10 Steakhouse Chains That Are Going To Take Over The US
chef preparing steak – AnnaStills/Shutterstock
There’s no denying that steakhouses are ingrained in American culture. Ever since the very first steakhouse opened in 1837, crowds have flocked to these hallowed eateries to eat heaping portions of meat and potatoes. Because they’ve been around for so long, though, there’s the sense that steakhouses are a little old-school and outdated — but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, the steakhouse is very much on the rise, with several chains poised to dominate the market over the coming years.
Some of these chains, like Texas Roadhouse and LongHorn Steakhouse, will be familiar names to steak lovers. While they’re already established brands, these restaurants have found that there’s plenty of room to still grow and achieve greater market dominance. However, there are other steakhouses that are very much on the rise. Joints like The Capital Grille and STK may be relatively small players in the steakhouse market, but they’re just at the start of their journey, with a rise in locations and customers just around the corner. There are also some steakhouses out there that have seen a turnaround in their fortunes, and which will soon be on every street corner after almost disappearing completely.
Read more: The Ultimate Ranking Of American Fast Food Restaurants
Texas Roadhouse
Texas Roadhouse sign – Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock
If you’ve eaten steak recently, there’s a good chance that it was at a Texas Roadhouse. The brand has grown significantly since its first branch opened in 1993, and on the strength of some of Texas Roadhouse’s best dishes, in just over three decades its number of restaurants has ballooned. Now, there are approximately 620 Texas Roadhouse locations spread across the entirety of the United States.
All of this might sound like the chain has already taken over America — but the truth is that it’s still growing rapidly. In 2023, Texas Roadhouse was named the fastest-growing restaurant brand worldwide, with a year-on-year value increase of 56%, according to a report from Brand Finance. Its growth journey didn’t stop there, either. In an earnings call hosted by Texas Roadhouse in early 2024, the CEO of the company Jerry Morgan expressed Texas Roadhouse’s intention to open dozens of new restaurants during 2024, with a solid investment in new restaurant development. The chain’s ultimate aim is to increase its restaurant count to 900 units, at which point you’ll likely find it difficult to escape Texas Roadhouse, no matter where you turn. After it hits that mark, who’s to say that it won’t continue to grow?
Fogo De Chão
Fogo De Chao exterior signage – Kristi Blokhin/Shutterstock
Fogo de Chão is a steakhouse with a difference. Instead of specializing in huge slabs of meat served with baked potatoes, the chain is a Brazilian steakhouse, meaning it comes with its own traits and distinctive style of cuisine. Taking the cooking style of churrasco and transplanting it to the U.S. was a canny move for the brand, as the cuisine has boomed since it entered the American market in 1997. Since then, Fogo de Chão has continued to grow steadily.
This year seemed to mark a turning point for the restaurant chain, though. It was announced in 2024 that Fogo de Chão is expanding in the U.S., with new branches planned in cities like Nashville, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and Washington D.C. These new restaurants add to a host of other locations that were already announced for 2024. It’s not just stopping there, either: Fogo de Chão also announced that it was pushing forward in several other countries, in a bid to increase its international presence. In total, the chain plans to open 20 new locations throughout the year, and mark the end of 2024 with its 100th restaurant opening.
LongHorn Steakhouse
Longhorn Steakhouse restaurant sign – Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock
LongHorn Steakhouse is hardly a small name in the steakhouse world. The chain boasts over 600 locations in the U.S., with Florida alone having 71 restaurants as of June 2024. Despite its size, LongHorn Steakhouse still has its own secrets, one of which is that the chain is highly ambitious. Throughout 2023 and fiscal 2024, its parent company Darden Restaurants intends to open a host of new LongHorn Steakhouses, to further establish its market dominance. While intended openings don’t always turn into reality, its chances were boosted by the fact that LongHorn Steakhouse saw a bump in sales during 2023, achieving record numbers.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that this expansion isn’t just being pushed on a market that doesn’t want it, either. Research conducted in 2024 found that LongHorn Steakhouse is one of the highest-rated steakhouses by customers for its taste, according to data found via The Food Institute. The steakhouse’s investment into customer service has paid off when it comes to customer satisfaction, and it’s clear that there’s an appetite for its steaks with casual diners — something which it is clearly capitalizing on by making it even easier for people to eat there.
Outback Steakhouse
Outback Steakhouse restaurant sign – Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
When we see that our neighborhood steakhouse restaurant is closing, it can feel like things are in trouble. That’s not necessarily always the case, though. Outback Steakhouse proves this by the fact that the chain has elected to close over 40 of its restaurants this year — and yet still manages to be poised to be everywhere.
It all comes down to the fact that it’s planning to open more restaurants than its closing, in a bid to produce further football, and therefore greater odds for the brand to grow even more. While the Australian-themed steak chain that specializes in the classic Bloomin’ Onion had a rocky few months in 2023 when it came to its revenue, it gently picked things back up and has been performing well through 2024. This has allowed it to focus on new openings, and on shutting up shop in restaurants that have become old and tired. The new openings have been coupled with remodeling work on already-established restaurants, bringing tired locations back to life. Make no mistake: Outback Steakhouse is here to stay.
Black Angus Steakhouse
Black Angus Steakhouse exterior – JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock
Black Angus Steakhouse has been around for a while, but if you judge how long a restaurant’s been open by how many locations it currently has, you wouldn’t know it. Since its opening in 1964, Black Angus Steakhouse’s fortunes have risen and fallen: In the early 2000s, it had over 100 locations, but this number has since fallen to just a few dozen, signaling an apparent fall from grace.
However, all of this looks likely to change quite soon. The brand had a shot in the arm in 2021, with the appointment of new Vice President of Growth Deborah Shapiro. Shapiro made a strong commitment to the continued success of the company, in the form of bigger and better sales and a reinvigorated brand. These intentions soon became reality, with better cash flow and a younger customer base coming through its doors. Then, in 2024, perhaps the strongest indicator that Black Angus Steakhouse was on the rise came in the form of a partnership with The Cheesecake Factory Bakery. Coming in its 60th anniversary year, the partnership is bound to drive further traffic, create more opportunities for growth, and keep the steakhouse chain feeling alive and vital.
Ruth’s Chris Steak House
Ruth’s Chris Steak House exterior – JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock
Ruth’s Chris Steak House is on the cusp of becoming huge. It’s not that the steakhouse chain is particularly small as it stands, with the business having grown to over 140 locations worldwide since its opening in 1965. However, a recent acquisition by eatery giant Darden Restaurants has put a lot of firepower behind the brand, with Darden gaining a huge amount of revenue from its purchase that will inevitably go back into the expansion of the Ruth’s Chris name.
That expansion has already begun. In 2024, Ruth’s Chris Steak House announced a slew of new restaurants, with branches opening in Florida and Minnesota. These openings are accompanied by other proposed new restaurants coming in 2025. Time will tell as to how much Darden’s purchase will pay off, but given that it’s the company that owns other notable names — like Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, and Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen — it’s clear that it knows how to successfully expand a business. We think we’ll be seeing a lot more Ruth’s Chris joints soon.
The Capital Grille
The Capital Grille door sign – George Rose/Getty Images
The Capital Grille may have only been around since 1990, but in that time it’s managed to carve out a niche in the market for an upmarket steakhouse experience that remains classy across its dozens of locations. It looks like more people will be able to have this experience soon, too. The Capital Grille, which is owned by Darden Restaurants, has seen a year-on-year increase in locations in fiscal 2024. This is coupled with a general increase in sales across Darden’s fine dining brands, of which The Capital Grille is certainly a centerpiece.
In turn, this has translated into a sunny outlook for The Capital Grille, and more branches of the restaurant opening up beyond that fiscal year. The summer of 2024 saw new restaurants spring up in Fort Myers and Columbus. In September 2024, a new location will also open in Newtown, Pennsylvania, a massive 200-seater joint that will bring an air of elegance to the area. While it’s not its biggest brand, The Capital Grille is Darden’s flagship restaurant, and it’s clear that it’s going to stop at nothing to keep it alive and expanding.
Sizzler
Sizzler steakhouse sign – MeSamong/Shutterstock
We just love a comeback story, y’all. There was a time when it looked like Sizzler was on the way out: The chain, which once had over 700 locations worldwide, has been plagued by bankruptcy and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. By 2023, its units had dropped to just 73 locations. However, it’s recently appointed a specialist agency to shake up and modernize its image, in a bid to reinvigorate the brand, bring it back to life, and hopefully create some much-needed expansion.
By the looks of things, this plan appears to be working. Shortly after Sizzler started figuring out how to bring the brand back from the brink, it embarked on a branch-wide redesign. The intention behind the redesign was to create universal appeal across its restaurants, and invite all demographics through its doors. The redesign of its restaurants was soon followed by a redesign of its menu. While Sizzler’s is well-known for its steaks, it knows that a good steakhouse needs good burgers — and so it gave its burger menu a refresh in the summer of 2024, adding two new items. While it’s too early to say whether these changes will create more growth, we’d be surprised if this brand didn’t start to pick back up again soon.
STK
STK steakhouse – Joseph Hendrickson/Shutterstock
Some brands really arrive with a bang — and that’s exactly what STK did. The restaurant chain burst onto the scene just a few years ago, and since then it’s established itself as a steakhouse on the rise, opening multiple locations in a short space of time. However, the last few years have been especially good to STK. In 2022 The ONE Group, of which STK is a subsidiary, reported record-breaking revenue and huge growth, which it partly attributed to customers being in love with the dining experience at its steakhouse.
It accompanied this growth report with a promise of good things to come for STK, in the form of more restaurants — and it’s started to deliver. At the end of 2023 and throughout 2024, a succession of new STK locations were announced and opened. Salt Lake City, Houston, and D.C. all saw an STK presence, in the form of new restaurants. In D.C.’s case, its new unit was intended to be a re-entrance into the market, after a first STK branch had to close in 2016. Given that STK has developed its concept in the last few years, it seems likely that this one is going to stick, and that we’ll see more restaurants opening pretty soon.
Texas De Brazil
Texas De Brazil steakhouse – Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock
Texas de Brazil announces its concept pretty definitively in its name: This is a restaurant that combines American and Brazilian steakhouse traditions, serving up churrasco with some classic American sides like garlic mashed potatoes. This unique mash-up has resulted in big things for the company. In 2023, Texas de Brazil had a bumper year, and reported $460 million in gross revenue. This revenue was combined with a healthy crop of profits, signaling a thriving business.
Texas de Brazil isn’t content to sit on its hands with all this revenue, though. Its founder Salim Asrawi announced a succession of new stores to come in 2024, with the hope being that the new income from these units will boost its cash flow even further. Texas de Brazil also has its sights set well beyond 2024 and into the future. A large new Denver branch has been announced for 2025, with approximately 60 members of staff required to run the 8,000-plus square foot restaurant smoothly. Make no mistake: Texas de Brazil is a name you’ll be seeing a lot more of in the future.
Read the original article on The Daily Meal.
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