The best and worst McDonald’s in America, ranked by 20M reviews

Cold fries, a burger that seems to have extra pickles when you ordered none, a Coke that's more ice than soda – many McDonald's fans have had that frustrating moment that drove them to say one location is the "worst." As it turns out, there's data out there to tell fast food fanatics exactly which M

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What is the story about?

Cold fries, a burger that seems to have extra pickles when you ordered none, a Coke that's more ice than soda – many McDonald's fans have had that frustrating moment that drove them to say one location is the "worst."

As it turns out, there's data out there to tell fast food fanatics exactly which McDonald's were deemed the most disappointing in all of the U.S., at least according to customer reviews. SEO Backlinks, a digital company focused on PR and search engine optimization, crunched the numbers across more than 12,000 locations as of Oct. 5 to find which ones came out on the top and the bottom.

Using Google Maps listings for McDonald's restaurants across the U.S., SEO Backlinks narrowed it down to 12,834 locations with 500 or more Google reviews

each.

Each restaurant was ranked by its exact average Google rating – a total of 20,466,218 reviews. On a state level, each state's average rating was calculated by averaging the ratings of all ranked McDonald's restaurants in that state equally: a restaurant with 500 reviews counted the same as a restaurant with 5,000 reviews when calculating a state's average rating, for example. All 50 states and Washington, DC, have at least 23 restaurants in the ranking.

Utah has the lowest-rated McDonald's restaurants of any state, with its 106 restaurants averaging 3.22 out of 5, which was below the average score of 3.44. Georgia and South Carolina followed with average ratings of 3.27 and 3.29.

Hawaii, on the other hand, had the highest-rated McDonald's locations, with an average of 3.71. New Jersey and Washington followed with 3.64 and 3.62.

Why McDonald's locations were best, worst according to Google reviews

The location that takes the crown for the "best" spot, according to SEO Backlink's survey? The McDonald's on East Main Street in Eagle Pass, Texas, which was the best-rated in the country with an average of 4.25 stars from 2,159 reviews. The second-best was in Calexico, California, and the third-highest-rated location on the list was the oldest operating McDonald's in the world on Lakewood Boulevard in Downey, California.

Reviews for the highly rated restaurants mentioned quick service, hot and fresh food, clean restrooms, kid-friendliness and the ever-elusive working ice cream machine.

"Good service, easy access, and the number of parking spaces seems adequate. Overall, a good experience as the premises are clean," said one September review for the Eagle Pass store.

The unlucky restaurant that landed at the top of the "worst" list is located in Surprise, Arizona, and has an average rating of just 1.55 stars out of 5. Recent reviews complained about slow service, incorrect orders, cleanliness and food quality.

"This is the absolute worst McDonald's I've ever gone to. The slowest drive-through out of any fast food chain that I've ever been to is this location. I was in line for over 30 minutes in the drive-through. Never ever will I come here again. Update: got home and realized they forgot my Happy Meal, and the food tasted horrible and was overly cooked and dry/cold," wrote one reviewer in late September.

Locations in Goshen, Indiana, and Auburn, Alabama, followed next, with average ratings of 1.99 and 2.27.

Of course, the analysis has limitations. Its gathering of locations only included those with a certain number of reviews, relied only on Google reviews and not those from other websites like Yelp, and weighed locations with heavy and lighter foot traffic equally. Plus, customers who had an exceptionally good or bad experience might be more inclined to write a review compared with those who had a less remarkable McDonald's visit.