Fast-food chains in Seattle and King County, by county inspection records

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. 278 of its 593 routine inspections were marked Unsatisfactory, a rate of 46.9% with a likely range of 42.9% to 50.9%, 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. 930 routine inspections put it between 7.4% and 11.0%. 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 charted chains 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 (91), Papa John's (76) and Wingstop (71) are just short of the 100 we require.

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 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.”

How these figures are made

1. Source. Food Establishment Inspection Data, published by the Public Health - Seattle & King County.
2. 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.
3. 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.
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 2026-09-20.4). 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.
7. 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.

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 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.
• 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 food service establishments alike.
• How Seattle and King County compares with anywhere else. Each place counts a different event under different rules. These figures only make sense next to other figures from Seattle and King County.

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