Chick-fil-A Is No Longer America’s Best Fast-Food Restaurant—Here’s the New Winner for 2026
Move over Chick-fil-A! There is a new top-ranked fast-food champion. Every year, a study strives to rank fast-food restaurants on a variety of factors, ranging from customer satisfaction to food freshness. And there was a serious upset this year. According to the ACSI® Restaurant and Food Delivery Study 2026, a sandwich brand has dethroned the chicken joint for the first time ever.
Jersey Mike’s is the Highest Rated Fast Food Chain
According to this year’s ACSI study, Jersey Mike’s is now America’s highest-rated fast-food chain. It ended up with a score of 84, edging out Chick-fil-A at 83. According to ACSI, Jersey Mike’s is the first new QSR leader in more than a decade.
Chick-fil-A’s Score Remains the Same As Last Year
Technically, Chick-fil-A didn’t actually get worse; Jersey Mike’s just improved enough to beat it. Its satisfaction score remained unchanged at 83, which won it the top slot last year. Jersey Mike’s simply entered the rankings one point higher.
How Jersey Mike’s Dethroned Chick-fil-A
Why did Jersey Mike’s score so high? According to the ACSI, the New Jersey-based sub chain was recognized for “freshness, food variety, and value.” Its small menu, high customer demand, rapid expansion, high digital-pickup usage, efficiency, and an effective franchise model all contributed to its high score.
It Also Led the New Sandwich Chain Category
Jersey Mike’s also topped the new sandwich-chain category, scoring 84. It was followed by Jimmy John’s at 81, Subway at 79, and Arby’s at 77. According to the ACSI, Jersey Mike’s and Jimmy John’s didn’t perform particularly well on food quality and order accuracy.
Chick-fil-A Still Reigns the Chicken Category
Chick-fil-A is still the king of chicken. Its 83 was followed by KFC with a score of 80, Raising Cane’s 79, Wingstop 77, and Popeyes 73. KFC had one of the biggest score jumps, up 4% from 77 to 80, which is primarily due to efforts to refresh its brand and restaurants.
Sonic Jumped Up the Most
Sonic made the biggest percentage jump, rising 5% from 73 to 77. Sonic’s score improvement was helped by getting ahead of the “dirty soda” trend. Other improvements included Subway jumping 4% to 79, and Wendy’s and McDonald’s each improving 3%.
McDonald’s Is Dead Last
Similar to last year, McDonald’s is still dead last. Despite improving 3% from 70 to 72, the burger chain is the lowest-rated of the 28 individually named QSR brands in the study. Dairy Queen is also at 72, but unlike McDonald’s, it didn’t improve. Popeyes, at 73, fell 3% in the last year.