USA fast food restaurants are typically synonymous with cheap American bites and speedy drive-thrus, but they’re definitely not made equally. While we might all be able to agree that McDonald’s fries reign supreme, the great Chick-fil-A vs. Popeyes chicken sandwich debate made it obvious that the country isn’t on the same page about many popular fast food franchises.
When asked, “What is the worst fast food restaurant?” people had strong opinions. While some chains, like Taco Bell and Arby’s, were mostly praised, only receiving minor criticism for disappearing menu favorites and rising prices on roast beef sandwiches, others didn’t receive quite so much love. Don’t worry. Five Guys and Auntie Annies also came out unscathed.
Here are the fast food chains that topped the list as America’s worst:
1. Sonic Drive-In
The fast food joint known for its rollerskating waitstaff is overwhelmingly the public’s least favorite of the worst fast food chains.
Wrote one individual “(The) last time a friend and I went there was horrible. Burgers were cold, and fries were overcooked or something because when you bit into them, they were hard and hollow with nothing inside.”
Agreeing, a disgruntled Sonic customer wrote, “(I) had to wait five minutes at the counter for the single employee on duty to take our order. Twenty minutes for a couple hotdogs and tater tots. The dogs were cold, and the tots tasted like they just fished them out of the dead sea. The kind of salty that you feel like it’s turning you inside out. Never again.”
A third added to the chain’s long list of grievances, saying, “Sonic has more sugar in their food than any other restaurant. Look at ‘added sugars’ in their nutritional information. They know it’s addictive, so they add it to everything. Terrible taste and terrible for you.”
2. Panera Bread
“I say this as a former employee who, until recently, still went there often. I just can’t do it anymore. All of their food used to be quality. Now it’s (not). Their prices were always high, and now they’re just stealing,” said a responder with insider knowledge of the popular bakery-cafés.
3. Tim Hortons
“I’ll go to McDonald’s for a coffee and bagel before I’ll go to Tim’s.
“Tim Hortons has gone from THE place Canadians got coffee, donuts, and breakfast bagels. Now they are the last resort,” commented one person.
For comparison, another added, “Starbucks’ coffee is awful. But it tastes like an angel in comparison to that swill Timmy’s serves.”
A former Tim Hortons employee added, “What’s worse is that they went from completely inoffensive to miserable gruel in the span of about 10-15 years. I can’t think of any other fast food place that’s suffered such a massive decline in quality AND reputation.”
The Canadian chain operates over 600 locations in the United States.
4. Kentucky Fried Chicken
“When I was younger, (KFC’s) 90s popcorn chicken was a delicacy. Then they dropped it for years only to bring it back, but it was instead these things that tasted frozen. Now they changed again to these knockoff Chick-fil-A ‘nuggets’ that are horrible.” The general consensus of the internet is that the large fried chicken chain peaked in the 1980s and 1990s.
5. Quiznos
While many of the worst fast food chains came under fire by the public for quality or service, Quiznos comes under scrutiny for an entirely different reason.
As one diner described, “Their business model relies primarily on predatory practices. They essentially bleed their franchisees dry and then move on to the next one. Franchisees brought a lawsuit against them for this reason.”
Reflecting on this revelation, a former customer added, “We used to go there regularly and would use coupons out of the Sunday paper. Every time we did, the owner would start ranting. Looking back, I can see where his frustration was coming from.”
6. Subway
Narrating the ins and outs of a Subway experience, an individual wrote, “You enter a Subway store, and it’s deserted, slightly too cool to be comfortable, slightly too damp to feel clean, and slightly too bright to be inviting. There is one lonely employee who sheepishly pockets their tiny electronic escape window as the sound of the door drags them back to reality. They do their best not to look at you for those awkward 10 seconds while you walk to the counter before you’re close enough to order.
“You observe as the employee assembles your sandwich, making sure to painstakingly put each ingredient on only one half of the sub. You ask for sauce, and they squeeze it out of a disgusting rubber nipple, then toss the bottle back into its bin like they don’t want to touch it either. It weezingly inhales the kitchen scraps and Windex aroma that permeates the store. Are they wearing those gloves to keep the food clean or their hands? You pay, the sandwich heavily sags into a flimsy garbage bag it doesn’t really seem to fit in and is handed to you.”
7. Long John Silver’s
The internet is frankly just confused as to how this chain of seafood fast-food restaurants is still around. When a confused user wrote, “I have actually no clue how they haven’t gone under yet,” another quipped, “Well, they definitely haven’t gone underwater to get any of the food they are serving you. That’s for sure.”
8. Burger King
“I remember back when Burger King was the second biggest burger joint next to McDonald’s. I ate there recently and wondered if my memory was faulty. I remember them being a step up in quality over McDonald’s, but the burger I had tasted like cardboard,” said a former employee who worked at the burger chain in 1992.
Said a recent customer, “Last time I went by my local Burger King, their drive-thru was closed. I went inside, but they straight up had no hamburgers. Literally only chicken. At BURGER King.”
9. Pizza Hut
“When I was a kid, it was a huge treat to go to Pizza Hut. They had a salad bar, video games, and the pizza was tasty. Now the only pizzas they seem to make fresh are the expensive ones. I ordered a pepperoni pizza, and it was obvious it was pre-made.”
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From pickle and peanut butter sandwiches to kimchi grilled cheese, here are 11 disgusting food combinations that actually taste good you need to see to believe.
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Elise Armitage is an entrepreneur and founder of What The Fab, a travel + lifestyle blog based in California. At the beginning of 2019, Elise left her corporate job at Google to chase her dreams: being an entrepreneur and helping women find fabulous in the everyday. Since then, she’s launched her SEO course Six-Figure SEO, where she teaches bloggers how to create a passive revenue stream from their website using SEO. Featured in publications like Forbes, Elle, HerMoney, and Real Simple, Elise is a firm believer that you can be of both substance and style.
