Sorry, Californians: In-N-Out dethroned as America’s favorite fast food, study says

In a stunning turn of events, the Golden State’s golden burger chain is no longer America’s favorite fast food restaurant, according to a 2019 Market Force survey.

Last year, Market Force crowned In-N-Out as America’s top overall fast food restaurant, according to Food & Wine, but now, that title belongs to Georgia-based Chick-fil-A.

More than 7,600 people ranging in age from 18 to 65 were surveyed online to find “America’s favorite quick-service restaurants,” according to a news release from Market Force. The pool of respondents represented “a cross-section of the four U.S. census regions,” the release said.

Brands were ranked based on two factors: “consumers’ satisfaction levels with their most recent visit and their likelihood to recommend the restaurant to others,” according to the release.

Restaurants were divided into different categories based on what they serve: burgers, chicken, pizza, sandwiches and so on.

The survey gave composite loyalty index scores for each restaurant, which were broken down into categories including overall cleanliness, food quality, curb appeal and atmosphere at each restaurant.

In-N-Out is still the king of burgers. Among burger chains, In-N-Out outranked chains like Steak ‘n Shake, Culver’s, Whataburger and Five Guys, with a 73 percent composite loyalty index.

That’s all well and good, but over in the chicken category, Chick-fil-A touted a 79 percent composite loyalty index. And the runner-up was Louisiana-based Raising Cane’s, with 78 percent.

Those were the highest composite loyalty index scores across the board.

In-N-Out scored 73 percent in staff friendliness, but that was about nine percentage points lower than Chick-fil-A, with a score of 82 percent.

But the burger chain scored better in terms of how much value customers felt they got for their money: 61 percent to Chick-fil-A’s 54 percent.

Are we in a classic East Coast vs. West Coast feud? Or is this just a Southern thing? We may never know the answer, but we should note that In-N-Out only has about 340 locations, primarily on the West Coast, while Chick-fil-A has more than 2,300 locations nationally.