Cooked?How Chicago restaurant inspection results work
Chicago restaurant inspection results explained in plain English: the official scale, what each result means, and how Cooked maps it to clean, mid or cooked.
The short version
clean = Pass, mid = Pass w/ Conditions, cooked = Fail — Chicago’s official results.
| Official result | What it means | Cooked comparison |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Official pass | clean |
| Pass w/ Conditions | Open with required corrections | mid |
| Fail | Official fail | cooked |
How Chicago actually grades restaurants
Chicago does not use letter grades. Every inspection ends in one of three official results: Pass, Pass with Conditions, or Fail. Pass with Conditions means violations were found but corrected on the spot or under a deadline — the restaurant is open, with homework. A Fail means serious violations went uncorrected, and it usually brings a re-inspection within days. Chicago also flags “priority” violations, the ones most likely to actually make someone sick. Cooked reads Pass as clean, Pass with Conditions as mid, and Fail as cooked, and shows the itemized violations behind each result.
What the public record can tell you
Chicago Department of Public Health also publishes itemized findings, so Cooked can show the issues recorded on a particular inspection. 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 result 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.