From pizzas and burgers to fries and nachos, Americans all across the country visit fast food restaurants regularly. Although some stop in a couple of times a month, others frequent their favorite establishments weekly or even daily. 

In this study, we set out to learn which fast food chains are Americans’ favorite. To do this, we collected more than 22 million Google Reviews for nearly 27,000 restaurants across the U.S. We then analyzed reviews with 4 or more stars for mention of more than 100 keywords related to speed, accuracy, staff, and food quality. 

In addition to analyzing locations by category, we divided the number of satisfied reviews with at least one keyword mentioned by the total number of reviews to determine the percentage of reviews with positive mentions. Finally, we averaged these percentages across restaurants by city to learn where restaurants are most beloved and by chain to determine Americans’ favorites. Read on to learn more about our findings. 

Key Takeaways

• Colorado Springs, CO, is home to America’s most praised fast food.
• Smoothie King is America’s favorite fast food chain.
• McDonald’s ranks last of 43 fast food chains, with just 8% of its reviews praising the speed, accuracy, staff, or food.
• Jimmy John’s has the fastest service of any fast food chain, with 39% of positive reviews praising its speed.
• Staff is the most praised part of fast food, mentioned in 26% of positive reviews.

Where Fast Food Chains Are Most Beloved

Every town has a few fast food spots that locals swear by. It might be the drive-thru that always seems to move a little faster or the counter where the crew knows your order before you finish saying it. Even when the menu is the same from coast to coast, the experience can change from one city to the next, and reviewers tend to notice. To find where fast food leaves the best impression, we compared how often reviews in each city praised the speed, accuracy, staff, and food.

Coming in first place for the most praised fast food is Colorado Springs, CO, with an average of 16.07% of reviews including a positive mention. Friendly service did a lot of the work, as Colorado Springs ranks first in the country for staff praise and lands in the top 10 for both speed (7th) and accuracy (6th), even though its food quality ranks 43rd. Local reviewers also say a restaurant "made it right" 2x more often than the national average, which means people there notice when a mistake gets fixed.

Scottsdale, AZ, (2nd), Gilbert, AZ, (3rd), and Henderson, NV, (4th) round out the top four overall and the top four cities for staff praise among reviews. Arizona had an especially strong showing, as it's home to 6 of the top 25 cities for fast food, led by Scottsdale and Gilbert, followed by Chandler (8th), Mesa (11th), Tucson (16th), and Glendale (20th). Phoenix is the outlier in the state, ranking 49th and last among Arizona's seven cities.

Madison, WI, ranks 5th overall and ties for the fastest service in the country. Raleigh, NC, reviewers praise "seasoning" 2.7x more often than the national average, while Honolulu, HI, reviewers describe their fast food as "tender" 2.5x more often, followed by Boston (2.3x). Even lower-ranked cities have bright spots. Miami ranks 98th overall, yet its reviewers call fast food staff "attentive" 2.4x more often than the national average. Detroit (91st) reviewers describe their food as "hot" nearly 2x more often, which fits its 3rd-place finish for food quality.

No California city ranks in the top 25 for fast food, 8 California cities land in the bottom 25, and every California city ranks 70th or lower for getting orders right. When Californians do leave positive reviews, they're often about burgers, as San Francisco reviewers call fast food the "best burger" 3x more often than the national average, the biggest gap of any word in any city. America's four largest cities didn't fare much better, as Chicago, IL, (77th), Houston, TX, (80th), New York, NY, (85th), and Los Angeles, CA, (93rd) all rank in the bottom 30 for fast food.

The Fast Food Chains Americans Praise Most

Most people have a fast food chain they'll defend no matter what, whether they know their order by heart, are loyal to the sauce, or drive past three restaurants to get to the one they like. Part of the appeal of a chain is knowing what you're going to get, but some brands earn more goodwill from their customers than others.

After ranking cities, we wanted to see which chains Americans praise most, and Smoothie King claimed first place with nearly 1 in 4 of its reviews praising the speed, accuracy, staff, or food. Tropical Smoothie Cafe (21.38%) and Jersey Mike's (21.24%) follow, with Jimmy John's (19.58%) and Culver's (17.79%) rounding out the top five. Like the top cities, the top three chains won on service, as Smoothie King, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, and Jersey Mike's rank first, second, and third for staff praise, respectively.

At the other end, McDonald's ranks last of 43 fast food chains, with just 8.11% of its reviews including positive mentions across the four categories. That isn't for lack of feedback, as McDonald's drew about 4.4 million reviews. Several of the biggest names in fast food struggled, with McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, and KFC all ranking in the bottom 10.

When we looked at individual restaurants, we found that the most praised fast food restaurant in America is the Little Caesars at 5523 E Evans Rd in San Antonio, TX, where 61.99% of reviews include a positive mention. That's more than 5x the Little Caesars average, from a chain that ranks 32nd overall. The Zaxbys at 818 Dunn Ave in Jacksonville, FL, (55.07%), and the Smoothie King at 249 N Stephanie St in Henderson, NV, (53.85%), take second and third.

All three of the best In-N-Out Burger locations in America are in Colorado Springs, CO, and Jacksonville, FL, is home to the best Zaxbys, Domino's, and Cook Out locations in America. Cities near the bottom of our ranking have a few standout restaurants too. New York, NY, is home to the most praised Chick-fil-A, located at 795 Columbus Ave, New York, NY 10025, and Chicago, IL, is home to the most praised Taco Bell, located at 4437 N Broadway, Chicago, IL 60640.

Best Restaurants by Review Category

A great fast food run usually comes down to small details, like a line that keeps moving, a bag with everything you ordered, a friendly face at the window, and fries that are still hot when you get home. Each of those moments can turn an ordinary meal into a five-star review. That’s why for the final portion of our study, we broke the reviews into those four categories to see what Americans praise most when fast food gets it right.

Staff is the most praised part of fast food, mentioned in 26.25% of positive reviews, followed by speed (20.53%) and food quality (19.78%). For speed, Jimmy John's has the fastest service of any fast food chain, living up to the chain’s famous “Freaky Fast” slogan with 39.07% of positive reviews praising its speed.

This is well ahead of Cook Out (26.72%) and Chick-fil-A (26.58%) in second and third place, respectively. McDonald's ranks last overall but 4th for fast service (25.26%), while Cook Out ranks 2nd for speed but last for staff, with 13.34% praising employees. Among cities, Madison, WI, and Honolulu, HI, tie for the fastest fast food service in America, with 23.94% of positive reviews praising speed.

Accuracy earns far less attention, appearing in just 1.95% of positive reviews compared with 26.25% that praise the staff. The gap suggests that customers tend to expect a correct order rather than celebrate it, and accuracy usually gets noticed only when something goes wrong. Taco Bell is the best chain at getting orders right, with 3.92% of positive reviews praising accuracy, followed by Domino's (3.53%) and Papa John's (2.83%).

When reviewing accuracy mentions by city, we found Aurora, CO, fast food chains are the best at ensuring everything is in the bag before handing it over. This is followed by Louisville, KY, and Indianapolis, IN, in second and third place, respectively.

Smoothie King has the friendliest staff of any chain, with 44.15% of positive reviews praising employees, followed by Tropical Smoothie Cafe (38.47%) and Jersey Mike's (36.73%). By city, it is Colorado Springs, CO, who ranks first for the friendliest fast food staff in America, with 33.77% of positive reviews praising employees.

Chicken chains claim 6 of the top 7 spots for food quality, led by Church's Texas Chicken (40.95%) and Raising Cane's (40.68%). Church's ranks 33rd of 43 chains overall but first for food quality. Among cities, Memphis, TN, has the best-tasting fast food in America, with 25.62% of positive reviews praising the food, despite ranking 79th overall. Detroit (3rd) and New Orleans (4th) also rank in the top 5 for food quality, despite ranking in the bottom 30 overall.

Turn Wait Time into Game Time

While some restaurants work at a shockingly fast pace, others take a little longer to deliver our favorite meals. For most people, this wait is well worth it for a fresh batch of fries or a made-to-order burger. Whether you're inching forward in the drive-thru line, standing at the counter listening for your order number, or sitting in the parking lot waiting on a curbside pickup, those few minutes can feel a lot longer than they really are.

At SolitaireStreak we know how it feels to watch the time tick by while waiting on a freshly made meal, especially when you’re hungry. So to help pass the time, we turn to a quick game of FreeCell or Pyramid, and a hand or two is usually all it takes to get from ordering to eating. Next time you're waiting on an order at your favorite fast food chain, try your hand at a game of cards.

Methodology

In this study, we set out to find America's favorite fast food chains. To do this, we analyzed more than 22 million Google Reviews for 43 of the most popular fast food chains in 100 of the largest U.S. cities in September 2026. We only included restaurants located within each city's limits and excluded restaurants with fewer than 50 reviews. 

We then analyzed each restaurant's reviews with 4 or more stars for 113 keywords across four categories: speed, accuracy, staff, and food quality. To calculate each restaurant's percentage of positive mentions, we divided the number of 4+ star reviews mentioning at least one keyword by its total number of reviews. We then averaged these percentages across all restaurants in each city and chain to create our overall rankings. 

For the category rankings, we divided each restaurant's total keyword mentions in a category by its number of 4+ star reviews, then averaged the results by city and chain. Because a single review can mention more than one keyword, category percentages reflect total keyword mentions rather than individual reviews.

To identify each city's most uniquely popular keywords, we compared how often each keyword appeared in a city's 4+ star reviews with how often that keyword appeared nationwide. The three keywords with the largest lift above the national rate are listed for each city, and only keywords with at least 50 mentions in a city were considered so that rarely used words could not top the list.