How Our Scoring Works

Every scored restaurant on Eat or Beat gets a number from 0 to 100 based entirely on its official health inspection record. We don't accept payments, reviews, or any input from restaurants. The score comes from public data and math.

The minimum data requirement

We don't score a restaurant until it has at least 3 inspections on record. One inspection is a snapshot, not a track record. We'd rather say "we don't know yet" than give you a number we can't stand behind.

Restaurants with fewer than 3 inspections are labeled UNRATED. They still have pages showing every inspection detail — you can read the full record and decide for yourself. They just don't get a score or verdict until the data supports one.

What goes into the score

Inspection outcomes. Every inspection results in a Pass, Fail, or Pass with Conditions. Passes increase the score. Failures decrease it significantly. Passes with conditions fall in between.

Violation severity. Not all violations are equal. A missing posted certificate is a minor paperwork issue. Rodent activity in the kitchen is a critical food safety hazard. Critical violations carry heavier penalties.

Recency. A failure last month matters more than a failure five years ago. Recent inspections carry more weight. Older inspections still count but their influence fades.

Track record depth. A restaurant with 3 clean inspections scores differently than one with 20 consecutive clean inspections. More data means more confidence in the score.

The four categories

What we don't do

We don't rate food quality, service, ambiance, or value. We don't take money from restaurants. We don't write reviews. We translate government inspection data into something a normal person can understand in five seconds.

Inspection data reflects conditions observed at the time of each visit. A restaurant that failed an inspection may have corrected every issue the next day. We show the full history so you can see the pattern, not just one snapshot.

Where the data comes from

All inspection data is sourced from official city and county health department records published through public open data portals. Each city's data page links to its primary source so you can verify any record directly. Data is pulled and refreshed on a regular schedule — typically weekly.

Editorial independence

Eat or Beat scores are independent editorial analysis of public records. They do not represent official government ratings. The underlying inspection data comes from city health departments; the scoring methodology and verdicts are ours. When in doubt, read the full inspection history — it's all there on every restaurant page.