The Absolute Best Fast Food Chocolate Milkshake Is From An Underrated Chain

While we love ending the day with something sweet, any time is truly treat time. Whether it's a chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookie in the autumn or a bright fruit tart in summer, there is always room for a dessert — especially one you can grab on the go. To help you find the gold standard of drive-thru confections, Food Republic ranked fast food chocolate milkshakes, and the verdict is in: Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard offers the best one.

A big part of why the underrated chain takes the top spot is hiding in plain sight: It makes its shakes with frozen custard, which is legally defined by the FDA as having at least 1.4% egg yolk solids by weight. Essentially, these yolks act as a natural emulsifier, binding the ingredients into an ultra-thick blend that won't turn into a watery mess the moment you step into the sun.

Plus, one of the reasons custard differs from ice cream is that it's churned with far less air. This denser structure ensures the chocolate flavor you crave stays front and center rather than being diluted into a puddle of what effectively amounts to sweet milk — a problem our taste tester found with some of the competitors' offerings. Sure, depending on your location, you might pay between $5.50 and $6.25 for a small; however, for those who crave a punch of chocolate and dislike thin, runny shakes, it's arguably worth it.

It probably comes as no surprise that Good Times excels at shakes, considering frozen custard is sort of the chain's calling card (when it comes to desserts, anyway). That same rich, egg-yolk base also anchors its famously thick Spoonbenders; while our taste tester noted you could certainly eat the chocolate shake with a spoon, you have virtually no choice but to use one for these confections, which are loaded with all kinds of tasty toppings (think pecans, cookie dough chunks, cheesecake bites, and more). Custard's dense and velvety texture makes it uniquely well-suited to the drive-thru, where frozen treats need to hold their structure long enough to survive a car ride without separating into sugary sludge.

Luckily, for those of us who don't have a Good Times close by, the chain is far from alone in its reliance on custard. Freddy's has its signature concretes, Rita's offers Gelati (which layers custard with Italian ice), and the custard from Culver's has been crowned Reddit's favorite frozen fast food indulgence. Clearly, whether blended into a shake, layered into a sundae, or enjoyed plain, custard packs an unforgettable punch — and whenever a chain commits to it, customers notice.