The Busiest Time Of Day To Eat At Chick-Fil-A, Hands Down

There are many aspects to love about eating at Chick-fil-A, like the little-known hack to order a custom bowl (seriously, check it out ASAP!) and the lemonade that tastes so, so good. If there's one thing that bums us out, it's the line. No matter what city and state you visit — CFA has thousands of locations in 48 states, as of this writing, with just two states not having a single restaurant — it seems like every hungry consumer in town shows up in the drive-thru en masse, creating traffic jams that can wrap around the restaurant. Currently, Chick-fil-A ranks as one of the slowest fast food chains in America, meaning that you usually have to exercise patience when you get a hankering for that Original Chicken Sandwich. But are there better and worse times to queue up at Chick-fil-A? Turns out, the answer is "yes."

Per an archived page from Chick-fil-A's own website, the time period between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. is, on average, the busiest in all locations. That claim was from 2018, as was an enlightening interest piece written by a CNBC reporter who donned a red polo and worked a shift in one of the United States' busiest Chick-fil-A locations in Manhattan. 

This seems to be confirmed much more recently by anecdotal employee reports on Reddit, where the peak of the lunch rush is singled out as especially hectic. It's interesting to note that the busiest day of the week seems to be up for discussion — at the Big Apple store in 2018, Fridays had lines out the door, while various Chick-fil-A employees claim that their stores are packed on Saturdays, while others say Mondays are always doorbusters due to stores being closed on Sundays.

Have you ever daydreamed about blissfully skipping past the overwhelming line of cars or customers in either the drive-thru or in-store queue at Chick-fil-A? If you use the chain's app, you can experience the next-best thing. Chick-fil-A One, said app, not only allows you to earn points towards free food rewards, but it's a near-failproof hack towards saving time getting your food. You can place your order ahead of time, check in at the restaurant, and sail up to the counter to pick up your goodies, bypassing the hoi polloi languishing around the pickup counter in the lobby. Certain restaurants even have a Mobile Thru section of their drive-thru that gives priority to folks who ordered on the app. It's not exactly instant gratification, but we're happy to shave a few precious minutes off our grub runs!

On Reddit, employees and customers alike confirmed that the app is a lifesaver for busy times at Chick-fil-A. "You can earn points to get free stuff and it makes ordering for the drive thru or curbside much easier imo," one user commented. "If you're not in it for the speed, the points are essentially just free money accruing over time," another mentioned. Speed and free food? Sounds like a win to us ... a win that could really pay dividends when it's the peak of the lunch rush, and you are questioning your life choices in that endless Chick-fil-A line!