The 5 Best New Fast Food Chains Of The Past Decade

Just over a 100 years ago, White Castle started serving food in a squeaky clean, all white, porcelain-tiled restaurant, cooking and assembling hamburgers in full view of their customers. While the goal was merely to showcase just how clean and hygienic the food was, the restaurant inadvertently ended up changing the culinary landscape of the world. Three years after it opened that first burger joint, White Castle was incorporated as the White Castle System of Eating Houses Corporation, officially making it the first ever fast food chain in America. The rest, as they say, is history — a delicious history stuffed with burgers, pizzas, tacos, fried chicken, and many other indulgent treats.

In 2025, the global fast food market stood at an incredible $1.76 trillion, according to Market Research Future, and is expected to hit $3.52 trillion by 2035. According to Restroworks, there were over 212,000 fast food restaurants in America in 2024. Data from a Technomic study (via Restaurant Business) says Americans spent $115 billion on fast food burgers in 2025. These restaurants have come a long way from being simple, efficiently run, businesses. Fast food today is increasingly being driven by technology, with the largest chains adopting AI across their operations.

The market might seem perennially saturated, but new options keep popping up, ready to feed America's insatiable appetite for quick, convenient, and tasty comfort food. And while the oldest fast food chains in America are all familiar as expected, here are the five best new fast food chains that have been making a name for themselves over the past decade.

A lot is said and written about how hard the food business can be. Dave's Hot Chicken is an exception to that rule, with a story straight out of an easy, breezy, Hollywood movie: Three young men armed with a dream, a couple of folding tables, a portable fryer, and $900 in their pockets, open up a stall selling Nashville-style hot chicken tenders in a parking lot. Less than a week after launch, a reporter from a famous online magazine (in this case, LA Eater) writes a rave review. Then, the queues get longer, the business blows up, and everyone eats happily ever after. Fin.

Dave's Hot Chicken, which kicked things off in an East Hollywood parking lot back in 2017, has over 390 outlets today. It has over 2.4 million followers on Instagram, and was named by Yelp as the most-loved fast food brand in the country in 2025. At the heart of this remarkable success is the simplest of menus, designed around "Hot Chicken" and "Not Chicken" (which are made using hand-sliced cauliflower fried in the same batter). The tenders can be ordered as is, or as a slider. The sides are similarly pared down — fries, cheese fries, kaleslaw, and mac and cheese — while soft drinks and milkshakes are available to cut the heat. 

The hero is the chicken, which can be ordered in one of seven levels of spice, starting from "No Spice" and going all the way up to "The Reaper," which comes with an entertaining waiver that customers need to sign before they dig in.

Next up is another spot with fried chicken at the heart of its offering, but this one belongs to one of the more famous names in the American culinary universe. When he's not out scoping out America's best diners, drive-ins and dives, celebrity chef Guy Fieri spends time opening restaurants. And one of the many restaurant brands Fieri owns (the number stood at 17 last time we counted) is Chicken Guy!

Fieri is known to enjoy hearty, comfort food, and Chicken Guy! — which launched in 2018 — delivers that in spades. The extensive menu is built around the panko-crumbed chicken tenders that are brined in lemon juice, pickle, and buttermilk, and coated in one of three special spice blends created by Fieri — original, hot, and Southern style. These tenders also go into a range of big bite sandwiches, while also featuring in a couple of salads, and as toppings on fries as well as mac and cheese.

Chicken Guy! prides itself on the quality of its birds, and featured prominently on our list of fast food chains serving the highest-quality chicken. The menu also features a wide variety of sauces, as you'd expect from someone who leans into the "Boss of Sauce" moniker. The generous portion sizes are a talking point as well. As a reviewer on Tripadvisor wrote, "In an era of shrink-flation and extra costs, Guy's continues to keep costs low, without substituting quality, and makes every meal affordable for the average consumer."

It took a while for this juicy halal meat sandwich to cross over from the streets of Berlin to New York, but when it finally got here, it did so in style. Doner kebabs first made an appearance on Berlin's streets in the 1970s, but only became a rage around three decades ago. A New York Times article in 1996 even noted that doner vendors at the time were making more money per day than all the McDonald's and Burger King outlets in Germany put together. There's a reason Germany is called the kebab capital of the world.

In 2023, thanks to Doner Haus, New York got a taste of what all the fuss was about. Doner Haus makes its kebabs from 100% halal meat. Marinated chicken or beef is slow-roasted on vertical spits, and served in toasted Turkish pide pocket with onions, tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, and a generous helping of creamy garlic sauce. For those avoiding carbs, the kebabs are available in a box, while tortilla fans can choose to have it as a wrap. The short menu is rounded with fries, baklavas, and a few soft drinks. Doner Haus has five locations spread across Manhattan and Queens in New York City.

"You're not going to find a better kebab sandwich in Manhattan," a fan wrote on Yelp. "Not only is the meat delicious (and pure meat for you keto people, no fillers), but they toast the pide pocket so it's really crispy." Another reviewer referred to Doner Haus as the "bomb," adding, "I've never had food like this before and I'm so happy I did because they're different from your normal choices. The flavors are amazing."

America's love affair with chicken tenders goes back a long way. Their origins can be traced to the 1970s — more specifically to Manchester, New Hampshire, officially known as the "Chicken Tender Capital of the World." But, despite a fairly rich history, there is definitely a sense that America is falling in love with these juicy, crunchy, boneless strips of deep fried chicken all over again.

This obsession is reflected in our list as well, with Houston TX Hot Chicken being the third chain here that's killing it on the back of this red hot concept. Houston TX Hot Chicken, which launched in Las Vegas in 2020, has nearly 30 locations, and made it to our list of the nine best hot chicken chains in the US. It's soon expanding to the United Kingdom as well. Its specialty is the hot chicken sandwich, which is served on a brioche bun with fries, pickles, slaw, and a signature sauce. Much like the first fast food chain on this list, Houston TX Hot Chicken leans heavily into the "hot" in its brand. Its spice levels are ranked from "No Spice" to "Houston, We Have A Problem," which clocks an eye-watering 2 million units on the Scoville scale.

The creative juices flow through the food as well: You can get a side of crushed Cheetos to dip your tenders in for extra crunch. You can also order Nashville-style hot chicken sandwiches, which are also made using fresh brioche buns. As a reviewer on Yelp helpfully points out, "It feels like on every other corner there is another hot chicken place, but I have to say that this place is one of the good ones."

Like the other fast food chains on this list, this one too is built around one big idea. Scratch that, it's actually built on one small idea — sliders. Smalls Sliders is the brainchild of Brandon Landry, who decided it was time to take these fun little flavor bombs out of the bar snack category, and build a substantial fast food business around it.

Launched in Louisiana in 2019, Smalls Sliders has found massive success in a short period of time, with a presence in seven states and over 200 locations in development. Its original slider is a simple cheeseburger slider with the house "smauce" (made by combining mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, pickles, and pickle juice, according to copycat recipes online). You can also order queso, ranch, or BBQ sauce on the side. Variations on the original sliders include adding bacon, adding a patty, or adding both. Currently, the menu also features a limited-time BBQ Bacon and Jalapeño slider.

The biggest advantage of dining at Smalls is that you can order based on your appetite: There are combos on the menu featuring one, two, three, and four sliders. Smalls also knows that sliders are a great way to feed larger, hungrier groups, and sell theirs in party packs of 25. And if you don't have access to Smalls, don't worry — we've got you covered with these delicious slider recipes to feed a crowd.