To check a restaurant health score, use the government health department or food authority that inspected that location. Search the licensed name and street address, open the dated inspection, then read the local scoring rule, cited violations, and any reinspection or closure history. A letter or number by itself is not enough.
The NYC Health search shown in this guide is one official example. Other authorities use different letters, numbers, stars, or pass/fail labels, so do not compare results unless they come from the same jurisdiction and scoring method.
Start with the authority that inspected the restaurant
The correct database is normally run by a city, county, state, or national food authority. A delivery app, map listing, review platform, or photo of a grade placard cannot replace the underlying inspection record.
- In the United States, use the FDA list of state retail-food authorities to identify the relevant program, then follow the state or local inspection link.
- For New York City, search NYC Health ABCEats and read the city’s restaurant grading explanation.
- For the United Kingdom, use the Food Standards Agency hygiene-rating search.
- In New South Wales, check the NSW Food Authority Scores on Doors guide and the participating local authority.
If the restaurant is elsewhere, search the jurisdiction name with “restaurant inspection” and confirm that the result is an official government service before entering a name or address.
Match the exact establishment before reading the result
One brand can have several branches, and the storefront name may differ from the licensed facility name. Start with the street address. If that fails, try the legal operator, a former name, or the facility number shown on a permit or earlier inspection.
- Licensed or legal facility name
- Full street address and branch location
- Facility, permit, or license number when available
- Former business name or operator if the listing recently changed
Read the record in this order
Open the authority’s explanation before interpreting the grade. For example, NYC Health says food-safety violations carry point values and that a lower score corresponds to a better letter grade. That direction cannot be assumed for another program.
- Confirm the local scale. Note whether higher or lower numbers are better, the grade thresholds, and the rules in effect on the inspection date.
- Identify the visit. Separate a routine inspection from a complaint, reinspection, preopening visit, or enforcement action.
- Read the findings. Open the cited violations and note which items the authority treated as critical, high risk, or immediately correctable.
- Check the action taken. Look for on-site correction, a required follow-up, suspension, closure, or another formal action.
- Open later visits. A reinspection, reopening entry, or repeated violation can change how the earlier grade should be understood.
Keep the date attached to every finding. A correction made during the visit is different from a later reinspection, and an old result should not be described as the restaurant’s current condition.
Why scores from different authorities cannot be compared
A score becomes meaningful only inside the program that produced it. Two authorities may count violations differently, use different grade thresholds, or publish different types of follow-up information.
| Record detail | Question to answer |
|---|---|
| Grade or score | What is the local range, and is higher or lower better? |
| Inspection type and date | Was this a routine visit, complaint, reinspection, or enforcement action? |
| Violations | What was cited, how did the authority classify it, and was it corrected? |
| Follow-up | Was there a reinspection, closure, reopening, or repeat finding? |
The Food Standards Agency search, for example, separates numerical hygiene ratings used in England, Northern Ireland, and Wales from the hygiene-status labels used in Scotland. That is why a universal conversion table would be misleading.
What a grade does not prove
A restaurant inspection grade is a dated government record, not a guarantee that the restaurant is safe today. It also does not measure food quality, taste, service, or every condition that may have changed after the inspector left.
A missing result does not prove that a restaurant was never inspected. The business may be listed under another name, fall outside the selected authority’s boundary, have moved, or appear in a separate licensing system.
If the restaurant is missing
- Search the street address without the restaurant name.
- Try the legal operator, former trading name, or facility number.
- Check whether the address sits in a different city, county, or local-authority area.
- Look for the authority’s open-data documentation or contact the food-safety program and ask which database covers the address.
Related inspection lookups
- How to find LA County restaurant inspection results
- How to locate the full restaurant inspection report
Official source pages and search fields checked July 22, 2026.