News

Several fast casuals named to list of Top 10 limited-service chains

January 31, 2014

A new report published this week ranked the Top 10 limited-service chains, and several fast casual brands made the cut, including Café Rio, Firehouse Subs and Five Guys.

According to a news release, Sandelman's market-level Quick-Track study features customers' scores on a 5-point scale of overall satisfaction with their most recent visits to QSR chains; and they rate chains they've recently patronized on 16 customer satisfaction attributes. Awards of Excellence are based on the proportion of respondents who rate a chain "excellent," or "5" on a 5-point scale.

In 2013, 100,000-plus Quick-Track respondents rated the chains they patronized.

The top 10 limited-service chains overall are:

1. Café Rio and Chick-fil-A (tied)

3. In-N-Out Burger and Raising Cane's (tied)

5. Firehouse Subs

6. Jason's Deli and The Habit Grill (tie)

8. Panera Grill, Five Guys Burger & Fries and Rush (tied)

The top 10 large (500-plus units) chains are:

1. Chick-fil-A

2. Firehouse Subs

3. Panera Bread and Five Guys Burgers & Fries (tied)

5. Chipotle Mexican Grill

6. Zaxby's

7. Papa Murphy's

8. Jersey Mike's, Culver's and Starbucks (tied)

Awards of Excellence are given for overall satisfaction and for the best performances on 16 attributes of the restaurant dining experience. Café Rio, a Mexican chain based in Salt Lake City ranked No. 1 on overall rating of customer satisfaction and placed No. 1 on "taste and flavor of the food," "quality of the ingredients" and "temperature of the food." In-N-Out Burger was ranked in the Top 3 highest-rated chains on nine of the 16 customer satisfaction attributes studied; Chick-fil-A was among the Top 3 on seven of the 16 attributes; and Raising Cane's was ranked Top 3 on six characteristics.

For the sixth consecutive year, Little Caesars garnered the top spot for "affordability of the prices" and "value for the money." Subway continues to be the highest rated chain for "availability of healthy and nutritious food."

Read more about trends and statistics.