Cooked?How Austin restaurant inspection scores work
Austin restaurant inspection scores explained in plain English: the official scale, what each result means, and how Cooked maps it to clean, mid or cooked.
The short version
Austin publishes 0–100 scores (higher is better): clean ≥ 90, mid 70–89, cooked < 70.
| Official result | What it means | Cooked comparison |
|---|---|---|
| 90–100 | Higher is better | clean |
| 70–89 | Passing but below 90 | mid |
| Below 70 | Failing score | cooked |
How Austin actually grades restaurants
Austin scores restaurants out of 100, and higher is better. Inspectors start at 100 and deduct for each violation, weighted by how likely it is to make someone sick. Under Texas rules a score below 70 is failing and brings a re-inspection. Austin Public Health publishes the scores but not the itemized violations behind them, so this page can tell you exactly how a kitchen scored and when — but not what specifically was written up. Cooked reads 90 and above as clean, 70 to 89 as mid, and below 70 as cooked.
What the public record can tell you
Austin Public Health does not publish itemized findings in this feed. Cooked can show the official result and date, but cannot honestly say which individual issues an inspector found. The dated result is useful evidence about what an inspector observed, but it is not a promise about every meal served before or after that visit. Ratings can also reach the public days or weeks after the inspection itself, so Cooked displays the authority’s inspection date rather than pretending the record arrived in real time.
Why Cooked adds a traffic light
The clean, mid and cooked labels are a comparison layer, not replacement grades. The official score remains visible everywhere. That makes it possible to compare cities without suggesting that unlike systems are identical—and keeps pending, unrated and unavailable information separate from a failing result.
Corrections and updates
Published August 8, 2026. No corrections recorded.