Food & Drink
Restaurants Tier List Maker
Rank restaurant chains, from Olive Garden and Texas Roadhouse to Chipotle, Panera and Waffle House.
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Meet every restaurant (23)
These 23 restaurants load into the maker above. Each write-up covers what the restaurant is and what to weigh when you rank it. Facts were last checked on .
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Olive Garden
A casual dining chain specializing in Italian-American cuisine, and a unit of Darden Restaurants. In 2022 it accounted for $4.5 billion of the $9.63 billion in revenue at its parent company.
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Applebee's
A casual dining chain that serves mainstream American dishes such as salads, chicken and burgers. Its signature dish is the "riblets," and it is owned by Dine Brands, the company formed after IHOP bought it.
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Chili's
Chili's Grill & Bar was founded by Larry Lavine in Texas in 1975. It is currently owned and operated by Brinker International.
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Texas Roadhouse
A steakhouse chain with Texan and Southwestern cuisine, headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. Its parent company also runs two other concepts, Bubba's 33 and Jaggers.
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Outback Steakhouse
An Australian-themed casual dining chain serving American cuisine from Tampa, Florida. It was founded on March 15, 1988, by Bob Basham, Chris T. Sullivan, Trudy Cooper and Tim Gannon.
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Red Lobster
A casual dining chain headquartered in Orlando, Florida. Golden Gate Capital acquired it from Darden Restaurants on July 28, 2014, and the seafood supplier Thai Union bought a 25 percent stake in 2016.
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The Cheesecake Factory
A restaurant chain and cheesecake distributor that also owns the North Italia brand. It runs two bakery production facilities, in Calabasas, California, and Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
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IHOP
The International House of Pancakes specializes in American breakfast foods, with lunch and dinner items too. It is owned by Dine Brands, formed after IHOP's purchase of Applebee's, and 99 percent of restaurants are franchised.
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Denny's
A table-service diner chain founded in 1953 as a donut stand called Danny's Donuts in Lakewood, California. It has grown into one of the largest full-service family restaurant chains in the United States.
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Cracker Barrel
A Southern country-themed chain of restaurant and gift stores, founded in 1969 by Dan Evins and Tommy Lowe in Lebanon, Tennessee. Early locations were near Interstate exits in the Southeast and Midwest.
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Buffalo Wild Wings
A casual dining restaurant and sports bar specializing in chicken wings. It was originally Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck and is nicknamed BW3 or BDubs, and its parent company is Inspire Brands.
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Red Robin
Founded in 1940 in Seattle, Washington, as Sam's Tavern, then Sam's Red Robin. The first franchised Red Robin opened in Yakima, Washington, in 1979, and its full name is Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews.
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TGI Fridays
The name stands for "Thank God It's Friday." It focuses primarily on American cuisine, operates in more than 35 countries, and filed for bankruptcy in the United States on November 2, 2024.
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Panera Bread
A bakery-cafe fast casual chain headquartered in Fenton, Missouri, which is called Saint Louis Bread Company in the Greater St. Louis area. It offers bagels, croissants, muffins and scones.
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Chipotle
One of the first fast casual restaurant chains, serving bowls, tacos and Mission burritos made to order in front of the customer. It reached 4,000 locations by December 2025.
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Panda Express
A fast-food chain specializing in American Chinese cuisine, and the largest Asian-segment restaurant chain in the United States. It started in shopping mall food courts, before expanding to other formats.
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Waffle House
A restaurant chain headquartered in Norcross, Georgia, with a menu mainly of Southern breakfast food. Most locations are in the Midwest and the South, where it is a regional cultural icon.
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LongHorn Steakhouse
A casual dining steakhouse chain owned and operated by Darden Restaurants, headquartered in Orlando, Florida. It is operated through RARE Hospitality Management.
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Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen
Founded in 1979 and formerly known as Cheddar's Casual Cafe. It is based in Orlando, Florida, and owned by Darden Restaurants.
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Chick-fil-A
Operates restaurants across 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, with a breakfast, lunch and dinner menu. It also has operations in Canada, the United Kingdom and Singapore.
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In-N-Out Burger
Besides California, the chain has expanded into Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, Washington and Tennessee. The original Baldwin Park location opened in 1948.
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Five Guys
There were five locations around the Washington, D.C. area by 2001. In early 2003 Five Guys began franchising, and in a year and a half it had sold permits for over 300 franchises.
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Shake Shack
A fast casual chain based in New York City that has been one of the fastest-growing food chains. It later became a public company, after starting as a hot dog cart.
Restaurants tier list questions
Which restaurants on this list are fast casual?
Chipotle, Panera Bread, Shake Shack and Five Guys are fast casual or fast food-style chains here. The rest, such as Olive Garden, Applebee's and Texas Roadhouse, are sit-down casual dining restaurants.
Which chains share a parent company?
Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and Cheddar's are all owned by Darden Restaurants. IHOP and Applebee's are both owned by Dine Brands, and Buffalo Wild Wings belongs to Inspire Brands.
How should I rank restaurants?
Common criteria include food quality, value, service, atmosphere and consistency between locations. Since steakhouses and breakfast spots do different jobs, you may want to compare chains within the same type of restaurant.
Sources
Facts on this page were checked against these references on .