About 95% of LA County restaurants get an A. That one letter covers every score from 90 to 100, so here is where restaurants really land.
The county starts every inspection at 100 and deducts points for what it finds. An A just means the place cleared 90. It says nothing about whether it cleared it by a hair or aced it.
Look at the jump. Just 16 restaurants score an 89. Then 3,863 land on exactly 90, the lowest score that still earns an A. Fit a curve to the rest of the A range and it predicts only about 593 should sit there. There are roughly 6.5× that many. Restaurants don't spread across the A, they pile up against the floor of it.
That's the whole reason Cleanplate leads with the number. A 90 and a 100 wear the same placard and are not the same restaurant.
Every number here comes from the LA County Department of Public Health inspection record. We translate the record; we don't change it. Cleanplate is not affiliated with or endorsed by the county.