A restaurant grade is a useful signal, but it's easy to over-read. Here's an honest look at what an inspection result does and doesn't tell you.
What a grade is
An inspection is a snapshot: what an inspector observed on one specific day. A good grade means the place met the standard at that visit. It is not a guarantee about the meal you'll be served next week.
Grades don't mean the same thing everywhere
- New York City uses letter grades A/B/C, where fewer points is better (A is 0–13 points).
- Chicago reports Pass, Pass with Conditions, or Fail — not a grade.
- San Francisco publishes a 0–100 score where higher is better.
Because scoring is different in every city, Radius normalizes each city's result into a consistent format — but always shows the original official grade or score, and never invents one.
How to read a grade honestly
- Look at trend, not just the latest result — is the place improving or slipping?
- Weight repeated critical violations more than a single one.
- Check how recent the inspection was; an old inspection tells you less about today.
- Remember the absence of a problem on record isn't a guarantee of safety.
That's the whole idea behind Radius: take the official record, explain it in plain English, and be honest about its limits — never overselling a grade or hiding a bad one.