This Is the Fastest Fast Food Restaurant, According to a New Study

The answer might surprise you.

When you head to the drive-thru of your favorite fast-food restaurant, you’re obviously looking for quick service—it’s literally in the name fast food. If we asked you which fast food joint you thought was the speediest, we’re sure you’d have a guess based on personal experiences. But what if we told you that real research was done to determine the quickest in the U.S.? We’re not kidding—there’s real data surrounding it.

Every year since 2000, Intouch Insight has conducted a study to determine the top-performing fast-food restaurants based on drive-thru speed, accuracy, suggestive selling, food quality, and satisfaction. The study is completed by mystery shoppers, who are essentially critics posing as everyday customers, who visit 10 of the most popular places and rate their performance.

The 2023 Drive-Thru Study results were recently published—and the fastest fast-food restaurant might surprise you.

What Fast Food Restaurant Is the Quickest?

The quickest fast-food restaurant, based on the total time between the customer entering the drive-thru and leaving with their food, is Taco Bell, according to the Drive-Thru Study. Taco Bell ranked first in both the fastest total time and fastest service time, which is how long it takes a customer to place their order and get their food.

A customer’s total wait time at Taco Bell was about 279 seconds—and the second quickest time (KFC) was about 304 seconds, so Taco Bell is ahead of its competitors by at least 25 seconds.

Following Taco Bell and KFC is Carl’s Jr. in third, Arby’s in fourth, and Dunkin’ in fifth for the fastest total time.

Some people may be surprised that Chick-fil-A, which has a notoriously organized drive-thru system, didn’t make the list. In fact, Chick-fil-A actually had the slowest time of all the fast food restaurants, coming in at about 436 seconds.

However, Chick-fil-A did rank first in the “Fastest Total Time by Car” category. This category is calculated by dividing the average total time by the average number of cars in line. So, it’s likely that a customer’s total wait time in Chick-fil-A's drive-thru is so long because there are just a lot of cars in line—which checks out because Chick-fil-A ranked first for having the most cars in line, according to the Drive-Thru Study.

What About the Other Results?

If speed isn’t as important to you as accuracy or customer satisfaction, then here are the rest of the fast food performance results.

Chick-fil-A came in first for food quality, followed by KFC, McDonald’s, Hardee’s, and Dunkin’.

Chick-fil-A also came in first for customer satisfaction, followed by Taco Bell, Arby’s, Wendy’s, and Carl’s Jr.

Finally, Chick-fil-A came in first for order accuracy, followed by Burger King, McDonald’s, and a tie between KFC and Wendy’s.

So, even though Taco Bell was determined to be the fastest fast-food restaurant, Chick-fil-A swept the board in the other categories. Meaning, according to the mystery shoppers, if you just want quick service, go to Taco Bell—but, if you’re willing to wait the extra few minutes for the most accurate, quality food, you’re better off paying Chick-fil-A a visit.

Read the original article on All Recipes.