Fast food chains in Seattle and King County, by county inspection records
See how often routine county inspections were marked Unsatisfactory at each fast food chain’s restaurants in Seattle and the rest of King County, next to the rate for every food service establishment in the county. Unsatisfactory is the county’s word for an inspection where a red critical violation was noted.
The short answer
Nine of the 11 chains came in under the local rate.
- 9under the local rate
- 1too close to call
- 1over the local rate
The local rate is the tall line in the chart below. Across all food service establishments in Seattle and King County, 35.6% of routine inspections received an Unsatisfactory result, meaning a red critical violation was noted.
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 9.1% and the highest is Subway at 46.4%. 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: Pizza Hut (92), Papa John's (78), Wingstop (74), KFC (72), Panera (61), Dairy Queen (58), Five Guys (51), Little Caesars (46), Jersey Mike's (42), Arby's (40), Chick-fil-A (40), Popeyes (40), Shake Shack (27), Firehouse Subs (6), Sonic (4), Raising Cane's (1).
What stands out
Unsatisfactory is a common result here. 35.6% of routine inspections in the county get it. It means a red critical violation was noted. It does not mean a closure, and it does not by itself mean a return visit: the county says an inspector only comes back when there are more than 35 red critical points.
Subway is the one chain clearly over the county rate. 286 of its 616 routine inspections were marked Unsatisfactory, a rate of 46.4% with a range of 42.5% to 50.4%, against 35.6% for all food service establishments. No other chain on this page has a range that sits wholly above the county rate. The figure describes Subway locations in King County over this period. It is not a statement about the brand elsewhere, and it says nothing about any one restaurant.
Starbucks has the most inspections and the narrowest range. 935 routine inspections put it between 7.4% and 11.1%. Part of that is the menu: red critical violations are mostly about holding, cooling and handling food, and a coffee counter does less of all three than a kitchen that assembles or cooks meals.
Domino's is level with the county. Its range includes the 35.6% rate, so we cannot say it is marked Unsatisfactory more or less often than an ordinary establishment in King County.
The county rate mixes three risk categories. King County’s file puts each establishment in a risk category from 1 to 3, and the department says the number of inspections each year depends on the type of food served and how it is prepared. The 35.6% figure is all three categories together. A chain that sits in one category is being set against a rate drawn from all of them, which is one more reason to read the bars as records and not as a verdict on management.
Most bars here are wide. 8 of the 11 chains on the chart have fewer than 200 routine inspections on file, and 7 have a range of ten points or more. Treat chains whose bars overlap as tied. Pizza Hut (92), Papa John's (78), Wingstop (74) and KFC (72) are just short of the 100 it takes to draw 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 Seattle and King County
Food businesses in Seattle and the rest of King County are inspected by Public Health - Seattle & King County. The department says that “each year, each establishment gets a certain number of unannounced routine inspections,” and that “the number of inspections made each year is based on the type of food served and how it is prepared.”
Violations are red or blue, and each carries points. Red critical violations, in the department’s words, are “food handling practices that, when not done properly, are most likely to lead to food-borne illnesses.” Blue violations “are primarily maintenance and sanitation issues that are not likely to be the cause of a food-borne illness.”
“Whenever a ‘red critical violation’ is noted, it is called an unsatisfactory inspection.” That result is what this page counts. The steps after it are set by points: the inspector “only returns for a follow-up inspection if there are more than 35 total ‘red critical’ points,” and an establishment is closed when it has “90 or more ‘red critical’ points or more than 120 total points.”
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 Seattle and King County 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 food service establishments alike.
- How Seattle and King County compares with anywhere else. Each place counts a different thing under different rules. These figures only make sense next to other figures from Seattle and King County.
How we counted
- Source. Food Establishment Inspection Data, published by the Public Health - Seattle & King County. Pulled October 2, 2026.
- What counts. Only routine inspections of establishments holding the county's General Food Services permit; return and educational inspections 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 received an Unsatisfactory result, meaning a red critical violation was noted, divided by all of them. “All food service establishments” 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. Public domain, per the license field on King County's dataset.
The full method, including the formula for the range, is on the methodology page.
The unsatisfactory, follow-up and closure rules and the inspection schedule: Public Health - Seattle & King County, About the Food Safety Program. The red and blue definitions: About the inspection reporting system. We count rows typed “Routine Inspection/Field Review” with a classification of General Food Services and a result of Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory; the county’s file starts in 2021, and we start in 2023 because the first two years hold far fewer inspections. Grocery stores, school lunch programmes, mobile units, bakeries and caterers are separate classifications and are left out, and so is a third result, “Complete”, which the county does not define and which is rare.
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 Seattle and King County." Counted from Food Establishment Inspection Data, Public Health - Seattle & King County; routine inspections January 1, 2023 to September 30, 2026, pulled October 2, 2026. https://www.fastfoodfact.com/seattle
The counts as a file: CSV or JSON. Each file covers one place and names its source.
Frequently asked questions
What does an Unsatisfactory inspection mean in King County?
Public Health - Seattle & King County says that whenever a red critical violation is noted, the inspection is called unsatisfactory. It does not mean the restaurant was closed. The county says an inspector only returns for a follow-up when there are more than 35 red critical points, and closes an establishment at 90 or more red critical points or more than 120 total points.
What is a red critical violation?
In the county's words, red critical violations are "food handling practices that, when not done properly, are most likely to lead to food-borne illnesses": controlling temperature, cooling food properly, washing hands and keeping bare hands off ready-to-eat food. Blue violations are primarily maintenance and sanitation issues that the county says are not likely to be the cause of a food-borne illness.
How often are routine inspections marked Unsatisfactory in King County?
In these records, 35.6% of 38,765 routine inspections of establishments with a General Food Services permit were marked Unsatisfactory. That is the rate every chain on this page is compared with. It is a common result, not a rare one.
Which fast food chain has the fewest Unsatisfactory inspections in Seattle?
The lowest rate on file is Starbucks: 85 of its 935 routine inspections were marked Unsatisfactory, a rate of 9.1% with a likely range of 7.4% to 11.1%. Other chains have ranges that overlap it, so this site does not number them first to last. The figure describes that chain's King County locations over this period, not any single restaurant.
The guide to these records
- What an Unsatisfactory Inspection Means in King County
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.
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