Manhattan, NY — Armada, a New American restaurant located at 86 Orchard Street on the Lower East Side, received a score of 47 during a New York City health inspection conducted on February 20, 2026. The score places the establishment well above the 28-point threshold associated with a Grade C rating. Inspectors documented one critical violation during the visit.

The inspection data was released by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) on February 23, 2026.

What Inspectors Found

During the February 20 inspection, DOHMH inspectors cited Armada for one critical violation related to food safety procedures.

Specifically, the restaurant was found to have no approved written standard operating procedure for avoiding contamination by refillable returnable containers (violation code 05H). This type of violation addresses the protocols restaurants must maintain to ensure that containers used for refills or returns do not introduce contaminants into food or beverages. Without a documented procedure in place, there is no verifiable system to confirm that staff are following consistent practices to prevent cross-contamination through container reuse.

No non-critical violations were recorded during this inspection.

While the establishment received only one cited violation, the point value assigned — 47 — indicates that inspectors assessed the severity of the condition as significant under the DOHMH scoring framework. Individual violations can carry varying point values depending on factors such as the nature of the violation, the degree of risk to public health, and the conditions observed at the time of the inspection.

Food Safety Context

NYC Health Code Article 81 establishes the regulatory framework governing food service establishments in New York City. Under these regulations, restaurants are required to maintain written procedures that address potential sources of contamination, including the handling of refillable and returnable containers.

The FDA Food Code, which serves as a model for local health regulations nationwide, similarly emphasizes the importance of documented standard operating procedures as part of a comprehensive food safety management system. Written procedures serve as both a training tool for staff and a verifiable record that an establishment has taken steps to identify and mitigate food safety risks.

The absence of such documentation does not necessarily indicate that contamination has occurred, but it does represent a gap in the restaurant's food safety management system — one that regulators consider a critical deficiency.

Inspection History

Armada's available inspection history with DOHMH includes the following:

  • Feb 9, 2026: Score 47 (Grade N)
  • Feb 20, 2026: Score 47 (Grade C range)

The Grade N designation from the February 9 inspection indicates the restaurant was in a "not yet graded" status, which typically occurs during an initial or re-inspection cycle. The subsequent February 20 inspection produced the same score of 47, which falls in the Grade C range.

It is worth noting that both inspections yielded identical scores, suggesting the conditions cited during the earlier visit may not have been fully addressed by the time of the follow-up inspection.

Understanding NYC Restaurant Grades

New York City's restaurant grading system, administered by DOHMH, assigns letter grades based on the total number of violation points recorded during an inspection. The scoring thresholds are as follows:

  • Grade A: 0–13 points
  • Grade B: 14–27 points
  • Grade C: 28 or more points

Lower scores indicate fewer or less severe violations. A score of 47, such as the one recorded at Armada, falls significantly above the Grade C threshold of 28 points.

Restaurants that receive a Grade B or C on an initial inspection have the opportunity to request an adjudicatory hearing and may be re-inspected. The grading cycle allows establishments to address cited violations and potentially achieve a better score on subsequent visits.

Consumers can look up the latest inspection results for any New York City restaurant through the DOHMH restaurant inspection database, which is publicly accessible online. The database provides current grades, inspection dates, violation details, and historical records for all inspected food service establishments in the five boroughs.

More About This Restaurant

View the full inspection history for Armada including all past inspections, violations, and grade changes.