{"id":71180,"date":"2026-06-17T21:38:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T01:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=71180"},"modified":"2026-06-17T21:38:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T01:38:46","slug":"theres-a-new-king-of-fast-food-in-the-u-s-ending-chick-fil-as-reign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/06\/17\/theres-a-new-king-of-fast-food-in-the-u-s-ending-chick-fil-as-reign\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a new king of fast food in the U.S., ending Chick-fil-A\u2019s reign"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is official\u2014Jersey Mike\u2019s Subs<\/strong> has taken the crown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the 2026 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Restaurant and Food Delivery Study, Jersey Mike’s debuted at the very top of the quick-service category with a score of 84 out of 100<\/strong>, ending Chick-fil-A\u2019s historic 11-year streak at number one.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Don’t worry, Chick-fil-A fans; the chicken giant didn’t actually drop in quality. It held onto its steady score of 83<\/strong>, remaining the undisputed king of the chicken category. Jersey Mike\u2019s simply edged past it by a single point, heavily driven by high customer marks for freshness (like slicing the meats right in front of you), menu variety, and reliable value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Top 10 Fast Food Chains (2026 ACSI Rankings)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Rank<\/th>Fast Food Chain<\/th>2026 ACSI Score (out of 100)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
1<\/strong><\/td>Jersey Mike’s<\/strong><\/td>84<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
2<\/td>Chick-fil-A<\/td>83<\/td><\/tr>
3<\/td>Jimmy John’s<\/td>81<\/td><\/tr>
4<\/td>Panda Express<\/td>81<\/td><\/tr>
5<\/td>KFC<\/td>80<\/td><\/tr>
6<\/td>Papa Johns<\/td>80<\/td><\/tr>
7<\/td>Pizza Hut<\/td>80<\/td><\/tr>
8<\/td>Domino’s<\/td>79<\/td><\/tr>
9<\/td>Raising Cane’s<\/td>79<\/td><\/tr>
10<\/td>Starbucks<\/td>79<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What’s Driving the Change?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The study highlighted that as fast-food prices have steadily risen over the last few years, consumer expectations have shifted. While finding a low price still matters, diners are increasingly prioritizing consistency, order accuracy, and the freshness of the actual experience<\/strong> over just chasing the cheapest dollar menu item.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sub chain’s victory comes right on the heels of a major expansion, having added hundreds of locations and hitting over $4 billion in systemwide sales, proving they could scale up rapidly without letting their customer service slide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is official\u2014Jersey Mike\u2019s Subs has taken the crown. According to the 2026 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Restaurant and Food Delivery Study, Jersey Mike’s debuted at the very top… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDZcLzcyNDQ3ODI5N185OTg0ODM4MjYyMTIxMTdfNTE2NzE0NTk5ODAxMzc1NzM4Ml9uLndlYnA_Zml0PTUxMiUyQzY0MCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlRoZXJlXHUyMDE5cyBhIG5ldyBraW5nIG9mIGZhc3QgZm9vZCBpbiB0aGUgVS5TLiwgZW5kaW5nIENoaWNrLWZpbC1BXHUyMDE5cyByZWlnbiIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.KrnUJ3W0dKdLiCWc3jh0dPzE9njcAczollBJz9xCPQYMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA2XC83MjQ0NzgyOTdfOTk4NDgzODI2MjEyMTE3XzUxNjcxNDU5OTgwMTM3NTczODJfbi53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiVGhlcmVcdTIwMTlzIGEgbmV3IGtpbmcgb2YgZmFzdCBmb29kIGluIHRoZSBVLlMuLCBlbmRpbmcgQ2hpY2stZmlsLUFcdTIwMTlzIHJlaWduIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.v00Uic5yQFKExwbjlVmRV58uQuoLL2fhBEVTYMTxIm0MQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[14904,14903],"class_list":["post-71180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-ending-chick-fil-as-reign","tag-theres-a-new-king-of-fast-food-in-the-u-s"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71182,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71180\/revisions\/71182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}