Every year, Nation’s Restaurant News and Datassential partner to present The Top 500, the definitive sales ranking of restaurants in America.
One element of this data is restaurant segment, meaning each can be broken down by systemwide domestic sales, units, and estimated sales per unit. NRN has been analyzing the Top 10 restaurant chains in each segment by sales, and today we’re talking about full-service chains that serve food from specific regions.
These 10 chains, out of 31 in the segment on the full Top 500, all saw systemwide sales growth in 2022 — some as high as 26.8% — and growth in estimated sales per unit, with two hitting 18.7% growth. All but four of these chains saw net unit growth, and two of those four came out even with the prior year.
Of these chains, only one is new to the list since last year: Gyu-Kaku Japanese Bbq. That company just eked past The Melting Pot, which did see systemwide sales growth last year as well. The chains on this list come from Asian segments as well as Brazilian, Mexican and BBQ.
Click through the gallery to see the 10 biggest full-service restaurants in America serving regional foods.