A clean restaurant may not be the No. 1 factor in driving repeat traffic. But a dirty establishment can certainly be a way of guaranteeing guests won’t come back.
To compile its Consumer Brand Metrics (CBM) data, Restaurant Business’ sister company Technomic surveys hundreds of diners each quarter. Read on to see which chains CBM survey respondents gave the lowest proportion of high ratings for cleanliness (and, in many cases, the highest proportion of negative ratings), according to Technomic’s data for the past year. The overall ratings, which are organized here by limited service and full service, take into account interior and bathroom cleanliness, as well as the perceived cleanliness of the kitchen and food preparation areas. Full-service and fast-casual restaurant scores also reflect ratings on the cleanliness of servingware.