About GOTHAM GRADES: A Guide to NYC Restaurant Inspections & Health Grades

Everything on this page is here to help you actually use the site — how the grading system works, how each part of the tool works, and a handful of real situations where it's genuinely useful.

What GOTHAM GRADES is

GOTHAM GRADES takes New York City's public restaurant health inspection data — published by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) through NYC Open Data — and turns it into a live map, a searchable directory, and a profile page for every restaurant, with its real inspection history attached. It's an independent project, not run by or affiliated with the City of New York.

How NYC's letter-grade system works

Every food-service establishment in NYC gets inspected by the Department of Health, generally at least once a year, sometimes more if issues come up. Each inspection results in a numeric score based on the violations found, and that score converts into a letter grade:

• Grade A — 0 to 13 points. The place passed with no or very minor issues.
• Grade B — 14 to 27 points. Some violations were found that need attention.
• Grade C — 28 points or more. More serious or more numerous violations.

Violations are also tagged as critical or general. Critical violations are the ones with a more direct risk to food safety (things like improper holding temperatures or pest activity); general violations are lower-risk issues (like paperwork or minor maintenance). A restaurant can have several violations noted and still land in the Grade A range if none are serious enough to push the score up.

If a restaurant doesn't pass on its first inspection, it's usually re-inspected within a short window. Until that happens, or right after a change of ownership, you may see "Grade Pending" instead of a letter — that's not a bad sign by itself, it just means the current grade hasn't been finalized yet.

Using the map

The home page map shows food places as colored pins, grouped into categories (Pizza, Cafes & Tea, Bakeries, and more) — you can turn on up to 4 categories at once to keep things readable. Move or zoom the map to load places in that area live from NYC Open Data. Tap a pin for a quick preview, or "See full profile" for the complete inspection history.

Business profiles

Every restaurant has its own page with its current grade, address, a small map, and its complete inspection history available in NYC's records (typically the last few years) — every inspection date, type, and violation, not a summarized version. You can pin a place from here, or export a shareable inspection summary card.

Pinning places

Tap "Pin" on any place — on the map, in a list, or on its profile page — to save it to your own list, viewable on the My Pins page. Pins are stored in your browser only (not on a server), so they're private to your device, and they won't survive clearing your browser's site data — export an image if you want a permanent copy.

Exporting a card

From the map, "Export a card of this area" builds a shareable image with a snapshot of the map, the category breakdown, and the list of places — you can remove specific places before downloading. From My Pins, you get the same idea without the map, since pinned places can be scattered across the whole city.

Practical use cases

Checking hygiene before you go

Already have a restaurant in mind? Use the "Look up a specific place" search on the home page, or search directly, and check its current grade and inspection history before you commit to a reservation.

Scouting a neighborhood before opening a food business

Use Browse to see what's already operating in a given neighborhood, broken down by category — a quick way to gauge how crowded (or empty) a category is in the area you're considering.

Planning a food crawl for visitors

Turn on a couple of categories on the map, explore a neighborhood, pin the spots that look good, and export the list as an image to share with whoever you're meeting up with.

Comparing neighborhoods before you move

Browse the same category (say, cafes) across two or three neighborhoods you're considering, and compare not just how many there are, but what share hold a Grade A.

Frequently asked questions

Is this an official City of New York site?

No. GOTHAM GRADES is an independent project built on top of NYC's public open data. See our About page for more.

How often is the data updated?

Every map view, search, and profile page pulls live from NYC Open Data's restaurant inspection dataset, which the city updates regularly.

Does this cover bars?

Not yet — bars and other liquor-licensed venues are regulated separately (by the New York State Liquor Authority), a different dataset than the one this site currently uses.

How far back does the inspection history go?

NYC Open Data generally retains roughly the last three years of inspection records per business — that's the complete history you'll see on a profile page, not a summarized excerpt of something longer.

What does "Grade Pending" mean?

It means the most recent inspection hasn't resulted in a finalized letter grade yet — often because a re-inspection is scheduled, or the business recently changed ownership.

Can I trust this over Google or Yelp?

The inspection data itself comes from the same official source either way. What GOTHAM GRADES adds is a more direct view of that specific data — full inspection history, grade-based browsing, and no other reviews or content mixed in.

Is my pinned list private?

Yes — it's stored only in your own browser's local storage, never sent to a server.

Data & methodology

All inspection data comes from NYC Open Data's DOHMH restaurant inspection results dataset. We don't edit, curate, or independently verify this data — if something looks wrong, it's worth checking directly with the city, and we'd also appreciate hearing about it (see the About page for contact details).