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When it comes to fast food, Chick-fil-A has a reputation for outstanding customer service. The chicken franchise is known for letting patrons know it’s a \u201cpleasure\u201d to serve them, and it’s paid off in terms of customer satisfaction: Chick-fil-A has topped the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) in the quick-service restaurant category for 11 years straight\u2014until this year, when a new contender knocked the chain off its throne.<\/p>\n
In its debut on the ACSI, sandwich chain Jersey Mike\u2019s Subs ranked number one among quick-service restaurants. It earned a score of 84 out of 100, beating out Chick-fil-A\u2019s score of 83.<\/p>\n
Jersey Mike’s has been around since 1956, long before the ACSI\u2019s founding in 1994. So why did it take another 32 years before the sandwich chain made it onto the list?<\/p>\n
Brands qualify for inclusion on the ACSI by market share, and with Jersey Mike\u2019s\u2019 rapid growth over the past year, it finally made the cut: After initiating an $8 billion sale to private equity firm Blackstone, Jersey Mike\u2019s named Charlie Morrison its new CEO in April of 2025 (making him just the second CEO in the company\u2019s history), with the chain adding 238 new locations and reaching $4.2 billion in systemwide sales throughout 2025.<\/p>\n
The ACSI rankings are based on surveys of random Americans, who are asked via email about their recent experiences with the largest companies across various industries. The 2026 ACSI Restaurant and Food Delivery Study, which includes the quick-service restaurant ranking, is based on 16,464 of those surveys.<\/p>\n
Though Jersey Mike\u2019s topped Chick-fil-A overall, the latter still leads in satisfaction among quick-service chicken restaurants. Other customer favorites include Papa Johns for pizza with a score of 80, Starbucks for coffee and bakeries at a score of 79, and Burger King and Culver\u2019s tied for first place in the burger category with 78 points each.<\/p>\n
The ACSI Restaurant and Food Delivery Study also evaluates full-service restaurants and food delivery services. Among full-service restaurants, there\u2019s a three-way tie for the number-one spot between LongHorn Steakhouse, Texas Roadhouse, and \u201call others,\u201d a catch-all grouping for any restaurants that don\u2019t have enough market share to get an individual ACSI score. All three earned a score of 82.<\/p>\n
In the food delivery industry, only three brands earned spots on the ACSI: Uber Eats, Grubhub, and DoorDash, in that order from first to third place. But all three brands fall within a two-point range, with Uber Eats\u2019 score of 76 barely beating out Grubhub\u2019s 75 and DoorDash\u2019s 74.<\/p>\n
Forrest Morgeson, an associate professor of marketing at Michigan State University and the director of research emeritus at the ACSI, said in a press release<\/a> that though there\u2019s little change in the restaurant industry\u2019s overall scores year over year, \u201cthere\u2019s real movement underneath.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNew brands are entering our rankings and immediately competing at the top, which tells you something about where consumer expectations are headed,\u201d Morgeson said. \u201cPrice still matters, but it\u2019s no longer enough on its own. Consistency across the full experience is what separates the leaders right now, and that\u2019s showing up clearly in the data. The challenge going forward is sustaining that as costs continue to rise and competition intensifies from outside the traditional restaurant space.\u201d<\/p>\n Check out the full 2026 ACSI Restaurant and Food Delivery Study here<\/a>.<\/p>\n