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NRN & Technomic Identify America’s Favorite Chains

by David Klemt

Toward the beginning of 2024, Nation’s Restaurant News collaborated with Technomic to identify America’s favorite restaurant chains.

To my understanding, this is the first such partnership between the independent foodservice publication and the foodservice intelligence platform.

Providing more than just a glimpse into America’s favorite chains, the rankings span several categories. For instance, the partnership between NRN and Technomic reveals the top QSRs, along with the country’s favorite fast-casual, family-style, and miscale restaurants.

However, the top three chains across more granular categories are also identified. Examples include America’s favorite chicken, pizza, burger, and Mexican restaurants.

In fact, I’m going to kick things off with the more specific, specialized categories. Then, I’ll move into the broader segments.

That said, I encourage you to review NRN‘s article revealing America’s favorite midscale, casual, QSR, etc. restaurants for yourself. Written by Joanna Fantozzi, the piece is full of valuable insights beyond simple rankings.

Further, you may find it interesting to compare these rankings to the results of BrandVue’s Most Loved Eating Out Brands 2023 report, which we reviewed here.

Cheers to NRN and Technomic! Here’s to hoping that this becomes an annual release.

Beverage or Snack

1. Tropical Smoothie Cafe
2. Smoothie King
3. Jamba

Burger

1. Culver’s
2. In-N-Out
3. Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburger

Chicken

1. Chick-fil-A
2. Jollibee
3. Raising Cane’s

Italian (FSR)

1. Carrabba’s Italian Grill
2. Maggiano’s Little Italy
3. Mellow Mushroom

Mexican

1. Chuy’s Tex-Mex
2. Torchy’s Tacos
3. Moe’s Southwest Grill

Pizza

1. Papa Murphy’s
2. Marco’s Pizza
3. Cici’s Pizza

Sandwich

1. Jersey Mike’s Subs
2. Newk’s Eatery
3. Jason’s Deli

Steak

1. Ruth’s Chris Steak House
2. Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse
3. Longhorn Steakhouse

Varied Menu

1. Seasons 52
2. Bahama Breeze Island Grille
3. Cooper’s Hawk

QSR

1. Dutch Bros Coffee
2. Topical Smoothie Cafe
3. Smoothie King
4. Cold Stone Creamery
5. Chik-fil-A

Fast Casual

1. Jersey Mike’s Subs
2. Newk’s Eatery
3. Jason’s Deli
4. McAlister’s Deli
5. Sweetgreen

Family Style

1. First Watch
2. Cracker Barrel
3. Golden Corral

Casual

1. Seasons 52
2. Bahama Breeze Island Grille
3. Bonefish Grill
4. Longhorn Steakhouse
5. Cooper’s Hawk

Midscale

1. First Watch
2. Cracker Barrel
3. Golden Corral
4. Shoney’s
5. Black Bear Diner

Favorite Chains: Overall

1. Ruth’s Chris Steak House
2. Season 52
3. Dutch Bros Coffee
4. Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse
5. Bahama Breeze Island Grille
6. Longhorn Steakhouse
7. Cooper’s Hawk
8. Tropical Smoothie Cafe
9. The Capital Grille
10. Smoothie King

When it comes to this list of the top-ten favorite chain restaurants, Technomic data scores a number of crucial insights.

Click here to see how each of these industry leaders ranked in:

• Service and hospitality
• Unit appearance and ambience
• F&B
• Convenience and takeout
• Value

Image: Shutterstock. Disclaimer: This image was generated by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system.