A perfectly-cooked steak, a creamy Italian pasta dish or meaty American sandwich, we’ve grown accustomed to seeing enviable and decadent meals on Instagram.
But some of America’s favorite dishes were not made for the social media generation who favor pristine presentation over sloppy indulgence.
A new report by restaurant furniture retailer Affordable Seating has broken down how ‘Instagrammable’ fast food restaurants are based on how many Instagram posts include a hashtag of the restaurant’s name.
Subway lovers may be the least image-obsessed, with the sandwich chain coming in dead last with 80,500 posts.
Arby’s – famed for its roast beef – came second to last with 158,000.
In most cases, the hashtag was simply the restaurant name, #mcdonalds, for instance. But in the case of subway, the tag they tracked was #subwaysandwich.
So here are the 15 fast food chains on the list, ranked from least to most Instagrammable, by the number of posts using the restaurant’s hashtag:
1. Subway: 80,500
And coming in at the very bottom, the least instagrammable fast food chain in the US is Subway. If the Subway’s resilience in the face of scandal is any clue, though, this ranking is unlikely to hurt the company
2. Arby’s: 158,000
Roast beef and burger chain Arby’s ranks number 2, with just 158,000 posts
3. Wing Stop: 394,000
Wings are famously messy to eat, so it’s not too surprising that Wing Stop ranked low on the list
4. Popeye’s: 546,000
Popeyes comes in as the number 4 least instagrammable fast food chain on the list, offering a wide range of colors from beige to tan
5. Wendy’s: 644,000
With its square patties, a Wendy’s burger tends to be instantly recognizable to American fast food connoisseurs
6. Five Guys: 645,000
Five Guys Burgers and Fries comes in at number 6. The fast food chain famously throws more fries into customers’ already-filled bags
7. Chuck E. Cheese: 764,000
Chuck E. Cheese’s pizza is not meant to be photogenic. It is meant to sustain children during birthday parties, and it does that job well
8. In-N-Out Burger: 1.1 million
The west-coast burger chain In-N-Out came in at number 8 on the list. Its ‘animal-style’ burgers and fries are known for being messy
9. Chick-Fil-A: 1.4 million
The fried chicken chain that is famously closed on Sundays came in at number 9 on the list. Perhaps in a testament to how much people like the restaurant’s chicken, many of the instagram posts that used the #chickfila hashtag were for fried chicken recipes
10. Taco Bell: 1.5 million
Even Taco Bell devotees will acknowledge that the fast food chain’s offerings are not known for their photogenic appeal
11. Chipotle: 1.7 million
The counter-service Mexican restaurant Chipotle also suffered from Instagram inflation on this list, as many of the posts tagged #chipotle were not about the restaurant, but about its namesake chili pepper
12. Burger King: 2.2 million
Similar to McDonald’s, many posts under the #burgerking tag included hamburgers that were clearly homemade, or made by other restaurants. But the fact that they used the chain’s name speaks to its popularity
13. Pizza Hut 2.2 million
Coming in at number 13 is Pizza Hut, the chain known for its personal pan pizzas. It is one of the only pizza chains that made the list
14. KFC: 4.2 million
KFC came in second, with less than 50 percent as many posts as McDonald’s has. But for KFC, more of the posts appear to be about the actual fast food chain
15. McDonald’s: 8.8 million
Eaten all around the world, it’s no surprise that McDonald’s topped the list. Many of the #mcdonalds posts were irrelevant content, though, including users who deployed the hashtag to compliment their own homemade burgers
