Leading restaurants are named and shamed in hygiene reports

With its quirky offal dishes and its white, modernist interior, the St John restaurant in London is fêted by critics for serving challenging dishes which celebrate the often neglected traditions of hearty English food. What diners who lavish £80 on a meal for two of lambs' tongues and green beans now know is that the kitchens of the Georgian townhouse in Smithfield are not particularly clean.

St John, one of Britain's most famous restaurants, has been ranked among the least hygienic in the capital by a new website which reveals the cleanliness of 80,000 food outlets – from the humblest kebab shops to Michelin-starred restaurants. The ratings, based on inspections by environmental health officers, will not cheer many of London's leading restaurateurs and chefs. St John received a "poor" one star, as did Le Mirabelle and Aldo Zilli's flagship Soho fish restaurant. The Garrick club, one of the city's most venerable gentlemen's clubs, also earned one star, which is summarised on the website as: "A poor level of compliance with food safety legislation. Much more effort required."

Gordon Ramsay's restaurant at The Savoy hotel was awarded two stars, meaning it was broadly compliant but required "more effort" on food safety. The eye-wateringly expensive Sketch and rival celebrity hangouts The Ivy and The Wolseley scored an unexceptional three stars out of five. More than 200 establishments received no stars at all, including Starbucks in Queensway and YO! Sushi at the Trocadero in Coventry Street. No stars, the website points out, means a kitchen is "very poor" and manned by chefs who have little or no appreciation of food safety.

The best diner in London – the three Michelin starred Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Royal Hospital Road – is excluded from the ratings because Kensington and Chelsea Council is one of four London boroughs refusing to take part in the 'naming and shaming' scheme run by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

It was the criticisms of Ramsay's Chelsea kitchen, obtained by The Independent last year under a freedom of information request, which led to pressure for environmental health reports to be made public.

For several months, they have been available on the websites of about 100 English councils. The aim is to eventually have health ratings displayed above restaurant doors, but yesterday was the first chance Londoners had to check the 'scores on the doors' at www.yourlondon.gov.uk.

The site was sluggish for much of the day – apparently overwhelmed by the number of restaurateurs checking their own scores. Fergus Henderson, the owner of St John, said he was disappointed with his ranking, which resulted from a visit last November. "We love our kitchen and nurture it," he added. "I don't know how they work it out."