Rating restaurants: How clean is your favorite eatery?

Some other interesting but less common instances of critical violations include inspectors seeing food handlers fail to wash hands after using a restroom or at other required times, cited 638 times; not adequately controlling pests, 304 times; failure to discard contaminated food, cited 89 times; and sick people working around food even with discharges from their eyes, noses and mouths, cited seven times.

Lund notes these violations are just what inspectors observed personally during periodic visits.

Inspectors cited, at least once, a total of 81 different types of critical violations.

Melva Sine, president and CEO of the Utah Restaurant Association, says, however, that the number of violations found "are minuscule" when "you consider that over 2 million meals a day are served in restaurant facilities" in Utah, and 70 percent of them are served in Salt Lake County.

In fact, she says, studies show one-third of all meals eaten by Utahns are served by restaurants.

"Food safety is No. 1 for our restaurants," she said. Most do a good job. "Providing a great dining experience is what it is all about." She adds that years ago the industry initiated and supported legislation that led to restaurant inspections.

She said her association also offers classes in food safety management, and law requires that each restaurant have at least one certified food safety manager.

Multiple violations

Which restaurants had the most critical violations? Records show that at the top of that list, 26 restaurants had more than 13 critical violations per inspection. That is six times more than the median for all food establishments — just two violations. (See accompanying chart.)

The restaurant with the most violations per inspection was a now out-of-business Chevy's Fresh Mex restaurant, 358 S. 700 East, with 21.

Some well-known restaurants appear on the list of violators.

They include the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, 15 E. South Temple (with 15.5 critical violations per inspection); the Red Butte Cafe, 1414 S. Foothill Drive (14.5); Cafe Trang, 818 S. Main (14.7); and a Godfather's Pizza location at 4950 W. 6200 South (15).

Some of the other establishments with the most violations per inspection included Ogie's Cafe, 3515 S. Redwood Road (18.7); China Station, 1645 W. 7800 South (17.3); B&D Burgers, 222 S. 1300 East (17); the now-out-of-business New India Palace, 1241 E. 8600 South (16); and the now-out-of-business Beto's Tacos Don Chuy, 12580 S. Redwood Road (16).

Of note, that list includes mostly full-service restaurants or buffets with complicated menus, or food that must be kept at difficult-to-maintain temperatures. That does not surprise Lund.