The State That Eats The Most Fast Food Isn't New York Or California

When you think about the foodie scene in Maryland, your mind probably goes to steaming, buttery seafood dishes featuring all types of crabs doused in Old Bay, but here's a newsflash: Maryland has a lot of fast food restaurants. The Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts published research that broke down American fast food trends and found that, in terms of overall restaurants, Maryland had the highest percentage of "limited service restaurants" in the country. This means eateries that "typically specialize in a particular type of food, such as hamburgers, pizza, or chicken, and customers order and pay at a counter before they get their food or beverage" (via the USDA). In Maryland, a staggering 46.8% of all restaurants in the state would be considered fast food, as opposed to the national average of 35.7%. Accordingly, Marylanders really like their drive-thrus.

Interestingly, Maryland doesn't have the highest number of fast food restaurants per capita, that would be Alabama, where 55% of residents eat fast food at least once a week (per InsiderMonkey). Nor is it the state where residents spend the highest percentage of their monthly income on fast food; that is Mississippi, where limited service eating consumes 0.47% of their budget on average (per WalletHub). Rather, Maryland has a low number of overall restaurants compared to other U.S. states, and an outsized percentage of them are fast food joints.

The CDC reported that, between 2013 and 2016, over a third of Americans ate fast food on any given day, with consumption tied to younger age and higher household income. Maryland residents have plenty of choices when it comes to fast food. Data from Georgia Tech show that Subway and Dunkin' are the two chains with the most locations in Maryland, with 446 and 289 outlets, respectively. It's likely that McDonald's coke tastes just as good in Maryland as it does everywhere else, as the Golden Arches occupies the number-three slot on the fast food leaderboard. All the Top 20 fast food chains in the state are big national chains, including several major players in delivery pizza, and even fast casual joints like Tropical Smoothie Cafe and Panera.

That's not to say that Maryland can't hold its own with the best local fast food chains. Chaps Pit Beef was voted as the finest Maryland-centric fast food restaurant. Pit beef is Baltimore's particular spin on barbecue, featuring charcoal-grilled round roast shaved thin and piled high on either white bread or a roll. Chaps does Maryland's specialty beef proud, having been lauded by authorities like Zagat, Guy Fieri, and Anthony Bourdain. As of this writing, it features three brick-and-mortar locations plus a roving food truck, all serving up tons of barbecue meats, as well as classic smokehouse sides.