Full-service Restaurant Chains Are Winning Back Customers With New Menu Items and Operational Improvements, Report Finds

Menu innovation and operational enhancements are serving to full-service restaurant chains overcome worth notion challenges, Chatmeter’s 2025 Full-Service Fame Rating Report discovered.

“Multi-location full-service eating places have struggled to compete with quick meals eating places on worth, however we’re beginning to see them adapt to buyer suggestions and drive constructive enterprise momentum,” stated John Mazur, CEO of Chatmeter. “Clients are now not simply searching for an excellent deal–they’re rewarding manufacturers which are delivering menu creativity and operational excellence. By leveraging AI to investigate opinions at scale, eating places can flip insights like these into actions that preserve prospects coming again.”

Chatmeter used its Pulse Ai: Alerts to investigate a couple of million opinions throughout 10 of the biggest informal eating chains from June 16, 2023 by June 15, 2025, and located that:

• Menu innovation is driving constructive sentiment: Manufacturers that launched important menu updates, like TGI Fridays, Olive Backyard and The Cheesecake Manufacturing unit, noticed notable engagement and constructive suggestions. Critiques more and more talked about more healthy choices, reflecting an uptick in demand, however some manufacturers confronted criticism for missing such choices.
• Worth stays a battleground, however much less of a prime precedence for customers: Mentions of worth dropped by 18% over the previous yr, indicating that customers are prioritizing different facets of the eating expertise. Offers like Chili’s “3 for Me” and Olive Backyard’s By no means-Ending Pasta Bowl sustained constructive worth perceptions, however dialogue of portion sizes immediately impacted prospects’ perceptions of worth throughout all eating places.
• Operational enhancements and expertise upgrades improved buyer expertise at some eating places: Investments in digital ordering, loyalty applications and tabletop expertise drove greater satisfaction for manufacturers like Outback Steakhouse, Chili’s and Applebee’s. Nevertheless, sentiment round service declined at many chains, with wait time and order accuracy as frequent ache factors.
• Buyer evaluation quantity dropped throughout the sector: Full-service eating eating places skilled an almost 6% drop in on-line opinions over the previous yr, probably as a result of location closures, decreased visitors or an absence of buyer engagement. Solely Purple Robin (+18%) and Cracker Barrel (+10%) noticed important will increase in opinions.

Primarily based on evaluation quantity and sentiment, Chatmeter ranked 10 of the biggest informal eating chains on Buyer Expertise, Menu and Worth.

Buyer Expertise Fame Rankings

1. Outback Steakhouse
2. Purple Robin
3. TGI Fridays
4. Applebee’s
5. Olive Backyard
6. Texas Roadhouse
7. Chili’s
8. Cracker Barrel
9. The Cheesecake Manufacturing unit
10. Buffalo Wild Wings

Menu Fame Rankings

1. The Cheesecake Manufacturing unit
2. Olive Backyard
3. Purple Robin
4. Chili’s
5. Outback Steakhouse
6. TGI Fridays
7. Texas Roadhouse
8. Applebee’s
9. Cracker Barrel
10. Buffalo Wild Wings

Worth Fame Rankings

1. Chili’s
2. Applebee’s
3. Texas Roadhouse
4. Olive Backyard
5. Cracker Barrel
6. Purple Robin
7. Outback Steakhouse
8. TGI Fridays
9. The Cheesecake Manufacturing unit
10. Buffalo Wild Wings

The complete report, together with breakdowns of the suggestions for every model, is obtainable here.