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Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out Burger earn top honors for customer experience

Restaurant market intelligence firm Sandelman has announced the winners of the 2015 Quick-Track Awards of Excellence.

February 8, 2016

Restaurant market intelligence firm Sandelman has announced the winners of the 2015 Quick-Track Awards of Excellence. Small quick-qerve chains are expanding to new markets, gaining customers and redefining what consumers expect from quick serve restaurants. These chains have an impact on quick-serve perceptions and expectations, according to a company press release.

"Some of the chains on our Awards of Excellence Top 10 List may not be known yet by those outside their local markets, but their seeming overnight success has really been decades in the making," said Bob Sandelman, founder and CEO of Sandelman & Associates.

This year's winner of the Overall Award of Excellence is Chick fil-A with 63 percent of its users rating their last experience excellent overall. California favorite In-N-Out Burger is a close second with a 61 percent overall excellent rating. Chick-fil-A and In-N-Out have traded places at the top of the list over the past several years. The Top 10 List is filled with expanding fast-food chains that are changing the way consumers think of fast food, the release stated.

Top 10 Quick Service Restaurant Chains —Ranked by percent rating their overall experience "Excellent":

1. Chick-fil-A — 63 percent
2. In-N-Out Burger — 61 percent
3. Portillo's — 60 percent
4. Dion's — 59 percent
5. The Habit Burger Grill — 59 percent
6. Café Zupas — 58 percent 
7. Raising Cane's — 57 percent
8. Cafe Rio — 56 percent
9. Capriotti's — 56 percent
10. Five Guys — 54 percent

Quick-Track monitored more than 1 million quick service restaurant chains across large and small markets throughout the country in 2015. This year's leaders are expanding from a market or region into new areas. For example, Portillo's (No. 3) has long been a Chicago-area favorite, starting as a hot dog stand in 1969, and morphing over the years into a chain of fast-casual restaurants featuring hot dogs, hamburgers, barbecue, salads, and more. The chain is expanding to California and Arizona.

Dion's (No. 2) has been serving pizza and subs in Albuquerque since the 1970s, and is gaining recognition as it expands to Texas and Colorado.

The Habit (No. 5) began for many in Santa Barbara, with char-grilled burgers, but now they are found all over California and the west. They also have locations in New Jersey, Florida and Virginia.

Past Awards of Excellence winner Raising Cane's (No. 7) is a provider of chicken fingers in Louisiana that is gaining good reviews in Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, Kentucky, Ohio and now California.

Utah is a hotbed for fast casual restaurants with Café Zupas (No. 6)  and Café RioNo. 8)  both tracing their origins to the area. Café Zupas focuses on house-made soups, salads and sandwiches, while Café Rio serves up fresh Mexican food. These chains are the youngest of the bunch having started in 2006 and 1997, respectively. Both chains have expanded in the intermountain area and beyond.

Capriotti's (No. 9) started selling fresh roasted turkey sandwiches in Delaware in 1976. It's now found on the Atlantic seaboard, as well as in Nevada and other western states.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries (No. 10)  continues to have a strong presence in Washington, D.C., where it started in 1986, but it has also expanded to more than 1,000 units across the country.

"The common theme among these chains is their ability to provide a consistently excellent experience for their users at a single restaurant and then replicating that experience to lots of restaurants in a market, and then across the country," said Bev Cain, rresident of Sandelman. "All of the chains in the Top 10 deserve all of the kudos that come with the Awards of Excellence recognition for their ability to create and deliver an amazing dining experience as they expand into new locations and new markets."

Quick-Track monitors satisfaction on 17 individual attributes that contribute to overall satisfaction. Chain winners on individual attributes include Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out Burger and Café Rio from the top 10 overall list, as well as Little Caesars Pizza, Jason's Deli, Penn Station, la Madeleine, Cook-Out and Jimmy John's. All of the winners can be seen at www.sandelman.com/awards.

Sandelman is a provider of market research and insights for chain restaurants. Quick-Track is a syndicated usage and perception study conducted in more than 100 media market across the U.S.