You may want to know how area restaurants performed in their last Virginia Department of Health inspection. 

Restaurants in the Commonwealth are inspected between one and four times a year. There are two types of violations: Critical and non-critical. What's the difference? Critical violations, unless corrected, can contribute to "food contamination, illness or environmental degradation," according to the state health department. 

"In our experience, it is unrealistic to expect that a complex, full-service food operation can routinely avoid any violations," according to Virginia Department of Health's website.

The site continues: "Keep in mind that any inspection report is a 'snapshot' of the day and time of the inspection. On any given day, a restaurant could have fewer or more violations than noted in the report. An inspection conducted on any given day may not be representative of the overall, long-term cleanliness of an establishment."