For years, the conversation around “best fast food” in America has defaulted to the same names: McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, and maybe a regional favorite if you’re lucky. This year, Yelp’s data quietly handed the title to someone else.
Dave’s Hot Chicken has been named the crowd-sourced reviewer’s Most Loved Brand of 2025, topping the food category and beating out long-established giants in the process. Not bad for a business that started in a Los Angeles parking lot back in 2017.
It narrowly edged out high-ranking competitors, including grocery giant Trader Joe’s (No. 2 overall), fellow chicken chain bb.q Chicken (No. 3), and popular breakfast spot First Watch (No. 4).
The Rise of the Zillennial Brands
Yelp’s 2025 “Most Loved Brands” report pulls from what people actually do on the platform: star ratings, the share of 4- and 5-star reviews, repeat visits to a brand’s page, and how consistently locations earn that love.
While brands like See’s Candies (No. 21) achieved the highest review score, with 85% of reviews at 4 or 5 stars, Dave’s Hot Chicken’s 71% rating was backed by a massive volume of repeat visits and searches, proving its status as the most loyal brand overall.
And this is not just a coastal bubble, either. Findings show that Dave’s not only takes the national food crown; it also shows up as the most loved food brand in the site’s western region and holds the top spot in several states, including Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Utah, and Washington, including the Washington, D.C. area.
That puts a relatively young hot chicken chain ahead of older household names that have had decades to build loyalty and infrastructure.
The rest of the list paints a pretty clear picture of where taste is drifting. Brands with bold identities, recognizable aesthetics, menus attuned to younger diners, and clean app or online integrations tend to rank higher.
Dutch Bros lands at No. 11 overall, Shake Shack comes in at No. 35, and Cava sits at No. 50 but racks up one of the highest numbers of reviews per store, according to the report.
The Enduring Appeal of Comfort Classics
At the same time, comfort chains that defined earlier eras of casual dining aren’t going anywhere. These legacy concepts, including Olive Garden (No. 10), Chili’s (No. 25), and Chuck E. Cheese (No. 49), categorized as “Comeback Classics,” seem to have successfully re-earned consumer love. Their success is built on a nostalgia-meets-value reset, rewarding customers with reliability, big portions, and familiar menus that make family dining easy.
The “most loved” label also stretches beyond restaurants. Nothing Bundt Cakes lands at No. 7 overall. Yelp’s AI-powered Review Insights flagged the bakery chain as leading on both food quality and taste. Trader Joe’s ranks even higher, at No. 2, with the grocery chain standing out for value and speed of service. Given how many of its prepared meals and frozen staples have their own fan followings, that result doesn’t come as much of a shock.
But the headline is still the same: in a year packed with limited-time stunts, new chicken wraps, and heavily marketed value deals, a hot chicken chain that didn’t exist a decade ago ended up ahead of everyone else in Yelp’s data. For now, at least, the most loved drive-thru in America isn’t the one most people grew up with.
Sources: allrecipes, Yelp