New Study Reveals the Absolute Worst Restaurant Chain In America
Tastes can vary drastically from customer to customer, so you'd probably receive a wide range of answers if you asked diners to name the absolute worst restaurant chain in America. But according to newly released data, there's one chain restaurant that receives poorer ratings from guests than all of the others.
The coupon and discount site CouponBirds recently published a new study that pinpointed the best and worst chain restaurants in the United States. The study only considered chains with four or more locations, analyzing Google reviews for more than 160,000 individual restaurants. CouponBirds then used a weighted average to grade each chain out of five, making sure its grading "was not biased towards entities with a high volume of reviews," the study methodology noted.
According to the study, the "worst" chain restaurant in America right now is a major rival of Taco Bell's: Taco John's. This Mexican-inspired fast-food slinger received a rating of 2.61 out of five, the lowest of any considered in the analysis. Taco John's is best known for its signature Potato Olés (460 calories per small order)—crunchy potato nuggets seasoned with spices—and currently operates more than 350 restaurants across the Midwest and Northwest.
With an average rating of just 2.75, McDonald's followed closely behind Taco John's as the second worst chain restaurant in America. Bobby's Burgers (2.84), Wahlburgers locations inside Hy-Vee stores (2.85), and Popeyes (2.90) were also among the top 10 worst chain restaurants in the CouponBirds report.
As for the absolute best chain eateries in America, Chick-fil-A received the highest average rating (3.95) out of any restaurant business with more than 1,000 locations. This isn't surprising, given that Chick-fil-A consistently ranks high in or at the top of other studies on the best fast-food chains. Five Guys was a close second with a grade of 3.85, while Jersey Mike's Subs came in third place with a grade of 3.76.
The study also pinpointed the best medium (100 to 1,000 locations) and small (four to 100 locations) restaurant chains in the United States. In-N-Out Burger stole the crown in the medium-sized chain category with a score of 4.21, followed by Dave's Hot Chicken (4.11) and Chicken Salad Chick (4.09). Meanwhile, Acai Republic (4.44), Nautical Bowls (4.39), and Hawaiian Bros Island Grill (4.38) led the small restaurant chain category.
Interested customers should check out the full CouponBirds report online to see how other major chain restaurants in America stacked up to their peers.
Sign up for our newsletter!
