Published 22 May 2023

Top Seven Restaurant Inspection Apps of 2023

restaurant staff performing restaurant inspection with an app

What is a Restaurant Inspection App?

A restaurant inspection app is a digital tool for mobile devices and web-based devices used by restaurant managers to ensure that their restaurant’s food protection, safety, hygiene, and quality are up to standard. It is also used to determine if the restaurant’s cleanliness and aesthetics comply with legal and organizational standards.

Benefits of Using a Restaurant Inspection App

A restaurant inspection app is a software that helps restaurant managers ensure food safety, hygiene, and restaurant cleanliness through scheduled and routine checkups.

Regardless of size or scale, restaurants can benefit from using a restaurant inspection app. Due to the dynamic nature of running a restaurant, managers and workers need something portable to assist them when performing routine tasks such as equipment handling, proper site cleaning, and even simple ones like hand washing and wearing appropriate attire. A good restaurant mobile app can provide this much-needed support.

A restaurant app can help with the following:

Ensuring Food Safety and Quality

A restaurant inspection app must help, first and foremost, with ensuring food safety and quality, as well as preventing food-borne illnesses in the foodservice industry. The best way this can be done is with checklists. Having a restaurant inspection app with numerous templates and checklists designed to help restaurant managers and staff better ensure that food, drink, and other items are safe from contamination and up to quality standards. It is also ideal if users have the option to create and customize their own templates to fit their needs and preferences and even perform inspections offline.

Some most common uses for restaurant inspection checklists are as follows:

Analyzing Data Through Analytics

After completing an inspection, the data should be uploaded to the cloud. By having these completed checklists online, anyone in an organization can view the data collated, giving them a comprehensive report of their restaurant’s performance and telling them where they’re excelling and what needs fixing.

Enforcing SOPs and Ensuring They are Followed

Every successful restaurant adheres to effective standard operating procedures. It would be best if the restaurant inspection app offers customizable SOP templates so that managers can modify them according to their restaurant’s policy. They should also be able to use the app to schedule routine checks and inspections for their personnel through the restaurant inspection app. 

Through this, staff will be notified when inspections and checks are assigned to them, and restaurant managers will be alerted when scheduled inspections are missed. This feature helps encourage compliance with SOPs such as cleaning, restaurant opening, food preparation, and other aspects of the operation to ensure that you maximize your restaurant’s potential. 

Try the following restaurant management and operation SOP checklists:

Ensuring Legal Compliance

The government can impose severe fines on, if not outright close, restaurants that don’t comply with food service codes and regulations. 

Restaurant managers have to comply with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations to ensure that employees are working in a safe environment. Meanwhile, the entire staff must comply with FDA requirements during health and safety inspections to make sure that the food served is safe, clean, and uncontaminated.

Performing regular inspections with a restaurant inspection app helps ensure that a restaurant consistently complies with legal requirements to avoid fines and closure.

Try the following OSHA and FDA self-inspection checklists:

Ensuring Cleanliness, Acceptable Conditions, and Aesthetics

Restaurant management doesn’t end with ensuring adherence to food safety and cleanliness standards. The cleanliness of a facility, including its structural and aesthetic condition, is paramount to providing a complete and pleasant dining experience for customers. 

Try the following restaurant cleanliness and condition assessments:

Top Restaurant Inspection Apps Overview

Here is a comparison table of the seven best restaurant inspection apps out there today: 

Restaurant Inspection App

Best For

Free Version Available? 

Pricing

SafetyCulture

All kinds of restaurants and their staff

Yes, for teams with ten members or less

Starts at $19 per month with a 30-day trial

GoSpotCheck

Spot-checking specific aspects of a restaurant

No

Dependent on the organization’s needs

HDScores

Consumers conscious of the health ratings of food establishments

No

$1.99 per month, or $11.99 per year 

Leafe

Maintaining good hygiene standards

Yes, for the first 7 days

 £31 per venue per month

FoodCode-Pro

Staying compliant with FDA regulations

No

Dependent on the organization’s needs

Silverware

Large-scale restaurants, bars, and in-hotel food establishments

No

Starts at $69 per license per month

EdApp by SafetyCulture

Educating staff for restaurant inspections and other tasks 

Yes, but with limitations 

Starts at $2.95 per user per month

roselin manawis safetyculture content specialist

SafetyCulture Content Specialist

Roselin Manawis

Roselin Manawis is a content writer and researcher for SafetyCulture. She has experience in news writing and content marketing across different fields of discipline. Her background in Communication Arts enables her to leverage multimedia and improve the quality of her work. She also contributed as a research assistant for an international study and as a co-author for two books in 2020. With her informative articles, she aims to ignite digital transformation in workplaces around the world.

Roselin Manawis is a content writer and researcher for SafetyCulture. She has experience in news writing and content marketing across different fields of discipline. Her background in Communication Arts enables her to leverage multimedia and improve the quality of her work. She also contributed as a research assistant for an international study and as a co-author for two books in 2020. With her informative articles, she aims to ignite digital transformation in workplaces around the world.