InspectLens

Zaxby's

Zaxby's's Florida stores average -0.27 high-priority violations per routine inspection relative to their county baseline (95% interval -0.39 to -0.13), below the county baseline. Rank 7 of 9 chicken brands, counted from furthest below the baseline.

-0.27vs county baseline, 95% interval -0.39 to -0.13
0.90 vs 1.17raw high-priority violations per routine inspection vs the baseline its stores face
122stores in 40 counties, 396 routine inspections, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26

The food: where these dishes come from

Zaxby's is known for chicken tenders and Buffalo wings. The stories are about the dishes, not the brand, and live on PlateTales.

By fiscal year

0-0.55FY2016-17: -0.35 (n = 96)16-17FY2017-18: -0.24 (n = 113)17-18FY2018-19: -0.32 (n = 155)18-19FY2019-20: -0.13 (n = 166)19-20FY2020-21: -0.26 (n = 141)20-21FY2021-22: -0.20 (n = 135)21-22FY2022-23: -0.36 (n = 124)22-23FY2023-24: -0.16 (n = 133)23-24FY2024-25: -0.26 (n = 136)24-25FY2025-26: -0.39 (n = 127)25-26FY2026-27: -0.55 (n = 47) 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, Zaxby's vs all Florida inspections, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26 (n = 396). Descriptions are DBPR's.
CodeDBPR descriptionZaxby'sFloridaRatio
36Floors properly constructed, clean, drained, coved51.839.91.30x
22Food contact surfaces of equipment and utensils clean44.243.61.01x
29Plumbing installed and maintained43.916.92.60x
23Non-food contact surfaces clean34.123.61.44x
03Food Out of Temperature33.335.00.95x

Outcomes

12.9% vs 19.6%routine inspections that needed a callback visit, vs all Florida (raw)
0.76% vs 1.01%routine inspections ending in an emergency order recommendation, vs all Florida (raw)
82%of 117 stores with 2+ inspections score below their county baseline after shrinkage toward the brand mean

Emergency closures

No Zaxby's store appears in DBPR's weekly closure extracts (2025-12-29 to 2026-11-06).

Other chicken brands

Ranked chicken brands, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26.
RankBrandvs county95% intervalStores
1KFC-0.71-0.77 to -0.65239
2Chick-fil-A-0.67-0.73 to -0.61262
3Wingstop-0.63-0.71 to -0.55162
4Pollo Tropical-0.52-0.61 to -0.43132
5Popeyes-0.42-0.49 to -0.34213
6Chicken Salad Chick-0.41-0.55 to -0.2438
7Zaxby's-0.27-0.39 to -0.13122
8Chicken Kitchen-0.20-0.40 to +0.0133
9PDQ+0.06-0.16 to +0.3052

Zaxby's elsewhere

Store-level matching: a store counts for Zaxby'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.