Chain Restaurants You're Going To See Everywhere In 2025

The chain restaurant landscape is ever-changing. While places like McDonald's and even Chipotle are pretty much guaranteed to stick around in some capacity or another, surrounding them are the fading stars of yesteryear and plenty of hot upstarts eager to take their place. As everyone learned from the rise and fall of Red Lobster, which filed for bankruptcy in 2024, even some of the most iconic names in the chain restaurant world are subject to its shifting tides. Of course, for every Red Lobster location that closes, countless young and hungry chains are ready to move in.

In short, then, the chain restaurant landscape of 2025 will inevitably look at least a little different than the previous year's. The following are chains that, based on their trajectories throughout 2024 and stated plans for the future, are most likely to expand their footprints significantly in 2025. Simply put, expect to start seeing these chain restaurants everywhere before long.

The original Dave's Hot Chicken wasn't even a restaurant but a tent, some tables, and a portable kitchen located in a Los Angeles parking lot. Now that parking lot pop-up is a multinational restaurant chain with locations in countries like Canada and Qatar, not to mention all across the United States.

It may seem like Dave's has already achieved pretty significant dominance in the chain restaurant world, but as it turns out, it's primed for an expansion in 2025 that will be just as big, if not bigger, than its growth in 2024. According to data published by Restaurant Business Magazine, the Dave's Hot Chicken company's goal was to grow from 169 units at the start of 2024 to 275 by the year's end. Coupled with that rapid expansion are a grand total of 950 new locations in development. One significant pillar of the company's trajectory into 2025 is its entry into the U.K. market where 60 locations are already planned, the first of which will open near the start of 2025. The Nashville hot chicken trend may not be in vogue to the extent it was in the late 2010s and early 2020s, but Dave's has pretty clearly made it past the trend's peak unscathed, persisting as one of the largest and most recognizable names in hot chicken today.

The menu at Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers is just about as straightforward as the two items mentioned in its very name. At its heart are various preparation of hamburgers and frozen custards, accompanied by some standard American fast food items like chicken tenders and onion rings. What sets Freddy's apart from its competition isn't the content of its menu but a commitment to making those items of a higher quality than what's standard for fast food. The first Freddy's opened in 2002, so the brand isn't quite new and it isn't quite old, but it is primed for some significant growth in the near future.

According to an article about the chain's business success published by QSR Magazine, Freddy's planned on opening 65 new locations in 2024 after successfully opening 62 the previous year. Even if there doesn't yet seem to be a publicly stated goal for 2025, commitments to a total of 550 restaurants — 140 of which were already actively in development around the start of 2024 — suggest that the chain should maintain its current rate of growth not just in 2025 but through the next few years even. So, expect to see a lot more high quality burgers and frozen custard (which is technically different from ice cream) from Freddy's in 2025.

Midway through 2024, a private equity firm called Blackstone purchased smoothie and bowl chain Tropical Smoothie Cafe for approximately $2 billion. By that point, the chain was already experiencing a fair share of success, hence such a hefty price tag. With that said, it should hardly come as a surprise that, under its new ownership, Tropical Smoothie Cafe is still slated for some aggressive growth in the aftermath of the sale.

Back in 2019, a blog post on the Tropical Smoothie Cafe franchising website stated a goal of 1,500 total locations by 2025. According to QSR Magazine, the chain had already ballooned to 1,400 locations in August of 2024. Also at that point in time, plans were in place for 950 additional locations after successfully opening 176 new stores in 2023. Even if the chain doesn't hit that same number in 2025, just 100 more stores — still a lot, of course, even if that might mark a significant reduction in growth — would allow Tropical Smoothie Cafe to reach its 2025 goal. Supporting this trajectory are plans to accommodate budget-conscious customers in a manner not yet outlined in precise terms that entails some sort of a menu rework. Not only is Tropical Smoothie Cafe on track to be one of the fastest-growing chains of 2025, then, but the chain may well change significantly over the course of the year as well.

Even if Subway did something similar on a large scale first, it's safe to say that Chipotle came to define its increasingly common style of fast casual dining, allowing customers to pick out ingredients as their entree is assembled in front of them. Cava — one of the healthiest fast food chains in the U.S. – is like Chipotle for pan-Mediterranean rice bowls, salads, and pita wraps. It turns out customers enjoy assembling Greek salads almost as much as burrito bowls, because Cava is set to expand significantly in the coming years.

Reporting by QSR Magazine revealed a total of 323 Cava restaurants were in operation as of June 2024. Of note at that time was one particular Chicago location that so significantly exceeded sales expectations, it signaled an opportunity to speed up the chain's expansion. Especially with that possible acceleration in mind, the precise extent to which Cava is expected grow in 2025 is unclear. Already, however, the company opened 72 restaurants in 2023 and a planned 50 or so restaurants in 2024, with a goal of 1,000 in total by 2032. Those remaining 650 locations or so divided by eight years suggests an average of about 81 locations per year. Given the chain's rapid growth thus far, that seems doable. Anyone without a Cava nearby, then, should expect some fast casual Mediterranean bowls in their general vicinity some time in the near future.

Slim Chickens is pretty much the quintessential example of a chain that a large number of fast food goers will hear about for the first time in 2025. The menu at Slim Chickens is somewhere between a Raising Canes and a Popeyes — the commitment to quality of the former matched with the variety of the later. As recently as 2019, there were merely 84 Slim Chickens restaurants in operation. Now, according to a QSR Magazine report, Slim Chickens is aiming for 1,000 total domestic locations and 500 overseas.

In support of that goal, the chain had reached about 250 locations by the start of 2024 and was expected to open 70 new locations by the year's end. Plans were also in place at that time for over 1,200 stores in total. In October of 2024, a blog post published by investor 10 Point Capital confirmed that business was booming and its growth proceeding according to plan. There are even active Slim Chickens locations abroad in Turkey and Germany already. Going into 2025, then, there are few chains hotter than Slim Chickens, no longer a regional Southern favorite but one of the fastest up-and-comers domestically and perhaps even worldwide serving elevated fast food chicken.

While Smalls Sliders might not be the first restaurant chain dedicated to the art of the miniature hamburger, a unique approach to franchising might help it succeed where competitors like BurgerIM — a fast food restaurant that couldn't shake its bad reputation – have come up short. Specifically, its restaurants are called Cans, per the company's official parlance, referring to the fact that they're not built from scratch but dropped onto available real estate effectively prefabricated from shipping containers.

As of July 30, a company press release circulated through PR Newswire reporting that there were plans in place for Smalls Sliders Cans in 21 different states. For what it's worth, Smalls Sliders remains relatively small, with just 19 locations open approaching the end of 2024. That said, the company detailed a total of 290 locations either open or in the works at the time of the press release's publication. Furthermore, some franchisees have already committed to multiple locations, like an ownership duo in North Carolina with plans for nine Smalls Sliders restaurants. Coupled with the fact that the timeline for new restaurants should be shorter than usual thanks to the Can model, the rise of Smalls Sliders across the U.S. over the course of 2025 could very well be meteoric.

Of all the names on the list thus far, Bojangles is likely the most well-known. That said, Bojangles is decidedly a regional chain — residents of North Carolina, say, could have a handful of Bojangles within driving distance, while your average Coloradan might never have heard of the place.

Moving into 2025, Bojangles is set to become a household name for an increasingly large cross-section of the U.S. population as the chain expands westward. According to a Bojangles press release, of the 40 new Bojangles locations that opened in 2024, 10 were in markets new to the brand. Also in 2024, the chain established plans for 270 new restaurants. Presumably those will take years to finalize, but looking ahead to just 2025, one key pillar of Bojangles' growth is its expansion into the Las Vegas area. Already, 20 locations are planned for the popular travel destination, which, nearing the end of 2024, was Bojangles-less. Additionally, the chain will open up restaurants in 10 TravelCenters of America truck stops also in the Western U.S., albeit in regions that have yet to be announced. So, even if Bojangles is already a fixture of everyday life for some, the percentage of the U.S. with access to a Bojangles will increase significantly in 2025.

Bonchon is one of the leading chains in the United States specializing in Korean fried chicken, which is itself becoming increasingly popular thanks to restaurants like the South Korean sensation Bb.q Chicken. Worldwide, Bonchon boasts just over 450 locations, whereas its U.S. presence consists of more than 140 locations. That number is set to grow over the course of 2025 as the U.S. wing of the Bonchon chain expands its presence across the country.

Notably, in November of 2024, QSR Magazine reported that Bonchon's stateside growth in the third quarter of the year was unprecedented. While the company opened a respectable but not astronomical 25 new locations in 2024, its expectation is for that number to double over the course of the following year. Supporting those plans are agreements for 16 new restaurants inked in Q3 of 2024 alone. Furthermore, its 2024 openings were spread across 10 different states. Long-term, Bonchon hopes to amass 500 locations in the U.S. over the next five years, and a big 2025 looks to be the first step toward that ambitious goal.

In June of 2023, A.J. and Big Justice, aka The Costco Guys, posted a video on TikTok of Costco sister Ashley promoting an açaí bowl restaurant called Playa Bowls in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. Playa Bowls is local but not limited to the Jersey Shore — there are currently more than 250 Playa Bowls restaurants across 24 states in addition to both Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.

According to retail news outlet Chain Store Age, Playa Bowls had a big 2024 and looks to continue its business success moving into 2025. In 2024 alone, Playa Bowls estimated that it would end the year opening 75 new locations, accounting for a significant percentage of its overall size. Supporting this trajectory continuing into the future are commitments for more than 300 new stores. Those commitments are spread out across a pretty wide range of territories, including new markets like Dallas, Texas, and significant expansion near its New Jersey home base thanks to 11 planned stores in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, New York. Based on its 75 openings in 2024 and plans for four times as many stores in the pipeline, it's safe to say Playa Bowls is primed to become one of the big chain restaurant success stories of 2025.

Most of the chains on this list count as fast food to some degree, whereas First Watch is a decidedly higher-end sit-down chain specializing in brunch classics. Its menu largely consists of elevated staples like a smoked salmon Benedict or lemon ricotta pancakes. Nearing the end of 2024, the First Watch chain was already comprised of just over 550 locations, with 570 in total expected by the year's conclusion. That number is expected to grow even further come the following year.

On a Q3 2024 earnings call, the CEO and president of First Watch, Chris Tomasso, shared that the company aims to grow by at least 10% every year, per a report by Florida's Business Observer newspaper. In the company's future are plans for 120 new First Watch locations, the majority of which Tomasso expects will come to fruition in either 2025 or 2026. That's somewhere in the ballpark of 60 new restaurants, then, in 2025 alone. Long term, First Watch hopes to amass 2,200 locations in total, so if all goes according to plan, its sizable 2025 expansion will mark just the first step of years-long growth.

Just as Smalls Sliders is breaking ground in the chain restaurant world with an efficient pipeline for constructing new restaurants, drive-thru salad chain Salad and Go utilizes a unique and innovative model to expedite food preparation. Rather than each Salad and Go drive-thru making its salads and other dishes in-house, every drive-thru is fed by a centrally located commissary that handles the bulk of food prep ahead of time. While that might sound like a factor limiting the chain's potential for expansion, each commissary can theoretically support 400 locations. Plus, even with just two commissaries — one in Dallas and one in Phoenix — Salad and Go has already spread into neighboring states like Nevada and Oklahoma.

In the works as of 2024 are new locations in California, Kansas, and Arkansas, as well as a southwestern arm in or around Atlanta. In 2023, one new Salad and Go opened every week on average, and the chain expected to continue at that pace through 2024 according to reporting by Nation's Restaurant News. With an eventual goal of thousands of locations and the momentum in place to support it, Salad and Go's proprietary business model could very well help it grow from regional favorite to national success story in 2025 and beyond.

Mexican fast casual chain QDoba may be old news, but an ongoing revitalization is in the process of breathing new life into the brand. Kickstarting its turnaround was the chain's 2022 acquisition by a company called Butterfly Equity. That change in ownership was so significant for QDoba, franchise-focused business publication Franchise Times awarded it Deal of the Year in 2024.

According to data published directly to the QDoba franchising blog, the chain opened 14 new restaurants in 2023 before growing that number to an expected 50 new restaurants in 2024. If all goes according to plan, that number will expand even further in 2025 to a total of 75 new QDoba locations. As of that blog post's publication in 2024, QDoba sat at around 750 units and was on track to eclipse 1,000 by the end of 2027. With such a sizable and rapid expansion already underway, it's safe to say that QDoba will become quite a bit more widespread throughout 2025 in particular.