To check a restaurant near you, find the health department that inspects that street address, then search its official inspection portal by the restaurant’s name and address. Usually that’s the county; in some places it’s the city or the state. Type your city, county or state into the search box on our home page to jump straight to that area’s guide, which links the official portal and explains its score.
Find a restaurant inspection near you in five steps
- Get the restaurant’s full street address, including suite or unit, from its own website or receipt.
- Find who inspects that address. Start with the county name, then check whether the city runs its own health department.
- Open that department’s official search, linked in our guides by city, and search by name first, then by address.
- Confirm the match with the address and the establishment’s ID number before you read anything. Chains and food halls have many look-alike entries.
- Open the newest dated inspection and read its score, grade or placard on that area’s own scale.
When a city name in the address points to the wrong health department
Mailing addresses follow post offices, and health departments follow city and county lines. A few examples from our guides:
- In Los Angeles County, the county inspects most restaurants, while Long Beach, Pasadena and Vernon run their own health departments (LA County guide).
- A Houston address can belong to the City of Houston or to Harris County Public Health, which runs a separate portal.
- A Dallas mailing address may sit in a neighboring city with its own inspectors (Dallas guide).
- In parts of Texas inspected by the state, DSHS has no public search page; reports come through a public information request (Texas DSHS guide).
Read the score on that area’s scale
The same number means different things in different places. In New York City, 12 points is an A because lower is better; in Los Angeles County, 92 out of 100 is an A because higher is better. Some areas post a color placard, and others publish only a list of violations. Our inspection score reader covers 22 programs: pick yours, enter the score or grade, and it tells you which band it falls in and what the health department does next.
If the restaurant near you doesn’t show up
- Search the street number and street name only, then the name without “the”, punctuation or the branch name.
- Check whether the place opened recently or changed owners; a new permit can start a new record.
- Look for a closure or suspension list, which many areas keep separately (how to check closures).
- Call or email the health department and ask for the latest report by address.
More search tips are in searching inspections by address, and the health score guide compares the scales side by side.