NEW YORK - City records show that at least 235 New York restaurants failed a health inspection in the nine days after video of rats in a Manhattan fast food joint embarrassed officials into suspending an inspector who had given the eatery a passing grade.

Health officials deny that a crackdown is under way, but acknowledge that some inspectors wary of additional media attention might be giving kitchens extra scrutiny.

Overall, nearly 100 restaurants have been shuttered for health code violations in the past three weeks - a shocking total considering that inspectors closed only 558 restaurants in all of 2006.

Scores more have been allowed to stay open, but hammered with citations that will lead to big fines.

Among the unlucky was the trendy Coffee Shop in Union Square.

An inspector who arrived March 7 spent hours picking through the place, then ordered it shut for violations ranging from a problem with a sink to inadequate refrigeration.

The restaurant, once featured on HBO's “Sex and the City,” addressed all the violations and reopened Tuesday. But part-owner Charles Milite said he was convinced he was among a growing number of establishments caught up in an unprecedented crackdown.

“I was as confident as could be when they came in. To have our doors padlocked was absolutely devastating,” he said. “I'm still just reeling from the whole thing. This is new territory.”

Health department records show that inspectors began taking a sharper-than-usual look at restaurants after city officials were embarrassed by a small-scale scandal involving one Manhattan fast-food restaurant and a family of rats.