Fast-food chains in Chicago, by city inspection records

What stands out

Wide bars are the main finding. 9 of the 14 charted chains have fewer than 250 routine inspections on file, even with records going back to 2019. A range of ten points or more is common. Treat any two chains whose bars overlap as tied, because on this evidence they are.

The two ends are the only clear contrast. Panda Express has the lowest measured rate, 7.3% (3.7% to 13.7%), and Popeyes the highest, 29.8% (23.3% to 37.3%). Those ranges do not touch.

Five chains are level with the city. Wingstop, Domino's, Jimmy John's, KFC and Popeyes have ranges that include the 24.4% rate for all Chicago restaurants, so we cannot say they fail more or less often than an ordinary restaurant here. KFC and Popeyes have measured rates above the city’s, but with this few inspections that is within the noise. No chain is clearly over.

Subway is the exception to the small samples. With 1,407 inspections it has the narrowest range in the city, 14.6% to 18.5%. It is the one Chicago figure precise enough to read closely.

The window includes the pandemic. The city ran 5,887 routine restaurant inspections in 2019, then 3,926 in 2020 and 4,308 in 2021. We kept those years because dropping them would leave even fewer chains chartable, but the restaurants inspected then were not a normal cross-section.

Analysis written September 2026. The figures in it are read from the current records, so they move when the records do.

How inspections work in Chicago

Chicago restaurants are inspected by the Department of Public Health’s Food Protection Program. Each establishment is placed in a risk category from 1 (highest) to 3, and the department says the frequency of inspection is tied to that risk. The routine visit is called a canvass inspection.

An inspection ends in one of three results. In the department’s words, a Pass means “no critical or serious violations”; a Pass with Conditions means such violations were found “but these were corrected during the inspection”; and a Fail means “critical or serious violations that were not correctable during the inspection.” It adds that a Fail “does not necessarily mean the establishment’s licensed is suspended.” This page counts Fails. A Pass with Conditions counts as not failing.

The city changed its food inspection procedures on July 1, 2018, and flags on the dataset that the change affects the data. To stay on one side of that line, our records start on January 1, 2019, the first full year under the current rules. The city also warns that its file may contain duplicate reports; we count each inspection ID once.

How these figures are made

1. Source. CDPH Food Inspections, published by the Chicago Department of Public Health.
2. What counts. Only canvass (routine) inspections of restaurants; re-inspections, complaint and license visits are left out. Inspectors go back to restaurants that already had a problem, so counting return visits would stack the numbers.
3. The figure. For each chain, the number of those inspections that ended in a Fail, divided by all of them. “All restaurants” is the same sum over everything in the file, chains included.
4. The range. A 95% Wilson score interval. If we could rerun the same period many times, the true rate would land inside a range built this way about 19 times in 20. Fewer inspections means a wider range.
5. The minimum. A chain needs 100 counted inspections to be charted. Below that it is listed with its count and no bar.
6. Matching names to chains. Restaurant names are matched to chains with a published table of name patterns (version 2026-09-20.3). A location recorded under two chain names, such as a combined KFC and Taco Bell, is counted for neither. If a match is wrong, write to hello@fastfoodfact.com and it will be corrected.
7. Reuse. Provided as is under the City of Chicago's Data Terms of Use, which require the notice below wherever the data is used.

The full method, including the formula for the range, is on the methodology page.

Inspection types, risk categories and result definitions: CDPH, Food Inspections dataset description. The July 2018 change and the duplicates warning are stated on the dataset’s page. We count inspections typed “Canvass” at facilities typed “Restaurant”, with a result of Pass, Pass with Conditions or Fail; visits recorded as out of business, no entry or not ready are left out.

This site provides applications using data that has been modified for use from its original source, www.cityofchicago.org, the official website of the City of Chicago. The City of Chicago makes no claims as to the content, accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of any of the data provided at this site. The data provided at this site is subject to change at any time. It is understood that the data provided at this site is being used at one’s own risk.

What this does not show

• Management quality on its own. Chains differ in what they handle. A coffee counter deals with far less raw food than a kitchen that fries chicken, so part of any gap between chains is the menu.
• Anything about one restaurant. A figure describes that chain’s locations in Chicago over this period. It is not a statement about the brand elsewhere and not a warning about the one near you.
• Every restaurant equally. Inspections are scheduled by risk and by past results, so a restaurant with problems is visited more often and appears more often in these counts. That holds for chains and for all restaurants alike.
• How Chicago compares with anywhere else. Each place counts a different event under different rules. These figures only make sense next to other figures from Chicago.

Informational only. These are public records, summarized; they are not a safety rating of any restaurant and not professional advice. Last reviewed: September 2026.