Which States Face Most Dirty Dining Complaints

Clear Facts

• Affordable Seating analyzed 2.8 million TripAdvisor reviews from about 40,000 restaurants in 2024 for cleanliness complaints.
• The analysis focused on restaurants with 2.4 stars or lower and flagged reviews for terms like “dirty restaurant,” “hair in food,” “rats,” and “roaches.”
• New Jersey, Florida, and California ranked highest for online complaints about dirty dining conditions and pests.

Restaurant cleanliness remains a concern for Americans, according to a large-scale analysis of online reviews. Using feedback from millions of diners, researchers identified states with the most frequent complaints about unclean conditions and pests.

Data were collected from low-rated establishments, highlighting major problem areas for both locals and visitors.

The study was conducted by Affordable Seating, a Chicago-based restaurant furniture company. They examined feedback in cities nationwide by searching for specific cleanliness and pest-related terms.

“Dirty restaurant” was the most common complaint among reviewers, with states like New Jersey receiving an exceptionally high number of mentions.

New Jersey led the list by a significant margin, recording over 320,000 complaints about dirty conditions—more than eight times the average among the top ten states.

Florida came in second, with thousands of cleanliness complaints reported across tourist destinations including Miami and Orlando.

California followed, driven by the highest volume of pest-related complaints, particularly rats and roaches, among the top-ranked states.

Arizona and Texas also appeared in the top five, due to steady reports of cleanliness and pest issues throughout their large urban areas.

Louisiana, Alabama, Maryland, Nevada, and Georgia completed the top ten, each with varying degrees of complaints tied to dirty dining rooms, hair in food, and pest sightings.

The rankings were based on crowdsourced review data, not official health inspection reports.

To see the complete top-10 list and where your state ranks, review the full data analysis online.

Read the full report at Fox News

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