After surveying 36,700 people who made 98,000 visits to 53 fast-food chains, the Consumer Reports magazine has found that small(er) brands outperform industry giants in pretty much everything.
In terms of food quality, Burger King, KFC, McDonald’s and Taco Bell are the worst. Only 11% of their customers rated the food as excellent while 19% thought the food was fair, poor or very poor. By contrast, chains with high food scores (such as In-N-Out Burger) had as many as 54% of their patrons judge the food as excellent.
When it comes to bang for the buck, KFC, an industry giant, is at the bottom of the list again. I’m not sure what the numbers are for their particular case, but overall only 19% of all the people surveyed were happy with the value they got for their money. In-N-Out Burger, Papa Murphy’s and Cici’s Pizza scored highest for the value they offered.
And since it’s called fast food, you expect to get it fast, right? Not if you’re getting it from KFC. Their customers have rated them as one of the slowest places to get food from, along with Popeyes and Pizza Hut.
If you’re out looking splurge on calories and want the experience to be worth the increase in waist size, these chains were rated the best:
- For burgers: In-N-Out Burger, Burgerville, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Culver’s, Back Yard Burgers.
- For Mexican food: Chipotle, Rubio’s Fresh, Qdoba, Baja Fresh.
- For chicken: Chick-fil-A.
- For sandwiches: Jason’s Deli, Firehouse Subs, Jersey Mike’s Sub, Potbelly Sandwich Shop, Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches, Schlotzsky’s.
- For pizza: Papa Murphy’s Take ‘N’ Bake Pizza.
