned, unsafe, or contaminated food; proper date marking procedures for food at high risk for Listeria
• ❓food from an unapproved sourcecritical
  0600 - Adequate handwashing facilities

When was Sam's Tavern South Lake Union last inspected?

Sam's Tavern South Lake Union has 3 inspections on record going back to November 24, 2025, averaging 28 points.

Sam's Tavern South Lake Union vs Downtown

Downtown runs 91% clean across 1,737 tracked restaurants — 1,581 clean, 148 mid, 8 cooked.

Against the 1,737 spots Cooked tracks in Downtown, this one comes out cleaner than 0% of them.

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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.

Read the Seattle 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: Public Health — Seattle & King County via King County Open Data. Cooked refreshes this data daily — this listing's most recent inspection is dated August 24, 2026. Inspection results describe one moment in a kitchen's life, not a permanent verdict.

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