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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Jersey Mike’s edged Chick-fil-A for first place in the American Customer Satisfaction Index’s 2026 quick-service restaurant ranking, scoring 84 to Chick-fil-A’s 83. Chick-fil-A’s score did not fall: it was unchanged from the prior year, and the chain remained the top-rated restaurant in the chicken category. USA TODAY Network reported the ranking; it was an ACSI study, not a USA TODAY readers’ poll.
What the 2026 ranking says
ACSI ranked Jersey Mike’s first among quick-service restaurants with a score of 84 and Chick-fil-A second with 83. According to ACSI, this ended Chick-fil-A’s 11-year run at the top of its QSR ranking. The one-point difference does not show that Chick-fil-A’s satisfaction score declined: its score was unchanged.
The result is a customer-satisfaction ranking, not a taste test, sales chart or universal verdict on which restaurant every diner will prefer. The available findings do not establish whether the one-point gap is statistically significant.
How the chains compare in the reported results
| Measure | Jersey Mike’s | Chick-fil-A |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 ACSI quick-service score | 84; ranked first | 83; ranked second, unchanged from the prior year |
| Category distinction reported by ACSI | ACSI linked its leading result with freshness, food variety and value | Leading chain in the chicken category |
ACSI’s comments connect Jersey Mike’s overall result with freshness, food variety and value, while separately identifying Chick-fil-A as the chicken-category leader. The published findings do not provide a complete head-to-head ranking for every service or food attribute.
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How ACSI gathered the results
ACSI said its 2026 quick-service restaurant study was based on 16,464 completed surveys. Customers were randomly selected and contacted by email between April 2025 and March 2026. The study’s QSR industry score was 79, unchanged for the third consecutive year; individual chains can move within a stable sector-wide result.
ACSI’s release also put the ranking in a broader business context: chain restaurant sales grew 3% in 2025, a figure it attributed to Technomic, while menu-price inflation was 3.8%. Those figures are background context, not an explanation for why Jersey Mike’s ranked ahead of Chick-fil-A.
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What the result means for diners
If you are choosing based on this ranking alone, Jersey Mike’s had the higher overall ACSI QSR score in 2026. If you specifically want a chicken restaurant, Chick-fil-A remained the leader in ACSI’s chicken category. Neither finding predicts an individual meal or settles which chain offers the best value for a particular order.
Forrest Morgeson, Associate Professor of Marketing at Michigan State University and ACSI Director of Research Emeritus, said: “Restaurant industry-level scores are stable, but there’s real movement underneath. New brands are entering our rankings and immediately competing at the top, which tells you something about where consumer expectations are headed. Price still matters, but it’s no longer enough on its own. Consistency across the full experience is what separates the leaders right now, and that’s showing up clearly in the data. The challenge going forward is sustaining that as costs continue to rise and competition intensifies from outside the traditional restaurant space.”
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