InspectLens
Breakfast and family

Denny's

Denny's's Florida stores average +0.25 high-priority violations per routine inspection relative to their county baseline (95% interval +0.12 to +0.39), above the county baseline. Rank 5 of 9 breakfast and family brands, counted from furthest below the baseline.

+0.25vs county baseline, 95% interval +0.12 to +0.39
1.39 vs 1.14raw high-priority violations per routine inspection vs the baseline its stores face
123stores in 34 counties, 595 routine inspections, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26

The food: where these dishes come from

Denny's is known for pancakes and bacon and eggs. The stories are about the dishes, not the brand, and live on PlateTales.

By fiscal year

0-0.03+0.37FY2016-17: 0.12 (n = 225)16-17FY2017-18: 0.15 (n = 195)17-18FY2018-19: -0.02 (n = 215)18-19FY2019-20: 0.29 (n = 235)19-20FY2020-21: -0.02 (n = 234)20-21FY2021-22: 0.17 (n = 218)21-22FY2022-23: 0.23 (n = 211)22-23FY2023-24: 0.29 (n = 217)23-24FY2024-25: 0.22 (n = 207)24-25FY2025-26: 0.25 (n = 171)25-26FY2026-27: 0.36 (n = 69) partial year26-27*

Relative to the county baseline, first visits of routine inspections. Open circle and * = fiscal year in progress (data as of 2026-11-09). Hover a point for n.

Most-cited violation codes

Citations per 100 routine inspections, Denny's vs all Florida inspections, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26 (n = 595). Descriptions are DBPR's.
CodeDBPR descriptionDenny'sFloridaRatio
36Floors properly constructed, clean, drained, coved122.239.93.06x
14Food contact surfaces designed, constructed, maintained, installed, located76.146.91.62x
22Food contact surfaces of equipment and utensils clean71.643.61.64x
23Non-food contact surfaces clean56.523.62.39x
03Food Out of Temperature54.635.01.56x

Outcomes

19.5% vs 19.6%routine inspections that needed a callback visit, vs all Florida (raw)
1.18% vs 1.01%routine inspections ending in an emergency order recommendation, vs all Florida (raw)
30%of 119 stores with 2+ inspections score below their county baseline after shrinkage toward the brand mean

Emergency closures

3 closures of Denny's stores in DBPR's weekly extracts (2025-12-29 to 2026-11-06); latest 3 shown. Reasons are DBPR's own wording.
ClosedCityCountyReason (DBPR)
2026-10-14PlantationBrowardRoach & fly activity
2026-07-21St PetersburgPinellasRoach & rodent activity
2026-05-18Coral GablesMiami-DadeFly activity

Other breakfast and family brands

Ranked breakfast and family brands, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26.
RankBrandvs county95% intervalStores
1First Watch-0.27-0.36 to -0.17143
2Cracker Barrel+0.14-0.05 to +0.3460
3Bob Evans+0.17-0.01 to +0.3738
4Waffle House+0.21+0.10 to +0.31191
5Denny's+0.25+0.12 to +0.39123
6Golden Corral+0.29-0.04 to +0.6332
7IHOP+0.31+0.15 to +0.4884
8Perkins+0.79+0.48 to +1.1130
9Keke's Breakfast Cafe+0.79+0.53 to +1.0668
Look up a single Denny's location

Denny's elsewhere

Denny's franchise costs and FDD: FranchiseLens

Store-level matching: a store counts for Denny's when its DBPR business name matches the reviewed aliases in InspectLens's brand list. Co-branded units (for example KFC with Taco Bell) are not counted for either brand.