Have you noticed your last restaurant bill left you wincing? You’re not alone. Dining out feels more like splurging on a luxury than grabbing a quick bite these days. Nearly two thirds of Americans have been shocked by their fast food bill in recent months, according to surveys taken in 2024.
What’s wild is that we’re not even talking about fancy steakhouses anymore. Regular chains where families used to eat without thinking twice are now burning holes in wallets. Let’s dive into which chain restaurants are earning the most complaints for their sky high prices.
Shake Shack: The Burger That Breaks the Bank
Shake Shack received the most complaints of any national chain about its food being overly expensive in 2024, according to a study by Preply that analyzed nearly sixty thousand Google reviews. Here’s the thing that really gets people fired up: a single ShackBurger typically falls between roughly seven and eight dollars, and that’s before you add fries.
An order of fries runs around four dollars and fifty cents, bringing your total to at least eleven bucks for a basic meal. This comes after two price hikes in 2024. The chain did raise prices again in October by about one and a half percent.
Sure, Shake Shack uses quality ingredients and makes everything to order, but customers are questioning whether that justifies charging what feels like sit down restaurant prices for fast food. While customers think Shake Shack makes a great burger, they don’t think it warrants a twenty dollar combo meal.
Five Guys: Out of Control Pricing
Five Guys followed Shake Shack as the chain with the second most overpriced food complaints, and honestly, it’s easy to see why. A basic burger and fries at Five Guys can easily cost upward of twenty dollars in many markets. That’s a staggering amount when you remember this is supposed to be quick service dining.
The frustration is palpable online. A single meal costs around twenty four dollars, which represents a fourteen percent hike from 2023. People used to overlook the higher prices because Five Guys had a reputation for generous portions and fresh ingredients.
Now customers are doing the math and realizing they could eat at an actual restaurant with table service for roughly the same cost. The peanut husks scattered on the floor don’t quite justify the expense anymore.
Chipotle: Shrinking Portions, Growing Bills
Chipotle found itself in hot water throughout 2024 for multiple reasons beyond just price increases. The chain raised prices by approximately two percent nationally to offset inflation in December 2024, marking their first price increase in over a year. An average burrito bowl has increased from roughly seven sixty five in 2020 to over ten dollars today.
At some Chipotle locations, customers filmed workers to try to make sure they didn’t skimp on their burrito bowls. Think about that for a second. People literally started recording their orders because they felt like they weren’t getting what they paid for. A viral video showed a man visibly upset with a burrito bowl that came out to almost twenty one dollars.
The company promised to retrain employees and ensure more consistent portions, but the damage to their reputation was already done. Customers wonder why they’re paying more for less food, and social media hasn’t been kind about it.
The Cheesecake Factory: Portions Can’t Save Mediocre Quality
The Cheesecake Factory presents an interesting case because their portions are genuinely enormous. Walk in and you’ll get handed a menu that resembles a novel. One customer complained about nineteen dollars for four mac and cheese balls the size of meatballs, twelve dollars for a slice of cheesecake, and thirty dollars for four cheese pasta.
The food is decidedly overpriced for the quality offered, according to customer reviews on travel sites. While the portions are enormous, the food is often considered subpar, and with a menu so extensive, customers argue it’s impossible for the food to be made to order.
Some loyal fans defend the chain by saying you get enough food for leftovers, essentially stretching one meal into two or three. Others counter that they’d rather pay slightly less for one properly sized, better tasting meal. The debate rages on, but complaints about value for money keep piling up.
Applebee’s: The Neighborhood Grill That Forgot Its Neighbors
Applebee’s built its entire brand on being the place where average folks could grab affordable meals without fuss. That promise feels broken now. Applebee’s raised their prices by forty one percent from 2020 to 2024, according to FinanceBuzz research.
Get this specific example: The Quesadilla Burger was ten dollars and forty nine cents five years ago and is now fifteen ninety nine. Sales at US locations slumped, and customers who earn fifty thousand dollars a year or less visited less often, with this demographic making up about forty five percent of Applebee’s customers.
The chain is literally pricing out the very people it was designed to serve. They’re losing exactly the customers they were meant for, and when nearly half your customer base can no longer afford to eat at your restaurant, you’re not running a neighborhood grill anymore. That’s a fundamental business problem.
Panera Bread: When Soup and Sandwiches Cost a Fortune
Panera positions itself as the healthy, fresh alternative to fast food, and customers have historically been willing to pay a premium for that. But recently, people are questioning if the premium has gotten out of hand. One customer shared frustration about a simple grilled cheese and order of tomato soup running just under sixteen dollars.
Cost is outrageous and portions are cut in half, according to multiple customer reviews. Panera Bread is probably the worst bang for your buck on the market, with everything being overpriced, even for inflation standards. A small cup of mac and cheese alone can set you back nine dollars including tax.
Bread no longer tastes as fresh, ingredients lost their clean assurance, and prices kept rising. Since being acquired by private equity, many longtime fans say the quality took a nosedive while prices climbed. For a chain that made its name on artisanal bread and fresh ingredients, losing that reputation while charging more feels like the ultimate betrayal.
