One McDonald's in Texas tops the Google rankings. One in Arizona averages 1.55 stars.

Every McDonald's in America sells the same Big Mac at roughly the same price. But a new analysis of more than 20 million Google reviews across nearly 13,000 U.S. locations finds that the experience of eating there can vary so dramatically that the best-rated outlet scores nearly three times higher than the worst.

The McDonald's on East Main Street in Eagle Pass, Texas, is the highest-rated in the country, averaging 4.25 stars from 2,159 reviews, according to SEO Backlinks, which pulled Google Maps listings for U.S. McDonald's restaurants and ranked them by exact average rating. At the other end sits the location on North 163rd Avenue in Surprise, Arizona, at just 1.55 stars from 745 reviews — with 82% of those reviews giving it a single star.

Recent reviews of the Surprise location describe slow drive-thru service and wrong orders, with one reviewer calling it by far the worst service of any McDonald's and another saying the drive-thru times are horrendous even when traffic is low.

The data was collected on October 5, 2026, from 12,834 open restaurants with at least 500 Google reviews each — 20,466,218 reviews in total. Rather than relying on Google's rounded display score, SEO Backlinks calculated each restaurant's exact average from its full breakdown of one- through five-star reviews, so locations that appear identical on Google could still be ranked against each other.

Every McDonald's sells the same menu at much the same price, so the star rating on Google is the only thing that sets one apart from the next.— Oliver Weston, Founder of SEO Backlinks

The national average across all ranked locations is 3.44 stars. The gap between the best and worst individual restaurants — nearly three full stars — points to how much local management and staffing can shape a customer's experience at an otherwise identical chain.

Border towns dominate the top of the rankings. Eagle Pass has two locations in the top 10, and Calexico, California — which sits directly on the U.S.-Mexico border — is second overall at 4.23 stars. A Brownsville, Texas, location is fifth, and a restaurant near the Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego is ninth. Long Island places two locations in the top 10 as well: Mattituck at 4.17 and New Hyde Park at 4.16, where the restaurant is housed in a Georgian-style mansion. The McDonald's at the chain's global headquarters in Chicago's West Loop — which serves a rotating menu of dishes from McDonald's around the world — ranks eighth, and Florham Park, New Jersey, is fourth at 4.20.

The bottom of the list is more geographically scattered but has its own patterns. The second-worst location is on US-20 in Goshen, Indiana, at 1.99 stars. Auburn, Alabama, is the only city with two restaurants in the bottom 10: the location on West Magnolia Avenue, next to Auburn University, is third-worst at 2.27, and the one on Opelika Road is seventh at 2.42. Michigan accounts for three of the 10 worst — in St. Clair Shores (2.28), at Detroit Metropolitan Airport (2.33), and in Brooklyn, Michigan (2.46). Stafford, Virginia; Roy, Utah; and Corbin, Kentucky, round out the bottom 10.

This place seriously deserves an award for being the worst McDonald's in America.— Anonymous reviewer, Auburn, Alabama (West Magnolia Avenue location)

At the state level, Utah's 106 ranked restaurants average the lowest in the country at 3.22 stars, followed by Georgia at 3.27 and South Carolina at 3.29. Hawaii leads all states at 3.71, ahead of New Jersey at 3.64 and Washington, D.C., at 3.62. Western and Northeastern states generally outperform the South, which accounts for a disproportionate share of the lowest-rated locations.

The Downey, California, location — the oldest McDonald's still operating anywhere in the world, on Lakewood Boulevard — ranks third nationally at 4.22 stars, suggesting that heritage and novelty can drive unusually positive customer sentiment even at a fast-food outlet.

A separate earlier study by restaurant furnishing company Restaurant Furniture, based on 8.7 million Google reviews across 4,867 locations in the 10 largest cities per state, reached broadly similar state-level conclusions: Hawaii ranked first at 3.77, New Jersey second at 3.68, and Michigan last at 3.15. That study identified Roswell, New Mexico — home of a UFO-themed Golden Arches — as the top individual city at 3.97, and Auburn, Alabama, as the worst city at 2.86. The two studies used different methodologies and review pools, so their specific figures differ.

Why it matters — With nearly 13,000 U.S. locations serving millions of customers daily, the three-star gap between the best and worst McDonald's shows that brand standardization doesn't guarantee consistent service — and that where you live can determine whether a routine lunch is pleasant or miserable.

Sources differ on Hawaii state average McDonald's rating: 3.71 stars (12,834-location study, equal weight per restaurant) (seobacklinks.com) vs 3.77 stars (4,867-location study of top 10 cities per state) (cleveland.com / nypost.com)

Sources differ on New Jersey state average McDonald's rating: 3.64 stars (seobacklinks.com) vs 3.68 stars (cleveland.com / nypost.com)

Sources differ on Michigan state average McDonald's rating: Not in bottom 10 states (SEO Backlinks study) (seobacklinks.com) vs 3.15 stars — worst in the nation (Restaurant Furniture study) (cleveland.com / nypost.com)

Reported by usatoday.com, seobacklinks.com, azfamily.com, cleveland.com, nypost.com, fastcompany.com