Cincinnati-area favorite named best regional fast food restaurant by USA Today
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- Skyline Chili ranked best regional fast-food restaurant by USA Today in 2025.
- Skyline Chili beat Biscuitville and Lion’s Choice to earn top regional honors.
- Kentucky Fried Chicken earned top-10 spots across three fast-food categories.
The popular Cincinnati-based fast-food chain Skyline Chili has been named the best regional fast food restaurant by USA Today for the second year in a row.
Editors and fast food experts from the national newspaper compiled lists of top fast food chains across 11 categories and let their readers decide the top 10. Skyline Chili came out on top in the best regional fast food restaurant category, beating other regional hot spots like North Carolina-based Biscuitville and Missouri-based Lion’s Choice, which rounded out the podium.
The winners were announced Wednesday.
Skyline Chili, known for its chili cheese coneys and 3-Ways, topped with the unique taste of Cincinnati chili, first won the award in 2024. The restaurant finished second in 2019, fourth in 2021 and third in 2023.
Another Kentucky favorite, Kentucky Fried Chicken, picked up three top-10 honors in this year’s voting. The popular fried chicken restaurant finished sixth in the best fast food restaurant category, eighth in the best fast food fried chicken category and 10th in the best fast-food fries category.
Earlier this year, Skyline Chili teamed up with Graeter’s to make Skyline Spice Ice Cream, a limited-edition flavor that combined Graeter’s handcrafted French Pot ice cream with oyster crackers and Skyline’s signature chili spice mix. The Herald-Leader provided a review of the unique ice cream.
Though most Skyline restaurants are in the Greater Cincinnati area, Central Kentucky has four locations, too: 2850 Richmond Road in Lexington; 354 E. Brannon Road in Nicholasville; 2216 Lantern Ridge Drive in Richmond; and 103 Crosswinds Center Path in Georgetown.
The full list of winners and top 10 finishers among the categories can be found on USA Today’s website.
