Chick-fil-A is the best chicken place period!

i love me some whataburber.

What all does Chick-Fil-A sell, chicken sandwiches and soda? It's pretty hard to screw that up.

My vote for the hardest working drive-thru crew is Taco Bell. They have many items, all with the same crap but in different proportions. It's tough to know what to do if the customer wants a cheesy beefy melt, or a beefy nacho burrito club, or an oozy gooey bacon wrap, or a melty cheesy melty wrap n crunch.

I guess Portillo's isn't a national chain so it's not considered, but if you want to go through a drive thru that is a model of efficiency and teamwork, it can't be beat. Plus, the food is amazing - one of the best burgers in Chicago, and great Italian Beefs and Sausages.

Yo, Chick-Fil-A, Im happy for you and I'ma let you finish but Sonics had one of the best Drive-Thrus of all time..........OF ALL TIME!

@GitEmSteveDave_@Gmail.comNeedsAWaveInvite: lmao.

Why quote the Trib's article about another publication? The original article is right here: [www.qsrmagazine.com]

@bloggerX: Have you ever had Popeyes?

The Chick-fil-a in my town actually has people standing outside the drive-through during busy hours (lunch, dinner) with these little electronic tablets to take your order and run your card so that by the time you get to the window you order is ready.

Chick-Fil-a rocks, plain and simple. It's the only fast food that I allow myself to eat.

Does it count if a restaurant is closed for a whole day every week?

That should be a criterion. Everybody else gets 7/7 on that. Chick-Fil-A? Only 6/7.

Nah, I'm just being mean. I've never been to a Chick-Fil-A drive-through. But their restaurant in general is awesome.

@AlexTNOA: Truth.

@sir_pantsalot: different genre; we're talking chicken sandwiches vs. fried chicken.

There are only 2 Chick-Fil-A locations in the whole state of Minnesota. And neither of them are very close to me. It's sad.

I'm sure this is true--it's probably why every time I go all the lazy people sit wrapped around the parking lot at the drive-through while some of us get our booties out of the car and walk inside! I always beat all but the #1 or 3 car in that crazy line.

@bloggerX: Do they have Cane's in your area? [en.wikipedia.org]

Ok... what's a Chick-Fil-A? A regional chain? I've never seen anything like that in my corner of the boondocks.

@sir_pantsalot: Yes, and I'm unimpressed (though my wife, a native Southerner, loves them); I think Church's was much better than Popeye's before they started skimping on ingredients.

That said -- I eat at Chick Fil-A much more often than either Popeye's or Church's; the chicken burritos on their breakfast menu are fabulous.

I find the worker bees at Chick-fil-a are (or at least look) happier than most fast food drones. Maybe it's not having to work on Sunday.
My friend won't go there because he doesn't support " religious right wing boosters". Me, I could care less, it's damn good chicken. They could call it Al-qaeda chicken and I would still go.
One small complaint, I used to get their soft serve ice cream cones. I'm usually an ice cream snob, "soft serve isn't real ice cream". But it used to be truly CREAMY. But around September of 08, they must of changed the recipe, because now it tastes like the frozen sweetened ice milk you get at McDonalds.

Its still to bad that Chick-fil-a is run by an bible-thumping, right-wing wacko. You should read about her sometime. Yikes. And as much as I frickin' LOVE Chick-fil-a, after I learned about what their company sponsors, I simply cannot support them by buying their food. *sigh* So very sad.

@MinorAnnoyance: Used to be mainly in the south, but has expanded quite a bit in the last several years.

@billy: I was going to say: are there even any ChickFilAs in Chicagoland?

@MinorAnnoyance: They're very common around here in Texas, and I was very annoyed to hear the McDonald's ad campaign claiming the chicken biscuit and chicken sandwich as their own inventions, where in fact they're very poor knockoffs of Chick-fil-A's signature menu items.

CfA generally has exceptional service -- I've heard people complain online that they think encouraging employees to answer "Thank you" with "my pleasure" when the customer in question is in fact being a decent human being is demeaning, but I really appreciate it -- and is owned by Christian conservatives who actually walk the walk (donate heavily to charity, close the business on Sundays, support politics I _really_ disagree with such as Prop 8... can't have everything, I guess).

I have never had a bad experience at Chick-Fil-A.

An interesting facts about their business, they Don't franchise. Every store is owned by corporate and they are very strict about quality and customer service, they even dictate the building design and layout.

@MinorAnnoyance: Chick-Fil-A is wide spread through the south and south west. They are slowly making it up north.

I've never understood why restaurants apparently think that the money or a person that orders through the drive thru is always more valuable than the money of a customer that walks into a restaurant.

I'm tired of walking into a restaurant of coffee shop and seeing 3 or 4 people with headsets on tripping over themselves to service drive through customers while there's usually only one person to run the whole front counter. and even that person has a head set on as well.

Domino's too

@sir_pantsalot: Popeye's is good but has pretty bad service.

@GitEmSteveDave_@Gmail.comNeedsAWaveInvite: This needs to be giffed.

@TCama: I usually only get serious Chick-Fil-A cravings on a Sunday, too. >_<

I love Chick-Fil-A. Their nuggets are sooooo good. Cooking in peanut oil definitely makes a difference. But alas, I refuse to spend one dime with them as long as they continue to support and fund anti-gay organizations. Yes, they have that right.. but I also have the right not to spend my money with them.

@plasticbiker: False. The majority of the restaurants are operated by franchisees who generally must pass more restrictive operator requirements than most quick service franchisors require, i.e., franchisees actually have to be operators, not just investors. Your statement that "they even dictate building design and layout" only makes sense if Chick-fil-a is operating a franchise system; otherwise, why wouldn't it be in charge of design and layout of its own stores?

Yeah, but they'll also tell you to have a blessed day. And they have prayer meetings with employees. It's creepy.

@xmarc:

I think the Domino's Catholic nut sold Domino's. Now, he's busy building some loony town in Florida.

@diasdiem: I was just gonna write that. They do that in my town too. It's probably not even the same town!

@GitEmSteveDave_@Gmail.comNeedsAWaveInvite:
Sadly, I have to disagree with you here- my area has apparently the only bad Sonic in existence (I was pretty pumped the first time to go there after the very long ad campaign for something that wasn't even in the area before, only to have it suck horribly). The last time I went, I only ordered a Route 44 Limeade because it was the only thing they couldn't screw up.

@TCama:

@Sudonum: I went to the local Cane's (northern part of Columbus) for the first time a few months ago and was wholly unimpressed. I wonder if I went on an off day or something, because I know tons of people that love them. Cane's had somewhat OK prices but the chicken was super greasy.

@GitEmSteveDave_@Gmail.comNeedsAWaveInvite: Is Sonic technically a drive thru? I think is it more of a sit in your car and park, at least around here.

@osiris73: It's actually a him, Truett Cathy.

And your boycott is fine with me. That's one less person I have to stand behind in line. There are plenty of secular places for you to eat.

I see In 'n' Out isn't on here. They'd do very well for menu appearance, accuracy, and clarity, but would end up last place on the length of time in drive through category. Cook to order + far too popular means there's always a line of a dozen cars or more - it's ridiculous. Yeah, I just go inside, not that lazy.

@radleyas: What? C'mon. Maybe some of the managers have optional meetings that they invite employees to come to. There's no corporate mandate to have prayer meetings. In fact, other than a bio of the founder and a brief explanation of why they are closed on Sundays, the stores training is strictly secular. It's not like they douse the chicken in holy water to try and trick the heathens into getting baptized.

@diasdiem: wow, I have only known in-n-out to do that.

@sir_pantsalot: Yeah, i love me some popeyes too...

@Sudonum: Not in Philly

@oldtaku:

We don't have those in Chicagoland. That is a yuppy CA thing.

@Kuchen:

I'm hip. They used to be in every mall in the St. Louis area, at least a dozen. Now there is only one. It is weird because they are so popular. Haven't had one of their sandwiches in two or three years. I have never seen a free standing Chick-Fil-A, so have not experienced their drive through. My loss?

Fast is good, but I'd wait however long it took for an In-N-Out double double and fries.

Only once in 10 years did they mess up my drive-thru order, leaving out the fries. When I called to tell them, they apologized profusely, sent a coupon for two burgers and two fries, and followed up a week or so later to be sure that I wasn't angry.

Them and In-N-Out have the best service overall imo.

The Orange, Ca location on Tustin Ave, which is incidentally next door to an In-N-Out has the most polite and through fast food crew I've ever seen.

The floor manager guy acts like a full-fledged waiter/matre'd going around the dining area asking people if their food is up to par and offering to bring them sauces and stuff.

He also apologize to you for every 30 seconds you have to wait for your meal.

@winshape:

Our chick-Fil-A is pretty good. About 1 in 5 times they mess up my order by putting pickles on my order when i ask for it.

McDonalds is ok, not the best. Cook Out is ok, only went there 2 times. Burger King I havent been to (the one in the mall less then 3,000 feet away is ok-ish..

Taco Bell/KFC is ok, drive through is pretty good.... Our sonic STINKS. They get the order wrong alot, and it is normal for me to wait 20+ minutes in the drive through.