Guides

Chicago inspectors record a Pass, a Pass with Conditions, or a Fail. What separates them, how often a restaurant is visited, what happens after a Fail, and why the city warns against reading its data across July 2018.

New York City grades restaurants, but not on every inspection. How the points work, why a restaurant gets two chances at an A each cycle, and what that means for reading the city's inspection file.

Florida inspectors sort every finding into high priority, intermediate or basic. What separates them, how often a restaurant is visited, and why most of the state's restaurants record a high-priority violation on a routine inspection.

The state's inspection file marks each violation red or blue. What the red ones cover, which counties are missing from the file, and why the Health Department says plainly that this data is not a grading system.

Clark County inspectors assess demerits, and the total sets the grade card: A, B, C or closure. What earns five demerits, what the imminent health hazards are, and how that maps onto the figures here.

One red critical violation makes a King County inspection Unsatisfactory, however small. What red covers, the point thresholds that actually trigger a return visit or a closure, and why the label is common.

Every Austin inspection carries a number out of 100, sorted into three colour categories. What the city does and does not publish about how that number is reached, and what the state rules say instead.

Two chains can only be compared inside one place, and only when their ranges do not touch. Why there is no combined score here, what an overlap means, and how to read a comparison that comes out tied.