If you’ve been living in China for long enough and eat Chinese food on the regular, you have probably seen the restaurant inspection notices with the colourful smiley faces in nearly all restaurants in China. You know, the ones that look like this:
They look different from city to city, but one thing stays the same among all of them: the 3-colour smiley face rating. From Shanghai to Shenzhen, restaurants in China will hang one of these faces on their wall.
It may seem alarming when you first walk into some restaurants in China, spot one of these notices hanging from a wall, and see a big red smiley face looking scorned. But fear not, there may be no need to high-tail it out of there after all!
What do these restaurant inspection notices in China really mean?
In theory, the smiley face ratings on these notices are supposed to tell you which restaurants in China are safe to eat at as well as which restaurants you might want to avoid if you don’t fancy making frequent trips to the bathroom over the next 24 hours. The ratings are as follows:
Green smiley face
These restaurants have exceeded restaurant safety requirements and are extremely safe to eat at. So far, I have seen very few restaurants in China achieve this rating. The only places I’ve seen green smiley faces have been in fast food restaurants like, you guessed it, McDonald’s.
Yes, McDonald’s in China is one of the safest, cleanest restaurants you can dine at. That is either saying something about the quality standards of fast food chains in Asia or saying something about western fast food restaurants’ lack thereof (I’ll leave it up to debate).
Green smiley face restaurants are not guaranteed to be safe and spotless, but they have more rigorous guidelines when it comes to cleanliness and sanitation in their restaurants.
Yellow smiley face
These restaurants have passed all safety requirements (at least to the bare minimum) and are generally okay to eat at. Most of these places are more upscale, targeted towards middle-class citizens, and tend to be restaurants considered “fast-fashion”. You can find these places in malls or in major business districts in large cities where there tends to be a greater number of bigger spenders wanting something more for their buck.
These restaurants include popular Chinese casual restaurant chains like Grandma’s Home, Green Tea, or even some Chinese fast food restaurants located in more upscale districts. The interior of these restaurants are usually clean and polished, perfect for taking selfies inside as one is apt to do.
Red smiley (frowny?) face
Ahh, the dreaded RED smiley face. The bane of any restaurant owner, a red smiley hanging on the wall means that that restaurant had failed the inspection requirements.
Red smiley face places make up the vast majority of restaurants in China, as most restaurants in China are small mom and pop shops serving simple, cheap plates of nonetheless delicious food.
However, a red smiley face on the wall doesn’t mean that their kitchen is teeming with rats, cockroaches, and tapeworms. It just means that there were some items on the inspection list where they did not meet the requirements.
This rating alone should not deter you from eating at such places. In my opinion, common sense and judgement should be enough to decide whether or not to eat at a particular restaurant. If you see lots of people going in and out, and if the interior of the restaurant is fairly clean, it should be perfectly safe to eat there.
I have never had any issues after eating at one of these restaurants in China in the past four years I’ve been living here, and it’s kind of hard to avoid eating at them anyway as A) they’re everywhere, and B) you can get full on 15 kuai (less than 3 USD) worth of tasty grub! Plus, they’re great if you just want something quick to satisfy your hunger in the middle of your busy day.
Here’s a quick but important note: street stalls usually don’t have safety ratings, so remember to take extra care if you choose to eat at one. A simple trick I like to use is to look at how long the line is. If locals have formed a long line in front of a street stall and can’t wait to grab a bite, it’s probably safe to eat at. Again, common sense rules here.
Wherever you choose to eat, whether saving money at a cheap noodle joint or splurging at the fanciest Burger King in the middle of the city, just remember to use your judgement and watch out for any and all hazards, including dirty floors and wild cockroaches. Because nobody likes a cockroach in their Angry Whopper.
Happy travels!
Thank you, very useful!