What Signs Must a Restaurant Post in NYC? Required Signs Checklist

Every New York City restaurant must post its letter grade card where people passing by can see it, within 5 ft of the entrance and 4 to 6 ft off the ground. Inside, the city's checklist lists the choking first aid poster, CPR kit information, the Healthy Eating Information poster, a refund policy sign, no smoking signs in every room and stairwell, wash hands signs, and the food allergy poster in the kitchen. Restaurants that sell alcohol add the pregnancy warning and the no sales to minors sign, and chains with 15 or more locations must print calorie counts on their menus.

Some signs come only from the agency, such as the grade card and your permits. Others are free downloads, and a few are marked "buy or make", which means any printer can produce them. The details below come from the city's checklist of required signs for restaurants and bars, which says it was accurate as of March 2026, and from the Health Department's required signs page, both checked October 2026.

Which signs are required in a NYC restaurant?

The checklist sorts signs by where they go: visible from outside, the customer area, throughout, the kitchen and the worker area.

The checklist also lists framed documents (certificate of occupancy, food service establishment permit, sales tax certificate), a place of assembly permit for 75 or more seats indoors or 200 or more outdoors, a bicycle delivery safety poster if you deliver by bike, and more than twenty employment posters from city, state and federal agencies for the worker area. Free Health Department signs can be ordered through 311 or picked up at the Citywide Licensing Center, 42 Broadway, 5th floor.

Where does the grade card have to be posted?

On a front window, door or outside wall where people passing by can easily see it, within five feet of the entrance and four to six feet off the ground. That is the wording of the Health Department's guide, Requirements for Posting Letter Grade Cards. If there is no direct entrance from the street, the Health Department decides where the card goes.

• Post it as soon as the inspector hands it over. If you receive both a grade card and a Grade Pending card, you may post either one until your hearing.
• Post the actual card. A photocopy or fax does not count; each card is tracked by its serial number.
• Fines in the guide: up to $1,000 for not posting the card and $200 for posting it in the wrong place, with possible loss of the permit for repeat violations.
• Lost or damaged card: report it to the Bureau of Food Safety and Community Sanitation and send a notarized Replace a Grade Card form, as set out on the letter grading page. The replacement arrives by certified mail.

Do NYC restaurants have to post calorie counts?

Only chains: the city rule covers food businesses that are part of a chain of 15 or more locations in the United States, operating under the same name with substantially the same menu. That is a lower threshold than the federal rule's 20 locations. Covered places must show calories wherever menu item names and prices appear, including menus, menu boards, drive-through windows and online menus.

• Put the calorie number next to the item name or price, with "Calories" or "Cal" beside each number or above the column.
• Use the same type size as the item name or price, and the same color or one just as prominent.
• Print "2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice, but calorie needs vary" on every page of a menu, and "Additional nutritional information available upon request" where calories are required.
• Items offered for fewer than 60 days a year are temporary and need no calorie count.
• Posters that list an item and a price count as menus if customers order from them, such as a poster at a deli counter. A poster outside that nobody orders from does not.

These points come from the city's calorie labeling FAQ, revised April 2018. The Health Department will review mock-ups of menus and menu boards if you email them, which is a sensible step before a large print run. The same chains must also place the sodium warning icon, a salt shaker in a triangle, next to items with at least 2,300 mg of sodium; see the Health Department's sodium page. For the federal rules on wine lists and drinks, read our guide to menu printing for Manhattan restaurants.

Does a restaurant need a refund policy sign in NYC?

Yes, if it sells goods to consumers. Under New York General Business Law 218-a, the refund policy has to be posted on the item, at each register, where it can be seen from the register, or at each entrance. NYC 311's refund policy page puts it simply: if a business fails to post a policy, it must refund unused, undamaged goods within 30 days of purchase.

The sign should say whether you give refunds and on what terms: cash or store credit, sale items, proof of purchase, any time limit and any restocking fee. If you set a minimum for card payments, the city's checklist says that policy must also be posted clearly near the register and the entrance. Both fit on one counter card.

Which restaurant signs can you print yourself?

Any sign the checklist marks "buy or make": refund and card policy, calorie counts on menus, wash hands signs, the no sales to minors notice and the state's benefits and hours notice. The free Health Department posters can also be printed on tougher stock than an office printer handles, as long as the content is the city's PDF as supplied.

• Counter cards for the refund and card policy, sized to sit beside the register.
• Laminated or PVC signs for wash hands and no smoking notices that get splashed and wiped.
• Menus and menu boards with calorie columns built into the layout from the start, not squeezed in later.
• Window decals for hours and contact details, laid out around the grade card zone.

Restaurant sign questions

We print menus, counter cards and restaurant signage and deliver free anywhere in Manhattan. For notices in the rest of a building, see our guide to required building signs in NYC.