Florida restaurant inspections, explained

How DBPR inspects

Inspectors from DBPR's Division of Hotels and Restaurants make routine, unannounced inspections, and visit after a complaint, before a new license and on callbacks that check whether violations were fixed. At the latest visit to the places in our data, the visit types were: Routine - Food (40,556), Complaint Full (4,206), Food-Licensing Inspection (3,159) and Complaint Partial (663).

DBPR sorts violations into three kinds. High-priority violations are the ones it says could contribute directly to a foodborne illness or injury, such as cooking, cooling and hand-washing problems. Intermediate violations could lead to those risks if they aren't corrected, and basic violations are best practices. DBPR publishes the count of each kind for every visit; the Florida Eats app shows DBPR's counts from each place's latest routine inspection, never a score of ours.

DBPR's three result groups

Every visit ends in a disposition, which DBPR's records spell out (“Warning Issued”). DBPR's inspections page sorts the dispositions into three groups. Here they are, with the dispositions DBPR puts in each and how many places in our data had each one at their latest visit:

• Met Inspection Standards
  • “Inspection Completed - No Further Action” (36,713 places)
  • “Call Back - Complied” (6,914 places)
  • “Admin. Complaint Callback Complied”
  • “Emergency Order Callback Complied” (255 places)

  43,882 places at their latest visit.

• Follow-Up Inspection Required
  • “Warning Issued” (1,452 places)
  • “Call Back - Extension given, pending” (321 places)
  • “Call Back - Admin. complaint recommended” (946 places)
  • “Administrative complaint recommended” (1,946 places)
  • “Admin. Complaint Callback Not Complied”
  • “Administrative Complaint Time Extension”
  • “Emergency Order Callback Time Extension” (20 places)

  4,685 places at their latest visit.

• Facility Temporarily Closed
  • “Emergency order recommended” (7 places)
  • “Administrative determination recommended” (2 places)
  • “Emergency Order Callback Not Complied” (7 places)

  16 places at their latest visit.

A Follow-Up Inspection Required result means the inspector will come back to check that violations were corrected; the place stays open. Facility Temporarily Closed means DBPR recommended an emergency order (or found the place operating without a license); a closed place reopens after a callback inspection, which DBPR records as “Emergency Order Callback Complied.” For 1 place the latest visit ended in a disposition DBPR doesn't put in a group (“Insp. Completed - Warning Given, Pending”), so no group is shown.

DBPR also publishes a weekly report of emergency closures, with the reason in its own words (the most common in our data: “Roach activity”, “Rodent activity” and “Fly activity”) and the date the place was allowed to reopen. 763 places in our data had at least one emergency closure in the reports from December 29, 2025 to September 30, 2026. Between them they had 844 closures: 787 list a reopening within three days, and 44 list no reopening date. The Florida Eats app and the web search show each place's closures with DBPR's reason and reopening date.

One visit is a snapshot of one day, and conditions can change quickly; that's why DBPR doesn't grade restaurants. We don't list places by their results here; the web search can sort a list by DBPR's high-priority violation counts at the latest routine inspection, as recorded.

Look up a restaurant

Search for a place in the Florida Eats web app: its panel shows DBPR's result group and disposition for the latest visit, with the date, the counts from the latest routine inspection, up to eight recent visits and any emergency closures, plus the DBPR license number. For the inspector's full report, with each violation as written, search that license number in DBPR's View Food & Lodging Inspections search. DBPR's bulk files are on its public records page, and its own explanation of the results is on its inspections page.

Our data: DBPR's food service licenses, inspections since July 2023 and emergency closure reports, downloaded October 7, 2026. DBPR publishes inspections with a lag, so we use records through September 30, 2026. Places licensed by another agency, such as coffee shops and bakeries the Department of Agriculture licenses, have no DBPR results here.

Latest results by county

Places in our data with a DBPR result, by DBPR's group at the latest visit, counties A to Z. Counts, not a ranking: a county with more restaurants has more of every result.

Other guides: Cuban sandwiches & cafecito, Stone crabs, Grouper & seafood shacks, Keys classics, Oyster bars, Fish camps & smoked fish, Latin & Caribbean, Oldest restaurants, MICHELIN & James Beard.