Restaurant Health Inspection Scores Explained: What a Good Score Is in Every Major City

Inspections · Scoring scales · Updated 2026-07-22

There is no national restaurant health inspection score. Every state, county, or city writes its own scale, and the scales run in opposite directions: Los Angeles County starts each inspection at 100 points and subtracts, so 90 to 100 is an A, while New York City starts at zero and adds a point value for every violation, so 0 to 13 is an A and 28 or more is a C.

That means a 92 is excellent in Los Angeles and would be catastrophic in New York. This guide gives you the decoder: the scale type, the direction, the top-mark cutoff, and the agency for all 18 jurisdictions Sterling covers, so you can read the scale before you read the number.

Why there is no national scale

The FDA Food Code is a model code, not federal law. The FDA publishes it - the 2022 edition, with its 2023 supplement, is the most recent full edition - as best-practice language that states, territories, tribes, and local agencies may adopt in whole, in part, or not at all. Enforcement is entirely state and local, and so is the scoring. Florida adopted the 2017 Food Code by rule 61C-1.001, effective November 1, 2019, and its rule still incorporates that 2017 edition. Los Angeles County grades under County Ordinance 97-0071, and each incorporated city had to adopt the ordinance separately; the adoption dates run from 1998 into the mid-2000s, and a few cities never adopted it at all.

The result is five genuinely different publication styles across the country: letter grades from a 0-100 deduction score, letter grades from an inverted point count, a multi-band rating averaged over several visits, a placard color, and a plain narrative report with no public number at all. Only the first two look like anything a diner would call a "score."

Scoring scale decoder: 18 jurisdictions

Note the collision. New York City counts upward, so a 19 there is a B. Los Angeles County, San Diego County, and Austin all count downward from 100, so a 19 there would be a closure-grade disaster of a different kind. Seattle-King County publishes neither number: for a risk-category-3 establishment such as a full-service restaurant it averages violation points across the last four routine inspections and prints one of four words on the window. Boulder County, Montgomery County and several others publish no number at all, only a per-item compliance report.

The same restaurant, two scales

Say an inspector finds three problems: an employee skipping a hand wash, a walk-in holding cold food a few degrees warm, and a missing sanitizer test kit. In Los Angeles County the inspection opens at 100 points and the inspector deducts the assigned value of each item. Deduct 4, then 2, then 2, and the card reads 92 points, grade A. In New York City the same inspection opens at zero and each violation adds points based on the violation and how widespread it is. Add 7, then 5, then 2, and the card reads 14 points, grade B - one single point past the 13-point A ceiling. Same restaurant, same night, and the two numbers move in opposite directions.

One 0-100 score across all 18 jurisdictions. Sterling computes a deterministic 0-100 score from the same public inspection records each health department publishes, then sorts every restaurant into five plain-English tiers: Exceptional, Strong, Fair, Concerning, Poor. A Chicago pass and a New York 11-point A finally land on the same ruler. Tap any rating to see the inspection it came from. Download Sterling: Dine with Confidence on the App Store.

Reading a score you cannot place

• Find the direction first. If the report shows a starting value of 100 with deductions, higher is better. If it shows points accruing from zero, lower is better. Every official report states which.
• Check whether the number is one visit or several. Seattle-King County averages the last four routine inspections for higher-risk restaurants, so a single bad night barely moves the sign, and a clean last visit does not erase a bad year.
• Read the violation types, not just the total. A 92 built from one temperature-control failure is a different risk from a 92 built from four cosmetic findings. See critical vs non-critical violations.
• Do not compare across city lines. A Chicago "Pass" and a Boston "Pass" carry no numeric information at all, and a Florida "Met Inspection Standards" is a disposition, not a grade.
• Check the date. A grade card can legally stay up until the next routine inspection, which in Los Angeles County and elsewhere can be many months later.

How Sterling normalizes all of it

Sterling reads the public inspection records published by each of these 18 health departments and refreshes them weekly, then computes one deterministic 0-100 score per restaurant from the recency, severity, and frequency of violations - never opinions, never stars. Every score is traceable: tap a rating and you see the source inspection. The five tiers mean the same thing in Wilmington as they do in Los Angeles, and the Sterling Standard mark is stricter still, earned only by restaurants scoring 95 or above with three or more recent inspections and zero critical violations in the last twelve months. About 16% qualify. Start with how to look up a restaurant's inspection if you would rather go straight to the source.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good restaurant health inspection score?

It depends entirely on the scale. On a 0-100 deduction scale like Los Angeles County, San Diego County, or Austin, 90 and above is the A band. On an inverted scale like New York City, 0 to 13 points is an A and anything at 28 or above is a C. Always confirm which direction the jurisdiction counts before judging the number.

Is there a national restaurant inspection grading system in the US?

No. The FDA publishes the Food Code as a model for states and localities to adopt, but it is not federal law and it does not prescribe a grading scale. Each state, county, or city sets its own, which is why letter grades exist in Los Angeles and New York but not in Chicago, Boston, or Minneapolis.

Why does New York City score restaurants differently from Los Angeles?

New York City starts every inspection at zero and adds points for each violation, so a low number is good. Los Angeles County starts at 100 and deducts, so a high number is good. Both produce A, B, and C cards, but the underlying arithmetic runs in opposite directions.

What does it mean if a restaurant has no letter grade posted?

In Los Angeles County it usually means the facility scored below 70 and was issued a numeric score card instead of a grade card. In New York City a Grade Pending card means the restaurant is contesting a B or C at the health tribunal. In cities like Chicago, Boston, and Columbus there is no letter grade to post in the first place.

Keep reading

• How to Look Up a Restaurant's Health Inspection Before You Eat There
• NYC Restaurant Letter Grades: What A, B, C, and Grade Pending Actually Mean
• Critical vs Non-Critical Violations: Which Health Code Failures Actually Matter