A new fast-food chain has taken over as the new fan-favorite in the United States.
Yelp released Tuesday its list of Most Loved Brands for 2025, and a new winner has taken the top spot on the list. This year’s list was curated after analyzing a range of consumer behaviors, including the average customer rating, how many times the website is visited and photo uploads.
The brand claiming the number one spot this year was Dave’s Hot Chicken.
In addition to 71 percent of Dave’s reviews consisting of four and five stars on Yelp, the brand was also named Yelp’s most loved food brand in the Western region of the U.S. The restaurant was also named the number one restaurant in Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Utah, Washington state, and Washington, D.C.
According to the Yelp reviews, customers specifically highlighted the chain’s consistent food quality, generous portion sizes, fast service, and notably, its customization options. When ordering food at Dave’s, customers can adjust the spice level of their chicken, ranging from mild “no spice” to the fiery “reaper.”
The brand has also recently brought back the “Dave’s NOT Chicken” section of the menu, offering cauliflower sliders amid other options.
Despite only being founded in 2017, Dave’s Hot Chicken was able to beat out long-standing fast-food icons such as McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A, which did not break the top 50 brands on the list.
While Dave’s was number one, Trader Joe’s took the number two spot, with the Korean fried-chicken chain, bb.q chicken, claiming the third spot on the list.
The news comes a few months after the 25th Annual Drive-Through Study, conducted by Intouch Insight and QSR magazine, was released in October. The study looked at 165 shops, part of 13 food brands, across the U.S. between June and July 2025.
Customers visited each shop at various times throughout the day and on different days of the week to capture which staff members worked the quickest. Other metrics tracked at each shop were order accuracy, satisfaction and friendliness, food quality, and suggestive selling.
Results found that customers love the drive-throughs at Chick-fil-A and Dutch Bros, which both had an overall satisfaction rate of 98 percent, fueled by the most accurate orders and friendliest staff members.
Popeyes was a close second, with a 96 percent satisfaction rate, followed by Starbucks, Arby’s, and KFC.
However, customers were not as pleased with McDonald’s drive-throughs, which had the lowest customer satisfaction rate of 86 percent. Dunkin’ Donuts and Raising Cane’s were also near the bottom of the list, each with an 87 percent customer satisfaction rate.
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