List of casual dining restaurant chains

This is a list of casual dining restaurant chains around the world, arranged in alphabetical order. A casual dining restaurant is a restaurant that serves moderately priced food in a casual atmosphere. Except for buffet-style restaurants and, more recently, fast casual restaurants, casual dining restaurants usually provide table service.

Name	Type	Location(s)	Number of locations	Notes
The Brothers Three	Pizza	Wisconsin	1 (7 at peak)	Founded in 1972. At one time, had up to seven locations.
Casa Bonita	Tex-Mex	United States	1 (3 at peak)	Has not re-opened since Colorado state mandatory closing in March 2020, but restaurant itself has not been sold or liquidated either, so true status cannot be determined as of November 2020^[update]. In August 2021, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone announced in a video interview with the Governor of Colorado that they are in the process of buying the restaurant.^[10]^[11]
Chi-Chi's	Mexican	Formerly United States, now single location in Austria	1 (130 at peak)	At one time, it was the largest Mexican restaurant chain in the United States with 130 locations worldwide before bankruptcy forced sale of U.S. locations to Outback Steakhouse. All that remains of the former chain by the second decade of the 21st century is a single franchised location in Vienna.
Du-par's	Restaurant and bakery	United States (Southern California)	1 (6 at peak)	Scenes from the 1983 movie Valley Girl were filmed at their Studio City location
Horne's	Southern-style	United States	1 (60 at peak)	Many were located near gas stations by highways
Jerry's Restaurants	Family	United States	1 (~50 at peak)	Was much larger, but sold most locations to Denny's in 1980s; was also parent company of Long John Silver's
Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon	Steakhouse	Formerly United States, currently Guam	1 (267 at peak)	Last remaining location is in Guam
Timber Lodge Steakhouse	Steakhouse	United States	1 (85 at peak)
York Steak House	Steakhouse	United States	1 (200 at peak)	At one time had nearly 200 locations

Name	Type	Location(s)	Peak number of locations	Notes
Arab Udupi	Indian	United Arab Emirates	15	In Abu Dhabi and other locations; Udupi cuisine
Bikinis Sports Bar & Grill	Sports bar	United States	14
Bill Knapp's	Family	United States	60
Blue Boar Cafeterias	Cafeteria	United States	21
Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse	Steakhouse	United States, Worldwide	30
Cheeseburger in Paradise	Burgers and margaritas	United States	23	At its peak, the chain had locations in 14 states. Named after the Jimmy Buffett song "Cheeseburger in Paradise".
China Coast	American Chinese	United States	51	Owned by General Mills and later Darden
Clifton's Cafeteria	Cafeteria	United States	10	Replaced by bar called Clifton's Republic in 2018
Coon Chicken Inn	Chicken	United States	3	Located in the Western United States during the early 20th century. Its trademark was a smiling blackface caricature of an African-American porter. The chain folded by mid-century due to its cultural and racial offensiveness.
Don Pablo's	Tex-Mex	United States	120^[12]
Eatza Pizza	Pizza	United States	115	Ended in 2008
Elephant Bar	Scratch kitchen bars	United States	25
ESPN Zone	Casual dining	United States	2	Sports-themed
Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour	Ice cream and sandwiches	United States	120	1900-themed ice cream parlor that also served sandwiches and was known for its theatrics when serving extremely large sized ice cream treats such as the Pig's Trough, Volcano and Zoo to accompaniment of drums, whistles, sirens and singing staff.
Fashion Cafe	Fashion-themed	United States, England, South Africa, Mexico, Spain	5	Fashion-themed restaurant chain that was backed by famous supermodels such as Naomi Campbell, Elle Macpherson, Claudia Schiffer, and Christy Turlington
Fresh Choice	Buffet	United States	50
Hamburger Hamlet	Gourmet hamburgers	United States	24	Had locations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington DC metro areas. Movie and TV actors frequented the original Hollywood location.
Harvey House	Casual	United States	84	Company originally started in 1876 as a chain of railroad eating houses along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway which later evolved into a chain of casual roadway restaurants along U.S. Highways and state tollroads before the growth of interstate highways finally killed the business.
Hen House Restaurants	Casual	United States	40	Had locations near interstate highways.
Howard Johnson's	Family	United States	1,000+ at peak	One of the first restaurant chains. At one time, had over 1,000 locations across the U.S. Final location closed in 2022.^[13]
How Do You Roll?	Sushi	United States	12
JB's Restaurants	Family	United States	104	A Big Boy franchise until 1987. One restaurant in the chain was named "Galaxy Diner".
Koo Koo Roo	Chicken	United States	38	Owned by Luby's
Lee Roy Selmon's	Casual dining	United States	3	Its original location closed in 2018 after 17 years.
Little Chef	Roadside restaurants	United Kingdom	439	Ended in 2018
Lum's	Family	United States	273
Mao	Asian cuisine	Ireland	9	Last location closed in 2024.
Morrison's Cafeteria	Cafeteria	United States	151
Mr. Steak	Steakhouse	United States, Canada	282
Nickerson Farms	Family	United States	6	Usually found near interstate highways
Official All Star Café	Sports-themed	United States	10	Partially owned by Planet Hollywood International
Pasta Bravo	Pizza and Pasta	United States	16	Owned by Yum! Brands
Piccadilly Pub	Bar & grill	United States (Massachusetts)	13
Pizza Corner	Pizza	India	70	Ended in 2014
Richtree Market	Casual dining	Canada	11	Ended in 2020
Rio Bravo Cantina	Mexican	United States	100	Ended in 2002
Roadhouse Grill	Steakhouse	United States	20
The Royal Canadian Pancake Houses	Pancake house	United States	5
Rustler Steak House	Steakhouse	United States	110+	Ended in 1984
Sambo's	Family	United States	1,000+	The chain mostly ended in the early 1980s due to financial mismanagement. At around the same time, disaffection with the name "Sambo's", which was viewed as racially derogatory, led to some locations being rebranded with names including "No Place Like Sam's" and "Jolly Tiger".^[14] By 1984, all but one location was either closed or sold to other chains, including Bakers Square and Denny's. The one remaining Sambo's location was the original one, in Santa Barbara; in 2020 it was renamed to Chad's.^[15]
ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen	Asian	United States	15	Owned by Chipotle; an attempt into the Asian fast casual restaurant industry
ShowBiz Pizza Place	Pizza	United States	90	Started in 1980 as a direct competitor to Chuck E. Cheese. In 1984, the company that owned ShowBiz Pizza Place bought the Chuck E. Cheese chain, and in 1992 all ShowBiz Pizza Place locations were rebranded as Chuck E. Cheese.
Sisters Chicken & Biscuits	Chicken and biscuits	United States	79	Wendy's chicken restaurant subsidiary that existed during the mid-1980s
Soul Daddy	Soul food	United States	3	Once owned by Chipotle Mexican Grill; its creation was the prize for its founder in winning the reality show America's Next Great Restaurant
Souplantation	Buffet	United States	104	Operated as Sweet Tomatoes outside California; the chain filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy on May 7, 2020, and closed permanently on May 8, 2020, due to losses and health and safety concerns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic with salad bars and buffets.^[16]
Steak and Ale	Steakhouse	United States	58	Ended in 2008
Taybarns	Buffet	United Kingdom	7	Ended in 2016
Toddle House	Family	United States	40
Tom's BaoBao	Bao	United States	2	Owned by a Chinese chain called Ganqishi. Closed in 2020.
Valle's Steak House	Steakhouse	United States	32
Victoria Station	Steakhouse, BBQ	United States (northeastern)	100	Brand still exists in Japan, but owned by a different company
VIP's	Family	United States (western)	53	Oregon-based chain that operated in five western states; not to be confused with a chain of the same name (but without an apostrophe) in Mexico operated by Walmart de México y Centroamérica
Wag's	Family	United States	90+	Once owned by Walgreens
Zoës Kitchen	Fast casual	United States	258	Merged into Cava

List of casual dining restaurant chains

Casual

Fast casual

Nearly defunct former casual restaurant chains

Defunct chains

See also

References

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