11 Steakhouse Chains We Hope Can Save Their Declining Business

No matter whether you prefer upscale or more casual steakhouses, it's likely that some of your favorite chain steakhouses are in decline right now. Many have been in decline for years now, with the COVID-19 pandemic hastening their demise even further. Steak restaurant chains that once had dozens or even hundreds of locations are seeing their numbers dwindle as more and more locations close their doors. While some parent companies are trying to remodel and update technology to try to stay relevant, others are watching their franchisees give up the steakhouse game.

The steakhouse chains on our list range from more upscale ones to casual ones and even ones that have buffets or serve their food cafeteria-style. While one on our list still has around 680 locations left open, 64% have fewer than 50 locations. Of those, two have only two locations left, and one is the last restaurant standing. The ones on our list are restaurants that are well-regarded, often ranking among the best steakhouse chains in the U.S. While they continue to get high ratings from their loyal customers, sometimes that isn't enough, as there are many factors that go into being able to keep restaurants open. Hopefully, the beloved steakhouse chain restaurants on our list can find ways to halt their decline and not join the growing list of ones that have permanently closed their doors.

Customers have been getting their steak, seafood, and other meat at Black Angus Steakhouse around the U.S. since 1964. The chain dry-ages its USDA Choice steaks and Certified Angus Beef for three or more weeks. So, it's full of flavor. Yet, despite its quality and long-standing reputation, it doesn't seem to be in great financial shape. It currently has 31 locations in five states: Arizona, California, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Washington, but we're worried they may not last for financial reasons.

In 2023, Debtwire (via Restaurant Business) listed Black Angus Steakhouse among the many restaurants that are in financial trouble, and it looks like it could be on a path toward bankruptcy. Like so many restaurants, it had its fair share of temporary closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, some locations, like the one in Fresno, California, that had been open for 43 years, closed permanently that year. In 2023, American Restaurant Group, Inc., which owns Black Angus, underwent secured debt refinancing, which should help it repay loans under better terms. However, only time will show if it's enough to prevent a repeat of the bankruptcies it had in 2009 and 2017. Despite the company saying that it doesn't think it's in danger of bankruptcy, its sales have declined around 29% between 2018 and 2023.

New Jersey steak lovers have been eating at Charlie Brown's Fresh Grill (previously Charlie Brown's Steakhouse) since 1966. The family-friendly steakhouse is known for its USDA Choice steaks. However, it also serves other meats like prime rib, hamburgers, and seafood, and it has an unlimited salad bar for customers to enjoy. There are now only two locations.

At one point, Charlie Brown's restaurants were famous not only in New Jersey but in other states along the East Coast. Unfortunately, after declaring bankruptcy in 2010, the chain had already dwindled from nearly 50 to just 14 locations before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

After the pandemic caused its remaining locations to close in 2020, most never reopened, likely owing to the fact that New Jersey restaurants were forced to remain closed longer than restaurants in other states. At first, only one beloved location was reopened: the one in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. However, after undergoing renovations, another beloved one in Woodbury, New Jersey, reopened in 2022. Now, with only two left, we hope they can stay stable as long as the economy doesn't have any more curveballs to throw at them in the future.

BLT Steak and BLT Prime are steakhouses that are well-loved by both politicians and celebrities. Like many steakhouses, they offer high-end steak and seafood dishes. They also have gourmet seasonal dishes, excellent salads, complimentary Gruyere cheese popovers with duck pâté, and award-winning wines. Unfortunately, the two restaurants have been closing their doors everywhere. Now, the seven remaining BLT Steak locations are all abroad, with only two BLT Prime locations remaining in New York and Miami.

BLT restaurant group was hit hard enough by the COVID-19 pandemic to need to file for bankruptcy in 2022. While it was able to apply for Paycheck Protection Program loans in some locations, it couldn't in others, like New York, without indoor dining open. Even with loan forgiveness, loan consolidation, and grants, its debts snowballed without its normal customer base, and it ultimately needed to close several locations permanently in addition to bankruptcy.

Locations in Washington, D.C., were among the last to close. The BLT Prime in the Trump International Hotel overlooking the White House and Washington Monument closed in 2022, leaving only two other U.S. locations open. Trump was known to order a well-done steak there with ketchup, with an involved process for serving him a Diet Coke in a bottle. Two years later, in July of 2024, DC's BLT Steak location closed. Its location near the White House attracted the Obamas as frequent guests as well as various celebrities like Tom Hanks and Jeff Bezos. Its closure signaled the end of the BLT Steak chain in the U.S. Hopefully, the remaining locations will prosper.

Upscale Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar showed up on the restaurant scene in 1998, offering a variety of steak cuts, seafood, chicken, salads, and hand-picked wines. Plus, it's among the chain restaurants known for offering great complimentary bread. Despite being well-liked, its parent company has been closing locations for a while now such that there are only a little over 60 still open.

Fleming's locations that had been open for decades have been slowly closing in recent years all over the country. Closures like the one in Hilldale Mall in Madison, Wisconsin, and Woodmere, Ohio, in 2019 happened before the COVID-19 pandemic. Others around the country followed in 2020 and 2023.

Fleming's parent company, Bloomin' Brands, made the decision in February of 2024 to assess all its restaurant holdings and close down ones with lower sales numbers. The company owned not only Fleming's locations, but also Bonefish Grill, Carraba's Italian Grill, and Outback Steakhouse. Collectively, 41 locations of these restaurants were on the chopping block, with many being older restaurants that also needed costly renovations. While Bloomin's revenue increased between the last quarter of 2022 and the last quarter of 2023, its actual net income decreased by $58 million. Fleming's sales, in particular, decreased by 0.3% during that time. While its sales decreased less than the other chains that Bloomin' owns, it was still enough to warrant location closures.

One of Bloomin' Brands' more casual steakhouses is Outback Steakhouse. The chain has been serving steak with Australian flair since 1988. Outback is known for its Bloomin' Onion and has a menu that includes steak, seafood, chicken, ribs, salads, soups, sandwiches, and burgers to accommodate a variety of cravings. Despite some closures, it still has nearly 680 locations.

Not as many people are visiting Outback Steakhouse as they once did, leading to declining sales. Thus, the chain started closing underperforming locations in 2024. Outback was part of the four restaurants that Bloomin' Brands targeted for closing 41 locations that year. In keeping with new dining trends, Outback opened many new smaller locations in 2022 featuring a new updated design and new technology, with plans for lots of future remodeling and any new locations to open with the new model. Rather than update some of the older locations, it seemed more cost-effective to just close them instead. Some locations, like the one that closed in Clay, New York, in 2024, left entire regions without an Outback.

As we previously mentioned, Bloomin' Brands had a decrease in its net income between 2022 and 2023. And, like Fleming's, it had a 0.3% decrease in sales. Hopefully, strategically updating locations with a smaller footprint and new tech will help bring sales numbers up instead of causing more future closures.

Customers walking into Logan's Roadhouse immediately sense its laid-back atmosphere, with some still serving peanuts with shells meant to be thrown on the floor. While it serves several cuts of mesquite-wood-grilled steaks, the rest of the menu is full of a little bit of everything, from burgers and pasta to soups, salads, fish, and chicken. The chain got its start in 1991 in Lexington, Kentucky, and has since spread across the U.S. However, many have closed in recent years, leaving just 130 open.

Logan's Roadhouse has been having a rough time for years. It declared bankruptcy and closed 34 underperforming locations in 2016 to try to increase profitability. Four years later, in 2020, it declared bankruptcy again after losing so much business during the COVID-19 pandemic. At one point, it was left with just 25 employees as it restructured. Luckily, a new company, Fortress Investment Group, bought it so that it didn't have to close permanently. However, only 194 of its 261 restaurants reopened.

Unfortunately, not all of the locations that reopened under new management have thrived. There have been several Logan's Roadhouse locations that have closed in 2024, like one in Lubbock, Texas, and another in Flint, Michigan. Customers basically showed up to eat only to find a sign on the door with no explanation for the closures. Hopefully, this isn't a trend that continues.

McCormick & Schmick's is an upscale restaurant that started out in the Pacific Northwest in 1974, offering steaks as well as fresh-caught seafood and oysters to its patrons. It is also a great happy hour destination. In its earliest days, it changed its menu often to reflect what was fresh and available. The chain eventually spread throughout the U.S., becoming a signature restaurant in several cities throughout the years. While it once had nearly 100 locations, it has gone through a few sales and cycles of closures, leaving only 21 still open.

McCormick & Schmick's first wave of closures began in 2017. That year, only five years after Landry's bought the chain, it closed around one-third of its over 80 locations. In some instances, it seemed it had made some poor locational choices when it decided to expand. By the time the closures were over, the chain was left with only 55 locations.

In 2024, a new round of closures began. Despite Portland being the site of the original McCormick & Schmick's, the one there closed with very short notice to employees in 2024. Other ones closing in 2024 included the one in Washington, DC, and one in Oak Brook, Illinois. Whether more closures are slated for the future has yet to be seen.

Sirloin Stockade first opened its steakhouse in 1966. Since then, people have enjoyed its steaks and buffet in multiple states. Customers were always met with a wide variety of tasty food on the buffet. While it once had more, there are only eight locations left in Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas, with numbers continuing to decline.

In 2019, the chain had nearly 20 locations. While the COVID-19 pandemic was detrimental to its business, it had already started closing locations earlier. The owner of the one that closed in Galesburg, Illinois, in 2019 had been looking for someone to take it over for two years before she retired. But there just weren't any takers. Some that tried to stay open through the pandemic didn't last through the first year, leaving some long-time patrons without anywhere nearby to go to get their steak buffet fix.

In August of 2024, the health department closed down the one in Corsicana, Texas, taking the total number remaining open from nine to eight. Although it was initially closed down for cleaning and equipment repair, months later, it hadn't reopened, and it's no longer listed on the Sirloin Stockade website.

Culver City, California, was the site of the first Sizzler in 1958. It was created with the aim of being able to offer affordable steaks to its customers in a casual dining setting. Today, it serves steaks, seafood, burgers, ribs, chicken, and salads, and it offers a salad bar, hot bar, and dessert bar. These days, there are only 74 left in seven states, with 50 of those being in its home state of California.

Sizzler was among the many steak restaurant chains that ended up declaring bankruptcy in 2020, just a few months into the COVID-19 pandemic. The bankruptcy affected the 14 locations that the company owned outright rather than the ones that were franchising out. However, it had already seen declining sales before the pandemic hit. It started with 107 locations at the start of the pandemic and lost around 31% of its locations within 4 years.

Closures have been at a steady trickle since the pandemic, with some, like the ones in Nampa, Idaho, and Sparks, Nevada, closing in 2022. More closed in 2023, like the one in Boise, Idaho, and the one in Tacoma, Washington. Hopefully, the marketing, menu changes, and renovations it plans will be enough to help it make a comeback before more close down.

Customers have been visiting Western Sizzlin' for its Gold Dusted steaks since it first opened in Augusta, Georgia, in 1962. Besides steak, it serves seafood and chicken. It started being known for its buffets in the 1990s. Plus, it has a new Western Sizzlin' Express model that offers both steaks and fast-food fare like chicken tenders, burgers, hot dogs, and salads. While many people remember it fondly for being both good and affordable, there aren't any left in many regions and states. At its height of popularity, it was the second-largest steakhouse chain, with over 600 locations. Currently, you can only find one in 12 states and 33 locations.

The original owner of the chain, Nick Pascarella, had a hands-off approach to ownership and gave franchisees lots of freedom in operating their restaurants. However, after his death in 1988, sales started declining, and more locations kept closing. Under new ownership, it shrunk to 350 locations by 1992 and filed for bankruptcy. And it's never really made a comeback after all this time.

More locations that have been around for decades keep closing their doors, with the latest location disappearances starting before the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, ones in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Fort Smith, Arkansas, closed in 2019. There seems to be a multitude of reasons why they're closing. The long-time owner of the one in Opelika, Alabama, that closed in 2024 simply decided to retire, but he told WRBL News 3, "We just got to the point where we were putting so much money into the building. I didn't want to have to spend 70 hours a week up here, and at this stage of life, we had other ideas for where our life was going to bring us." The one in Danville, Virginia, closed after being for sale for a while, likely because the cost of rent was going up.

While a couple of the steakhouses on our list only have two locations left, York Steak House only has one. The chain started in 1966 and had almost 180 locations during its heyday in the late 1970s. Customers have great memories from the various locations, which were cafeteria-style steakhouses. Most were once located in malls, and they started disappearing in the 1980s, with the numbers continuing to dwindle instead of growing over the years.

The last remaining York Steak House is in Columbus, Ohio. With it being the only one still standing since 2010, people often travel for miles to eat there because of the good memories it conjures from their past. The menu staying similar to locations long closed makes them happy. Plus, there's now a salad bar.

After the owner announced his impending retirement in 2024, the future of the last remaining location was in peril when his son didn't want to take it over. However, after a couple of months, a local restaurant owner finally stepped up to buy it so that it didn't have to close down completely. As long as the new owner doesn't make too many changes, maybe the last one can hold on for a while longer.