Customer Service and Food Quality at Quick-Serve Restaurants Continue Decline, Chatmeter Report Finds

Press Release

October 29, 2025

SAN DIEGO, CA–October 29, 2025–Chatmeter, the leader in multi-location intelligence, today released its2025 QSR Reputation Ranking, ranking the best 10 quick-serve restaurants (QSRs) based on customer reviews of food quality, service and value. 

This year, Hardee’s took the top spot, edginglast year’s winner, Chick-fil-A, into second place. Firehouse Subs rounded out the top three. Chick-fil-A retained the top slot for Customer Service, while Little Caesars was top-ranked in Value and Hardee’s was number one in Food Quality. 

“For the second year in a row, we’re seeing customers are increasingly unhappy with the service and food they’re getting at fast food restaurants,” said John Mazur, CEO of Chatmeter. “QSRs are focusing on deals and marketing campaigns, while consumers just want them to serve high-quality meals and stop nickel-and-diming them on things like sauce. This year’s findings represent a dire need in the industry to listen better and gain real-time customer intelligence.”

Report Key Findings

• Customer Service Continues to Slide –The percentage of reviews mentioning customer service increased 17% year-over-year and sentiment declined by 1.5%, with customers complaining about rude service, long wait times, incorrect orders and negative staff interactions. 
• Menu Items Don’t Live Up to the Hype –Food quality was mentioned 11% more frequently as discussions of price declined. While consumers continue to prioritize value, they ultimately want food that feels “worth it,” and QSRs did not deliver, with sentiment around food quality declining 3.4% YoY. 
• Consumers Fed Up With “Sauce-Flation” –Sauces have grown in popularity among Gen Z and Millennial consumers who consider them an easy, low-cost way to personalize and improve menu items. But customers are frustrated by extra charges for sauce or not receiving enough sauce with their orders. Chains that offer free sauce saw sentiment improve, while those charging for or limiting sauces saw it decline. 

The 10 Best QSRs for Reputation in 2025

1. Hardee’s
2. Chick-fil-A
3. Firehouse Subs
4. Panda Express
5. Jersey Mike’s
6. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen
7. Wingstop
8. Chipotle
9. Burger King
10. Domino’s 

Chatmeter used Pulse Ai to analyze more than 300,000 reviews across 26 of the largest QSRs to determine the rankings and uncover key trends in customer feedback. Download the report, including a deep dive into feedback on the top 10 QSRs,here. 

Chatmeter, an Alchemer company, is agroundbreaking intelligence platform purpose-built to help multi-location businesses turn customer feedback into actionable insights and search rankings into real revenue. Using generative AI and other proprietary AI models, the Chatmeter platform analyzes millions of customer interactions across reviews, surveys, images and social media to help the world’s largest businesses understand what customers really care about, what their real business risks are, how to compete and win in local markets and more.

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