From McDonald’s to Taco Bell, customers have accused a number of major fast-food chains of becoming way too expensive throughout 2024. But according to a new study, diners consider a burger chain known for high-quality beef and milkshakes to be the most “overpriced” of all.
The online language tutoring marketplace Preply recently analyzed nearly 60,000 Google reviews for more than 10,000 restaurants in the top 50 cities in the United States. Its goal in this assessment? Finding out which restaurants customers consider to be the most overpriced and fairly priced.
Preply pinpointed the most overpriced restaurants by looking for keywords such as “overpriced,” “pricey,” “expensive,” and “rip-off” in their Google reviews. Among the thousands of local and chain eateries considered in the study, Shake Shack received more complaints about overpriced food than any other restaurant chain.
The Preply study was released in the wake of not just one but two recent Shake Shack price hikes. The fast-casual burger chain rolled out a 3% price increase in mid-March “to address food and wage inflationary pressures,” CFO Katie Fogerty announced during a spring earnings call. Shake Shack then raised prices again in October by 1.5% to offset inflation but said it plans to roll off some of those price increases in the first quarter of 2025.
The chain did not immediately respond to our queries for comment on the Preply study results.
Five Guys, whose prices have been decried as “out of control,” and Sugar Factory followed Shake Shack as the chains with the second and third most overpriced food complaints. Horn Barbecue in Oakland, Calif.; Ocean 27 in Virginia Beach, Va.; and Docks on the Harbor in Baltimore—all of which are local eateries—received the most overpriced food complaints overall in the Preply study.
“All too often, restaurants charge a premium for dishes that don’t always deliver,” the Preply study reads. “From overpriced basic burgers and tiny portion sizes to cocktails priced like they’re made out of gold, nothing is worse than paying a high price tag for a low-quality outcome.”
On the other hand, Preply also identified restaurants throughout the United States with the most positive reviews about their prices and value. The most fairly priced eateries include Tasty Pizza in Omaha, Neb.; MOMO Sushi in Minneapolis; and Red Mountain Cafe in Mesa, Ariz., according to the report.
Zoe Strozewski
Zoe Strozewski is a News Writer for Eat This, Not That! A Chicago native who now lives in New Jersey, she graduated from Kean University in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. Read more about Zoe
