Fast food chains in New York City, by city inspection records
See how often each fast food chain’s New York City restaurants scored too many points for an A on a first, unannounced inspection, next to the rate for every restaurant in the city.
The short answer
10 of the 11 chains came in under the local rate.
- 10under the local rate
- 1too close to call
- 0over the local rate
The local rate is the tall line in the chart below. Across all restaurants in New York City, 40.2% of routine inspections scored 14 or more points, so did not earn an A on the first visit.
Chain by chain
Each bar is the range a chain’s real rate probably falls in: the fewer inspections, the wider the bar. The short tick is the rate we measured. Bars that overlap are too close to call, so rows run from the lowest measured rate to the highest for reading only.
- Under the local rate
- Too close to call
- Over the local rate
Why the chains are not numbered first to last. The lowest rate on file is Starbucks at 10.2% and the highest is Papa John's at 39.1%. Those two really are apart: their ranges do not touch. But only 2 of the 11 chains can be told apart from the chain in the middle of the list. The rest are too close to it to call.
16 more chains with too few inspections to chart
A chain needs 100 routine inspections on file here before it gets a bar. These have fewer: Shake Shack (86), KFC (82), White Castle (66), Panera (54), Chick-fil-A (52), Little Caesars (52), Wingstop (51), Checkers (44), Five Guys (44), Pizza Hut (41), Panda Express (38), Jersey Mike's (18), Raising Cane's (8), Arby's (5), Sonic (5), Jimmy John's (2).
What stands out
Four in ten first inspections miss an A, citywide. 40.2% of initial inspections in the city’s file scored 14 points or more. The letter in a restaurant’s window is a different measure: for those restaurants it is settled at a second visit, after they have had the chance to fix what was found. This page is about the first visit, when nobody knew the inspector was coming.
The lowest group cannot be put in order. Starbucks (10.2%), Taco Bell (12.3%), Chipotle (14.4%) and McDonald's (14.9%) have the four lowest rates. Every one of their ranges overlaps every other, so the records do not support calling any of them lowest. Taco Bell’s range is the widest of the four, 8.3% to 17.8%, because it has the fewest inspections: 187.
Starbucks is the clearest case of the menu showing up in the numbers. A counter that mostly pours drinks and reheats pastry has fewer ways to lose points than a kitchen handling raw chicken. Its low figure is real, and it is not evidence that its stores are better run than a fried-chicken chain’s.
Dunkin' is the chain we can measure best. With 1,742 initial inspections, more than any other chain here, its range is only 16.1% to 19.7%. When a chain has that many restaurants, its figure says more about the chain’s system and less about a handful of operators.
Papa John's is level with the city. At 39.1% against 40.2% for all restaurants, with a range of 31.2% to 47.6%, we cannot tell it apart from an ordinary New York restaurant. That is a statement about 133 inspections at its franchised locations here, and nothing wider.
Many national chains are too small here to chart. Several chains that are everywhere in other states have only a few dozen restaurants in the five boroughs, so 16 chains on our list fall under the minimum and appear without a bar.
Written September 2026. The figures in it are read from the current records, so they move when the records do.
How inspections work in New York City
The city’s Health Department inspects every restaurant on a cycle. Each violation carries points, and the points add up to a score: lower is better. A restaurant that scores 0 to 13 on its initial inspection earns an A and is next inspected in 11 to 13 months.
A restaurant that scores 14 or more is not graded on the spot. It is reinspected at least seven days later, and the reinspection score sets the grade: A for 0 to 13, B for 14 to 27, C for 28 or more. Its next cycle also starts sooner, in three to seven months depending on the score. So a restaurant with a poor first inspection is visited more often, and shows up more often in any count of inspections, this one included.
Two limits come from the city’s file itself. It holds only restaurants that are still in business on the day it is published, so places that closed are gone from it, along with their inspections. And it keeps roughly three years of history per restaurant, which is why 2023 is thinner than the years after it.
What this can’t tell you
- Who runs the better kitchen. Chains handle different food. 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 sums up that chain’s locations in New York City over this period. It is not a statement about the brand elsewhere and not a warning about the one near you.
- Whether every restaurant got equal attention. Inspections are scheduled by risk and by past results, so a restaurant with problems is visited more often and shows up more often in these counts. That holds for chains and for all restaurants alike.
- How New York City compares with anywhere else. Each place counts a different thing under different rules. These figures only make sense next to other figures from New York City.
How we counted
- Source. DOHMH New York City Restaurant Inspection Results, published by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Pulled October 2, 2026.
- What counts. Only initial cycle inspections; re-inspections, complaint and pre-permit visits are left out. Inspectors go back to restaurants that already had a problem, so counting return visits would stack the numbers.
- The figure. For each chain, the number of those inspections that scored 14 or more points, so did not earn an A on the first visit, divided by all of them. “All restaurants” is the same sum over everything in the file, chains included.
- 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.
- The minimum. A chain needs 100 counted inspections to be charted. Below that it is listed with its count and no bar.
- Matching names to chains. Restaurant names are matched to chains with a published table of name patterns (version 2026-09-20.4). 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.
- Reuse. New York City's Open Data Law (Administrative Code section 23-502) makes public data sets available without restrictions on their use, and lets the city require a reuser to name the source and version and describe any modifications, which this site does.
The full method, including the formula for the range, is on the methodology page.
Scoring, grades and the inspection cycle: NYC Health, Inspection Cycle and Letter Grading and How We Score and Grade. What the file includes and leaves out: the dataset’s own description on NYC Open Data. We count inspections typed “Cycle Inspection / Initial Inspection” and group the file’s violation rows into one record per restaurant per date before counting.
Informational only. These are public records, summarized; they are not a safety rating of any restaurant and not professional advice. Last reviewed: September 2026.
Quote or download these figures
You may quote any figure on this page. Please credit FastFoodFact with a link, keep the count and the range with the rate, and don’t set a figure from one place against a figure from another: each place counts a different thing.
FastFoodFact, "Fast food chains in New York City." Counted from DOHMH New York City Restaurant Inspection Results, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; routine inspections January 1, 2023 to September 30, 2026, pulled October 2, 2026. https://www.fastfoodfact.com/nyc
The counts as a file: CSV or JSON. Each file covers one place and names its source.
Frequently asked questions
How does New York City score a restaurant inspection?
Inspectors assign points for each violation, so a lower score is better. A restaurant that scores 0 to 13 points on its initial inspection earns an A. One that scores 14 or more is not graded yet: it is inspected again at least seven days later, and that reinspection decides whether it posts an A, a B (14 to 27 points) or a C (28 or more).
What does this page count?
The share of initial inspections that scored 14 or more points, meaning the restaurant did not earn an A on the first visit. Across all New York City restaurants in the file that share is 40.2% of 44,638 initial inspections. Reinspections are left out, because they only happen at restaurants that already scored 14 or more.
Does a chain's figure match the grades in its windows?
No, and it should not. A restaurant that scores 14 or more on the first visit is inspected again before any grade is posted, after it has had the chance to fix what was found. The letter in the window comes from that process. This page measures what the inspector found on the unannounced first visit, which is a different thing.
Which fast food chain does best on New York City inspections?
The lowest rate on file is Starbucks: 10.2% of its 738 initial inspections scored 14 or more points, with a likely range of 8.2% to 12.6%. The chains just above it have overlapping ranges, so this site does not number them first to last. The figure describes that chain's New York City locations over this period, not any single restaurant.
The guide to these records
- Why an A in the Window Is Not an A on the First Visit
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.
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