Cooked?How New York restaurant health grades work
New York restaurant health grades 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, mid, and cooked map to NYC’s real A, B, and C letter grades.
| Official result | What it means | Cooked comparison |
|---|---|---|
| A | 0–13 violation points | clean |
| B | 14–27 points | mid |
| C | 28 or more points | cooked |
| Grade Pending | No posted letter yet | shown separately |
How New York actually grades restaurants
New York City health inspectors score violations in points, and lower is better: 0–13 points earns an A, 14–27 a B, and 28 or more a C. Every restaurant is inspected at least once a year, and the letter has to be posted in the window. A restaurant that scores 14 or more on the first inspection of a cycle does not get a letter right away — it stays “Grade Pending” until a re-inspection settles it, which is why some spots here show an hourglass instead of a letter. Cooked only ever shows a letter the city actually posted; we never infer one from a score.
What the public record can tell you
NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) 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 grade 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.