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.

A Louisville restaurant can score in the 90s and still be graded C. The score and the letter measure different things: what Kentucky's rule says about each, what a C sets in motion, and how far it is from a closure.

Nearly every Raleigh restaurant holds a grade A, and most inspections still mark a foodborne illness risk factor. How North Carolina's points, half-deductions and two-part form let both be true, and what the marks on a report mean.

A green placard in Sacramento County does not mean the inspector found nothing. What each colour allows, what a yellow sets in motion, why one visit can produce two reports, and how to read a restaurant's record.

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.

What routine inspections recorded at Arby's in Florida, New York State and Louisville, each against its own local rate, and why the counts differ.

Burger King is below the local rate in 8 of 9 places and overlaps in 1. What that tally counts, what each place measures, and why it is not a score.

Chick-fil-A is below the local rate in all 4 places where it can be charted. What each place counts, why 6 are missing, and what 0 of 114 means.