Map Shows States With the Best Fast-Food Chains

Chain restaurants have become a defining feature of the American dining landscape.
These locations offer predictably good service, and often, special regional twists that appeal to local tastes.
Some states stand out for their variety, the quality of service and customer satisfaction in these establishments, making them hotspots for dining and beloved national brands.
Newsweek has mapped the U.S. states with the best food chains, according to a report from CouponBirds.
To determine its rankings, the study complied reviews from more than 160,000 individual restaurants with four or more locations and more than 50 reviews. Chain businesses were graded out of five using a weighted average, which the report said wasn’t biased towards entities with a high volume of reviews.
California and West Virginia jointly occupied the top spot, each with an average score of 3.55 out of five.
Next was South Dakota, with a 3.54 average in the Mount Rushmore State, followed by Pennsylvania and Hawaii in joint fourth with 3.51. Delaware, New Jersey and Rhode Island all ranked sixth.
Nebraska came next, in ninth place, followed by Kentucky and Montana in joint 10th.
The report also ranked the top 10 “super chains” (chains with over 1,000 locations). These were:
For small chains (between four and 100 locations), Acai Republic was ranked first, with an average rating of 4.44 out of five.
Nautical Bowls and Hawaiian Bros Island Grill came second and third, with 4.39 and 4.38, respectively.
In joint fourth were Los Tacos No.1 and Asad’s Hot Chicken, each scoring 4.36 out of five on average.
The remaining chains in the top 10 were Nanu’s Hot Chicken (4.33), Hawkers Asian Street Food (4.29), David’s Diner (4.28), Cupbop – Korean BBQ (4.28), and BurgerSear (4.28).
“As far as we know, a report like this has not been compiled before, making this a unique piece of research,” Andy Cooper, a financial analyst and money-saving expert at CouponBirds, told Newsweek. “Smaller chain restaurants performed the best overall, whereas larger restaurants (over 1,000 locations) generally received lower scores.
“The takeaway for us is that chains with fewer restaurants appear able to maintain a higher standard across their locations than those with thousands of sites, importantly when it comes to aspects such as food quality and customer service,” Cooper said.
Newsweek has previously mapped the best coffee cities in the U.S., according to a recent WalletHub report.
The study compared the 100 most-populated cities in the country across several weighted metrics to calculate an overall score and rank.
Topping the list was Portland. The Oregon city was ranked as the best city for coffee lovers due to its high number of affordable coffee shops that were rated at least 4.5 stars out of 5. It also had the ninth-most coffee shops with free Wi-Fi per capita.
The report said around a quarter of the city’s population owned an electric coffee grinder (the ninth-highest in the U.S.) and almost 30 percent owned a single-cup or pod-brewing coffee maker.
Splashing an average of $170 per year on coffee, Portland households spent the 18th-most on the drink in the nation.
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