Does Apple's Disk Utility 'Restore' function make a 'byte for byte' clone? I've used Apple's Disk Utility to 'restore' a drive with accidentally deleted files.  I need to know if this is an exact byte-for-byte clone that I can scan for deleted files on.
Yes, it is a "byte-for-byte" clone. The only exception is if the source volume is defective and contains read-errors. In that case you would be better off using a specialised copying program, such as ddrescue.