In relation to quick meals, Chick-fil-A has a fame for excellent customer support. The rooster franchise is understood for letting patrons comprehend it’s a “pleasure” to serve them, and it’s paid off when it comes to buyer satisfaction: Chick-fil-A has topped the American Buyer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) within the quick-service restaurant class for 11 years straight—till this 12 months, when a brand new contender knocked the chain off its throne.
In its debut on the ACSI, sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s Subs ranked primary amongst quick-service eating places. It earned a rating of 84 out of 100, beating out Chick-fil-A’s rating of 83.
Jersey Mikes’ has been round since 1956, lengthy earlier than the ACSI’s founding in 1994. So why did it take one other 32 years earlier than the sandwich chain made it onto the record? Manufacturers qualify for inclusion on the ACSI by market share, and with Jersey Mike’s’ speedy progress over the previous 12 months, it lastly made the reduce: After initiating an $8 billion sale to private equity firm Blackstone, Jersey Mike’s named Charlie Morrison its new CEO in April of 2025 (making him simply the second CEO within the firm’s historical past), with the chain including 238 new areas and reaching $4.2 billion in systemwide gross sales all through 2025.
The ACSI rankings are based mostly on surveys of random People, who’re requested by way of electronic mail about their current experiences with the most important firms throughout numerous industries. The 2026 ACSI Restaurant and Meals Supply Examine, which incorporates the quick-service restaurant rating, is predicated on 16,464 of these surveys.
Profitable the meals struggle
Although Jersey Mike’s topped Chick-fil-A general, the latter nonetheless leads in satisfaction amongst quick-service rooster eating places. Different buyer favorites embrace Papa Johns for pizza with a rating of 80, Starbucks for espresso and bakeries at a rating of 79, and Burger King and Culver’s tied for first place within the burger class with 78 factors every.
The ACSI Restaurant and Meals Supply Examine additionally evaluates full-service eating places and meals supply providers. Amongst full-service eating places, there’s a three-way tie for the number-one spot between LongHorn Steakhouse, Texas Roadhouse, and “all others,” a catch-all grouping for any eating places that don’t have sufficient market share to get a person ACSI rating. All three earned a rating of 82.
Within the meals supply trade, solely three manufacturers earned spots on the ACSI: Uber Eats, Grubhub, and DoorDash, in that order from first to 3rd place. However all three manufacturers fall inside a two-point vary, with Uber Eats’ rating of 76 barely beating out Grubhub’s 75 and DoorDash’s 74.
Forrest Morgeson, an affiliate professor of marketing at Michigan State College and the director of analysis emeritus on the ACSI, said in a press release that although there’s little change within the restaurant trade’s general scores 12 months over 12 months, “there’s actual motion beneath.”
“New manufacturers are getting into our rankings and instantly competing on the high, which tells you one thing about the place shopper expectations are headed,” Morgeson stated. “Value nonetheless issues, nevertheless it’s not sufficient by itself. Consistency throughout the complete expertise is what separates the leaders proper now, and that’s displaying up clearly within the knowledge. The problem going ahead is sustaining that as prices proceed to rise and competitors intensifies from outdoors the normal restaurant house.”
Try the full 2026 ACSI Restaurant and Food Delivery Study here.
