NY Food Inspections
Current health inspection grades for restaurants across New York State, from official public data rather than reviews.
The problem
Inspection results are public, but they're buried in health department records as lists of violation codes. Unless a restaurant is somewhere that posts letter grades, there's no quick way to tell how it did. Review sites rate the food and service, not how clean the kitchen is.
What I built
A statewide search and map built only on official inspection data.
- Search restaurants by name or location, or browse the map
- Tap a result or map pin to see its current grade
- View each restaurant's inspection history
Data source
Official health department inspection and violation records.
One interesting decision
Not every health department issues letter grades. If there's an official grade, the app shows it. If not, it calculates one from the violation records using a model based on LA County's letter-grade system, so every restaurant gets a grade on the same scale.
I didn't use New York City's system because its score is built from NYC's own violation codes and point values, which other health departments in the state don't use. Most of the statewide data is just counts of critical and non-critical violations. LA County's system is simpler and widely used. Every restaurant starts at 100 points and loses points for each violation, more for serious ones. The final score becomes a letter grade. Most New York inspection records only say how many serious and minor violations were found, which is why I use the LA County system to calculate these grades.
Calculated grades are labeled "Estimated" in search results, and each restaurant's page notes that its grade isn't an official government grade.
Screenshots
