If you go online, you can find out that Joyce's Tavern on Staten Island, N.Y., is not vermin proof, but still passed a health inspection.

A Starbucks in Bellevue, Wash., had toilet facilities that were improperly constructed, and weren't adequately supplied or clean.

A Panera Bread cafe in Alexandria, Va., did not have sanitizer in its dishwasher during a routine inspection, but fixed the problem.

Try to search for Hawai'i's restaurant inspections online, however, and you find a copy of a strategic plan that lists the goal of putting inspection results on the Internet by 2000.

Seven years later, an online database is still not available.

"We do have a database, but it's not going to show you online inspection reports for a specific restaurant," said Rex Mitsunaga, program manager at the state Health Department's Sanitation Branch.

Mitsunaga said lack of computers and funds have delayed the launch of an online inspection report system.

Finding out how a restaurant fared in its inspection requires a trip to a sanitation branch office, a wait while handwritten reports are pulled by hand from a file and a charge of 50 cents per page for copies.

Matthew Gray, owner of Hawai'i Food Tours and a former Advertiser restaurant critic, said an online database would be beneficial to both restaurants and diners.

"I think it would be great for the everyday consumers," he said. "It would also help some of the restaurants in town produce a better product. I think all of their standards would increase and they would get that much better."

Gray, whose business involves taking tourists in and out of restaurants every day, said he would welcome any information about the state of their kitchens.

"If the state has found something that I haven't seen myself ... it would help me in my business as well," he said.

However, the Hawai'i Restaurant Association fears that putting the inspections online could mislead people who might not know whether a violation is something minor, like misplaced hand soap or something more serious, like a rodent infestation.

"The average lay person may misunderstand what it means," said Tom Jones, co-chairman of the Hawai'i Restaurant Association's Government Relations Committee. "It could be particularly ruinous to a restaurant."

Another problem is that because of infrequent inspections, it could appear that a restaurant has a persistent problem even if it was actually corrected right away, he said.

"It's a one-minute snapshot of what's going on in the restaurant and that's what's going to be on the Internet for six months or a year," Jones said.

Jones added that if there was a serious public health problem within the restaurant industry, people would know about it, with or without online reports.

KEEPING 'UP TO PAR'

Jameel Hasan, general manager of Molly's Smokehouse in Wahiawa, said putting reports online would be a good thing.

"A lot of kitchens don't stand up to par," he said, adding that he's had no problem with inspections himself.

"Kitchens should be kept clean with proper pest control. That should be number one in the restaurant industry," Hasan said.

The online database still is in the planning stages. Although the state's 26 field sanitarians got laptop computers last year, the inspection forms are still written by hand on the scene and copies are given to clerks to type into the database, then file.

The database — which is not accessible by the public — only includes codes for critical violations and whether or not they were corrected, but not all associated comments.

The codes are not specific and without seeing the inspectors' comments, there's no way to know that a "lavatory facilities" violation might mean that a restaurant had just run out of paper towels during a busy period.

Paul Maeda, one of 26 field sanitarians across the state, said food service inspections are a priority for the 400 establishments for which he is responsible.

In addition to restaurants, the inspectors monitor tattoo shops, beauty salons, massage parlors, laundries, public pools and mortuaries. They also respond to community complaints on sanitation.

State sanitarians are responsible for an average of 300 establishments apiece, twice the number recommended by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Maeda said.

SCRIBBLE FACTOR

Although he now has a laptop, Maeda filled out an inspection form using a pen during a consultation at Lunalilo Elementary School on Thursday.

"Everything is manual," he said. "We have hard copies and turn them in every day and the clerical staff inputs it into a database."

Once the sanitation branch has a computer program and a portable printing method, Maeda expects to be filling out inspection forms on his computer, which he said would be better for everyone, particularly the restaurants that have to decipher the inspectors' handwritten notes to make necessary changes.

"Sometimes it's not real legible," he said. "Some of the inspectors don't have the best handwriting."

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.