The Restaurant That Replaced Olive Garden As America's Top Casual Dining Chain

Olive Garden has held the title of America's top casual dining chain since 2018 — but now, there's a new sheriff in town. As reported by Restaurant Business, Technomic's 2024 data on the top 500 largest restaurant chains (profit-wise) in the United States shows that Olive Garden has been surpassed by the popular steakhouse, Texas Roadhouse. For Texas Roadhouse, this report may just be another Tuesday, considering that the chain has been beating the competition as the fastest-growing steakhouse for some time now. But surpassing Olive Garden in profits is no small thing, especially when we compare the sales growth between the two chains. 

Olive Garden increased its sales in 2024 by only 0.8%, while Texas Roadhouse's sales rose by 14.7%. The same trend can be seen with the opening of new locations; Olive Garden opened 15, and Texas Roadhouse opened 26. The steakhouse chain still has fewer locations than the Italian restaurant, but it managed to bring in more profit nonetheless. Despite a rocky 2024, Olive Garden remains the second largest casual restaurant chain in the U.S. But we have to admit that it being booted from first place by Texas Roadhouse is sort of funny, considering that the state with the most Olive Garden restaurants in the U.S. is none other than Texas.

Despite the fact that the origin of Texas Roadhouse is not at all what we thought, this Texas-inspired, country-music-blasting steakhouse is rapidly becoming many people's favorite restaurant. The company prides itself on making most of its food from scratch, serving free bread rolls and massive steaks, and coming with a side of its signature Willie Nelson shrines. Dining at the Roadhouse is not just a meal; it's an experience — something that undoubtedly brings diners back time and time again.

In 2024, the restaurant generated $5.5 billion in profit, a jump from $4.78 billion in 2023, per Technomic via Nation's Restaurant News. The data from the company shows that weekly sales in the 4th Quarter of 2024 amounted to $153,867 — around 13% of which were sales from orders to-go. With over 30 years of success under its belt, Texas Roadhouse plans to continue expanding and growing in 2025, all while staying loyal to its community-oriented values.