New King County Emoji Restaurant Rating System Unveiled In Seattle

SEATTLE, WA - If you literally want a good, clean meal, head to West Seattle Fish House.

The King County Public Health chose the restaurant to unveil its new food safety rating system on Tuesday because it has scored well on health inspections over the years, owner Muzit Evans said. In turn, the county presented her and her husband, Stan, with the county's first "excellent" rating.

Under the new system, restaurants will display placards in their windows showing how well they scored on the four most recent inspections. The placard will display an emoji in four states - from a beaming smile for "excellent" to a flat expression for "needs to improve."

Food Program Manager Becky Elias said that the county wanted to provide an equitable way for restaurant-goers to figure out a restaurant's score. The emojis cross language barriers and are easy to see, Elias said.

The rating system goes deeper than just a smiling face, health officials say. A restaurant's individual rating will be based on the four most recent inspections to show performance over time. On the placard, patrons will be able to see how well a restaurant has performed relative to other eateries in a given zip code.

Depending on where you live in King County, the new ratings will begin to appear in restaurant windows over the next few months. Here's how it will roll out:

• January, 2017 - Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, North Seattle (from downtown north)
• April, 2017 - South Seattle, Vashon Island, Mercer Island, Renton, Bellevue, and parts of Kirkland
• July, 2017 - Woodinville, Redmond, Issaquah, Enumclaw, Kent, North Bend
• October, 2017 - Federal Way, Auburn, Des Moines

Although West Seattle Fish House got the first "excellent" placard, it was just ceremonial. The first real placard will appear at Elliott Bay Brewing in Lake City this week, health officials said.

Learn more about the new rating system from King County.

Images via Patch.com