A, B, C or pass/fail: how US cities grade restaurants
Why the same kitchen could earn an A in one city, a 94 in another, and a green placard in a third.
There is no national restaurant grade in the United States. Food-service inspection is delegated to roughly 3,000 state, county, and city health authorities, and each picks its own way of summarizing an inspection. The same kitchen, on the same day, could earn an “A” in New York City, a “94” in Nashville, a green placard in San José, and a plain “Pass” in Boston.
The four big families
Letter grades (A/B/C) — used by New York City, Los Angeles County, South Carolina statewide, and Las Vegas, among others. Points are deducted per violation and the total maps to a letter. Highly legible to diners, which is why grade-card-in-the-window laws exist in these places.
Numeric scores (0–100) — used across Tennessee, North Carolina, much of Texas, Oregon, and more. Usually higher-is-better with deductions per violation; some Texas cities invert this and count demerits, where 0 is perfect. The passing line is commonly around 70.
Placard systems (green/yellow/red, or pass/conditional/closed) — used in San Francisco, San José, Sacramento, Marin, and Pittsburgh. The card in the window tells you the current standing at a glance; “conditional” means violations must be fixed before the next visit.
Pass/fail results — used in Chicago, Boston, Detroit, and Montgomery County MD. The report carries the detail; the summary is binary (sometimes with a “pass with conditions” tier in between).
How CleanPlate compares across systems
CleanPlate normalizes every system into one honest scale — A/B/C where letters exist, PASS/CONDITIONAL/FAIL where they don't — while always showing the original score or result alongside. Where a jurisdiction publishes no summary at all, we derive a status from the violation record itself and label it as derived, never presenting it as an official grade. The one thing we never do is invent a letter grade a health department didn't issue.