While I love going out to eat in the Santa Clarita area, I prefer to avoid places that are having troubles with cleanliness. Somehow the thought of having rat doo-doo in my food just doesn't make for a pleasant dining experience.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health helps us to choose clean restaurants by posting ratings in restaurant windows (those A, B or C signs) and publishing closures and ratings online for the public's review.

Thankfully, most of the restaurant closures in the Santa Clarita area since January 18, 2008 are for gas station quickie stores rather than full-fledged restaurants.

The establishments closed for vermin infestation during the last three months were the following:

• Dr. Donuts on Seco Canyon (Saugus). This is not their first closure due to vermin issues.
• Hasley Liquor and Deli (Castaic)
• Kwik Stop #4 on Seco Canyon (Saugus)
• Mandarin 88 on Valencia Blvd. (Valencia). This location was also cited for vermin harborage, meaning that no live rodents were seen dancing in the food at the time of the inspection, but there were bite marks, etc indicating their presence.
• Mobil Mart #13026 on Valencia Blvd (Valencia)

Juice It Up on Newhall Ranch Rd. in Valencia was also closed recently, apparently for having either no potable water supply or no hot water.

Want to find the cleanest places to eat? Here are the restaurants with recent scores of 100 from the Department of Health. There are plenty of other restaurants with high ratings, but these are the ones with perfect scores. Note that some of these scores date back to 2006, so situations could have changed since then.

• BJ's Restaurant in Valencia (at the mall)
• Burger King #7777 in Castaic
• Dippin Dots on Haskell Canyon Rd in Saugus
• George's Bistro on Newhall Ranch Rd. in Valencia
• Pasta Michi on Wayne Mills Place in Santa Clarita
• Pinkberry in Valencia (at the mall)
• Subway on Rockwell Cyn Rd in Valencia (most Subways score in the high 90's)
• Taco del Mar on San Fernando Rd in Newhall
• Wings Pizza n Things in Castaic

There were only three C-Rated facilities in the Santa Clarita area, including Kwik Stop #4 noted above, Hayk International Market on Cinema Drive in Valencia, and the Chevron on San Fernando Rd in Newhall. No restaurants on the Santa Clarita area had scores that were too low to rate.

Bon appetit!