Shake Shack Ranked as Most Expensive US Food Chains

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As prices on grocery food go up, affordable fast food is beginning to be hard to come by. According to recent research on fast-food prices, a burger chain was awarded the title of ‘most overpriced menu’. The study comes as Americans say that they have felt the pinch of inflation and price hikes like never before.

Preply, an online language learning marketplace, analyzed 57,245 reviews from over 10,000 restaurants in 50 major U.S. cities. The findings crowned the popular burger chain Shake Shack as the most “overpriced” restaurant, with Five Guys coming in at the No. 2 spot, followed by the Sugar Factory.

Many of these high-end food chains reside on the west coast of the United States, which could be as to is why three of the five cities with the most overpriced restaurants were Oakland and San Jose, California, and Virginia Beach, Virginia, according to the study.

“With three of the five cities in the top five being in California, this highlights how California’s high restaurant prices align with the state’s soaring cost of living,” the study said. “In addition to higher prices in general, California’s residents are known for prioritizing high-quality ingredients, which cost more.

“Unfortunately, some restaurants miss the mark. They create inflated menu prices that don’t align with what might be considered reasonable for the quality and quantity of food offered.”

On the otherhand, New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Miami have the fewest overpriced food complaints out of the 50 major U.S. cities.