Before you book
Las Vegas restaurant grade cards, explained
How the Southern Nevada Health District grades Las Vegas restaurants: demerit ranges for A, B and C, when a kitchen gets closed, and how to look one up.
Updated Oct 22, 2026 · 4 sources
Walk into almost any restaurant in Las Vegas and you’ll see a letter card near the door. That card comes from the Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD), which inspects food establishments across the valley. Here’s how to read it, and how to check a place before you book a table.
How the grade is set
SNHD inspectors show up unannounced at least once a year. How often a kitchen gets visited depends on its compliance history and its permit’s risk category, which runs from 1 (lowest risk) to 4 (highest) based on how complex the cooking is and who the restaurant serves. Violations add demerits, and the demerits decide the card:
| Card | What it means (SNHD) |
|---|---|
| A | 0 to 10 demerits on the last inspection |
| B | 11 to 20 demerits, or identical consecutive critical or major violations |
| C | 21 to 40 demerits, identical consecutive critical or major violations, or more than 10 demerits on a B re-inspection |
| Closed | 41 or more demerits, an imminent health hazard, or a failed C re-inspection |
What happens after a downgrade
A restaurant downgraded to a B or C has to be re-inspected. Fees are due within 10 business days of the downgrade, and the re-inspection happens after 15 business days unless the operator asks (and pays) for one sooner. Failing it can mean another downgrade, a closure, or both.
A closed restaurant stays closed until the health district approves it to reopen. The operator has to fix every major and critical violation, pay the closure fee and pass a full inspection with 10 demerits or fewer and no identical repeat critical or major violations.
Look one up yourself
SNHD posts inspections online, usually about 5 business days after the visit. Records go back to 2005 and also cover bars, snack bars, markets and permanent outdoor barbecues. You can search by establishment type, name, hotel, grade, address, city or ZIP in the Restaurant Inspection Search. The health district notes some records can take up to 60 days to appear during a systems upgrade.
Read the history, not just the latest card. SNHD itself says one inspection is a “snapshot” of a single day: violations may have been fixed since, or new ones may have appeared.
How we use it
Every Meat.Vegas review records the grade card we saw on the day we ate and the date of the most recent inspection on the SNHD site when we published. If a reviewed restaurant is later closed by the health district, we add a dated note to the review.