Royal Delegge, Environmental Health Division director for the Salt Lake Valley Health Department, said, "The more complicated a menu and the more complicated the processes that a restaurant uses, the higher the scores they tend to have. They have more that can go wrong."

Accompanying charts show average scores for different types of eateries, to allow readers to compare individual establishments to averages.

The good ...

Of the 1,800 full-service, fast-food and buffet restaurants inspected in Salt Lake County in the past two years, only one had perfect scores in all inspections: Gold Medal Pizza in Fort Union. It is a fairly new business that had just one regular, surprise inspection in that time.

"We work hard to keep it clean. I think that is important for business. I don't like to go to places that I believe are dirty," said co-owner John Horn.

"I have a list of things that must be cleaned every day, and employees do it every night. If it isn't done, the employee is written up. If they are written up three times, they are fired. So we take it seriously," he said.

Also earning perfect scores in all inspections in Salt Lake County were two assisted-living centers; two caterers, three child-care centers, a coffee bar, two commissaries for mobile food units; five convenience stores; one correctional center, three delicatessens, three hotel breakfast operations, two mobile food carts, one private club, two schools; nine snack bars and seven snow-cone stands.

In Utah County, 17 full-service and fast-food restaurants had perfect scores in all inspections, according to records (see chart).

Among other types of eateries with all-perfect inspections in Utah County were one assisted-living center, one cafeteria, one caterer, four child-care centers, one convenience store, one group home, four mobile units, 21 schools, 10 seasonal units (such as snow-cone stands), seven snack bars and one tavern.

The not-so-good ...

Sixteen full-service, fast-food and buffet restaurants in Salt Lake County were closed temporarily by health inspectors in the past two years. Some were closed for just a few hours and some for days (see chart).

Samba Grill in Salt Lake City and Cafe Kim and Eastern Buffet in West Jordan were each closed twice for what inspectors said were numerous, serious violations that posed an imminent health threat.

Many of the ordered-to-be-closed restaurants also had the highest averages for violation points in the county's regular, surprise inspections.

As mentioned, Cafe Kim had the highest average for full-service restaurants that are still in business: 159.5 points per inspection, four times higher than the 39.1 point average for full-service restaurants in that county.