This Surprising Fast Food Restaurant Was Just Crowned the Quickest Drive-Thru

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 2024 Drive-Thru Study results were recently published—and the fastest fast-food restaurant might surprise you.

What Fast Food Restaurant Is the Quickest?

For the second year in a row, the quickest fast-food restaurant is Taco Bell, according to the Drive-Thru Study. Taco Bell ranked first in both the fastest total time, measured from when the shopper enters the drive-thru to when they exit, 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 256 seconds, down almost 23 seconds from last year. KFC wasn’t far behind, with a total wait time of about 260 seconds, but third-place Arby’s jumped up a significant 24 seconds from that. Dunkin’ took the fourth spot, and Wendy’s finished off the leaderboard in fifth.

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 480 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 and Raising Cane’s came in at a tie for first in food quality, followed by Arby’s, McDonald’s, and Taco Bell.

Chick-fil-A came in first for customer satisfaction with a 99% satisfaction rate, closely followed by Raising Cane’s, which came in at 98%. McDonald’s, Arby’s, and Taco Bell took the next three spots.

Finally, Chick-fil-A and McDonald’s vied for the top spot in order accuracy, followed by Carl’s Jr./Hardees in third, with KFC and Arby’s tied for fourth.

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.