California restaurant inspection reports are kept by the county or city environmental health agency that permits the restaurant; there is no statewide search and no statewide grade. Most agencies let you search reports online for free. What you see depends on the county: of the 22 programs below, 8 use green, yellow and red placards, 6 publish reports or plain-word results, 5 post letter grades, 2 post a pass seal and San Luis Obispo County uses negative points.
Official pages linked from our county guides, checked August–October 2026.
Who inspects California restaurants
The California Retail Food Code, part of the state Health and Safety Code, sets the food safety rules every county enforces. Local environmental health agencies do the inspections and decide how to post the result. A few cities run their own programs inside city limits, including Long Beach, Pasadena and Vernon in Los Angeles County and Berkeley in Alameda County, so match the street address to the right agency before you search.
California restaurant inspection lookup by county
“Free online” means the agency posts results you can view without a fee; copies of full or older reports may need a records request. “Not stated” means the official page we checked gives no update schedule.
| County or city | Where to look | Score, grade or placard | Free online | Updates | Our guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles County | Inspection Results search | Letter grade from 100 points: A 90–100, B 80–89, C 70–79 | Yes | Five years of visits online | LA County guide |
| Long Beach (city) | Restaurant Closures page | No grade or score; Inspection Summary Report posted at the door | Closures only; full report on request | Not stated | Long Beach guide |
| Riverside County | Facility Records Portal | A 90–100 is the only passing grade; B 80–89, C 79 or below | Yes | Not stated | Riverside guide |
| San Bernardino County | EHS Food Facility Inspections | Letter grade with the score on the official report | Yes | Not stated | Notes below |
| San Diego County | Food Facility Inspection Search | Score and A/B/C grade | Yes | Not stated | San Diego guide |
| Orange County | HCA inspection portal | PASS or Gold PASS seal; reinspection and closure listed separately | Yes | Not stated | Orange County guide |
| Kern County | Safe Diner and closed-facility list | A 90–100, B 80–89.99, C 75–79.99; under 75 closes | Yes | Not stated | Kern guide |
| Fresno County | Inspection document search | Report findings; monthly closure ledger | Yes | Daily posting after review; monthly ledger | Notes below |
| Sacramento County | EMD inspection search | Green Pass, yellow Conditional Pass, red Closed | Yes | Not stated | Sacramento guide |
| San Francisco | DataSF inspection scores | Green, yellow and red placards | Yes | Not stated | San Francisco guide |
| San Mateo County | Inspection report search | Green Pass, yellow Conditional Pass, red Closed | Yes | Not stated | San Mateo guide |
| Santa Clara County | SCCDineOut | Placard color plus a compliance score | Yes | Not stated | Santa Clara guide |
| Alameda County | Inspection results notice | Placard and score on each report | Online search paused; call 510-567-6700 | Portal being replaced | Alameda guide |
| Contra Costa County | Food facility inspection search | Green, yellow and red placards (white = pending) | Yes | Not stated | Contra Costa guide |
| Placer County | County portal | Green, yellow and red placards | Yes | New portal from December 1, 2025 | Placer guide |
| Yolo County | County portal | Green, yellow and red placards | Yes | Not stated | Notes below |
| Monterey County | Restaurant Inspections page | Findings by significance; no score or grade | Yes | Not stated | Notes below |
| San Joaquin County | Restaurant Inspection App | Report; older records in a public-records archive | Yes | Not stated | San Joaquin guide |
| San Luis Obispo County | County portal | Negative points from zero since May 5, 2025; older reports out of 100 | Yes | Scoring changed May 5, 2025 | Notes below |
| Humboldt County | Accela Citizen Access | Words: In Compliance, Minor or Major Violations | Yes | Not stated | Humboldt guide |
| Ventura County | Restaurant compliance search | Placard: passed last inspection; reports listed | Yes | Each business day | Ventura guide |
| UC Santa Cruz campus | UCSC EH&S Food Safety | Campus inspection reports | Request from EH&S | Quarterly inspections | Notes below |
How to compare results across California counties
The same letter or color does not mean the same thing everywhere. In Riverside County only an A passes, while in LA County a B is still a pass and a score under 70 gets a numbered card instead of a letter; Kern County closes a facility below 75. A yellow placard generally means major violations were found and had to be corrected, with a reinspection to follow. Read each result on its own county’s terms, and see how to check a restaurant’s health score and what happens after a failed inspection for the next steps.
County notes
San Bernardino County
Open the county Environmental Health Services portal and choose Food Facility Inspections, then match the facility’s address. The letter grade comes from the California Code official inspection report, which records the violations and calculates the final score, so open the dated report and any later reinspection before relying on the letter.
Fresno County
Fresno County Environmental Health has an inspection-document search and a separate monthly closure ledger on its Consumer Food Program page. The ledger records dated closure activity, not the inspection itself. Older documents depend on retention and imaging, and new ones post after review, so a missing report is not proof that no inspection happened.
Yolo County
Yolo County’s inspection portal lists each facility’s dated inspections with a Score & Grade field and a link to the original PDF. The county’s public system is green, yellow and red placards; under its June 2024 explanation, green means no more than one major violation, mitigated or corrected during the inspection. After a closure, look for a Reinstatement of Permit entry.
Monterey County
Monterey County’s Restaurant Inspections page embeds the report: pick the facility and inspection date, then read the result, comments and findings together. Reports show significance levels rather than a score or letter grade. The Gold Seal is a separate, voluntary program.
San Luis Obispo County
Use the county portal for inspections on or after May 5, 2025, and the county’s two-year results list for earlier ones. Since that date a facility starts at zero and violations give negative points; older reports used a 100-point score, so keep the two apart. A shared or commissary kitchen’s listing covers the host facility, and each dependent food business needs its own health permit.
UC Santa Cruz campus
UC Santa Cruz Environmental Health and Safety inspects campus food facilities quarterly; ask EH&S for a report, since its page does not state formats, fees or how far back records go. Restaurants off campus are inspected by Santa Cruz County Environmental Health.
Related guides
LA County restaurant inspection results by city · California food handler card · All guides by state