How Our Scoring Works
So we don't. We built a different scoring methodology for every city we cover — one that respects how that city actually inspects. The verdict labels (EAT, YOUR CALL, BEAT) mean the same thing everywhere. The math behind them changes per city.
The four verdicts
What we always do
We never change the data. Every inspection, violation, and result traces back to an official record. Every restaurant page links directly to the city's data portal so you can verify it.
We weight recent inspections more heavily than old ones. A failure from 2019 is not the same as a failure from last month. Kitchens change hands; habits improve or decay.
We weight severe violations more heavily than minor ones. Rodent activity in the kitchen is not the same as a missing date label. Critical hazards carry real penalties. Paperwork gaps don't.
We require enough data before assigning a verdict. Restaurants with too few inspections are marked UNRATED. We'd rather say "we don't know yet" than hand you a number we can't stand behind.
How each city works
Chicago IL
Chicago inspectors hand out real failures, plus a middle ground called "Pass with Conditions" — violations serious enough to warrant follow-up, but not enough to close the door.
What we do: Separate real passes from conditional ones. Weight every inspection by recency (the decay curve favors the last 18 months). Penalize critical violations hard. A single recent failure matters. Twenty clean passes over a decade builds confidence.
Verdict thresholds: EAT at 78+, YOUR CALL 50–77, BEAT below 50.
→ Browse Chicago restaurantsNew York City NY
NYC puts letter grades (A, B, C) in windows. The catch: the city also logs "Pass with Conditions" inspections — violations cited, restaurant stayed open. A failure in spirit, not on paper. And the grade in the window is just the latest snapshot.
What we do: Look at the full track record, not just the current grade. Translate "Pass with Conditions" into what it actually is: violations cited. Weight by recency and severity.
Verdict thresholds: EAT at 82+, YOUR CALL 72–81, BEAT below 72. NYC's thresholds are calibrated to its own score distribution — applying Chicago's numbers directly would give you a fake comparison.
→ Browse NYC restaurantsDallas TX
Dallas gives every inspection a numeric score out of 100. Nearly half of all Dallas inspections fail — a city actually trying to hold restaurants accountable. Which also means a single bad day can look devastating if the latest score is all you see.
What we do: Weight the full history with recent scores counting for more, using a recency-weighted deduction formula. One bad day doesn't define a restaurant. One good day doesn't redeem one with a pattern of problems.
Verdict thresholds: EAT at 78+, YOUR CALL 50–77, BEAT below 50. Roughly 34% of scored Dallas restaurants land in EAT, 46% in YOUR CALL, 20% in BEAT.
→ Browse Dallas restaurantsSan Francisco CA
SF also uses numeric scores out of 100, but the bar for "passing" is generous and the public data goes back years. A score from 2019 tells you almost nothing about today's kitchen.
What we do: Same formula structure as Dallas — recency-weighted deduction — so the verdict reflects current state, not ancient history.
Verdict thresholds: EAT at 78+, YOUR CALL 50–77, BEAT below 50. Same thresholds as Chicago and Dallas. Applying one bar across numeric-score cities keeps the verdicts comparable.
→ Browse San Francisco restaurantsLos Angeles County CA
LA County has the most absurd grading system we cover: 96% of restaurants get an A. Read that again. A restaurant with recent critical violations and a recovered C in its history still gets an A in the window. The grade you see is not the signal you think it is.
What we do: Ignore the current grade as the primary signal. Look at grade history over the last 18 months, critical violations (4+ point deductions) in the last 12 months, and whether a C was actually recovered or the restaurant is still limping. We call this our "D+" algorithm — it's not based on a numeric score at all.
Verdict distribution: EAT for all A grades in the last 18 months AND no critical violations in the last 12. YOUR CALL for B grades, critical violations, or recovered C grades. BEAT for recent or unrecovered C. Roughly 69% EAT, 29% YOUR CALL, under 2% BEAT — still top-heavy, but it reflects what the data actually shows once you stop giving credit for the county's generosity.
→ Browse LA County restaurantsWhat we don't do
We don't rate food quality, service, ambiance, or value. We don't take money from restaurants. We don't accept review submissions. We don't edit the inspection data — we translate it and build a verdict on top of it. The raw records are on every restaurant page.
Inspection data reflects conditions at the time of each visit. A restaurant that failed may have fixed everything the next day. A restaurant that passed may have slipped last week. The pattern tells the story — not any one snapshot.
Where the data comes from
All inspection data comes directly from official city and county health department records, published through public open data portals:
- Chicago Dept. of Public Health
- NYC Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene
- City of Dallas Code Compliance
- SF Dept. of Public Health
- LA County Dept. of Public Health
Data is pulled and refreshed weekly. We keep the full inspection history — not just the latest snapshot — because the pattern is what tells you the real story.
Editorial independence
Eat or Beat verdicts are independent editorial analysis of public records, not official government ratings. The data comes from city health departments; the methodology and verdicts are ours. When in doubt, read the full inspection history. It's all there. We show our work.