Steakhouse Chains That Are Struggling In 2025

It's no secret that the U.S. is a nation of steak lovers. A 2023 report by Meats by Linz found that a whopping 70% of Americans consider steak to be one of their favorite foods, while nearly half of participants admitted that they would eat it more than three times a week if there were no repercussions. Extreme though that concept may sound, there's certainly no shortage of restaurants out there to meet those cravings. The number of steak restaurants in the U.S. apparently grew by 4.5% between 2019 and 2024 – but not all of these restaurants are thriving as much as you'd expect.

Recent years have been checkered with reports of steakhouse franchises struggling to stay afloat. The pandemic was tough on all restaurants, with sit-down chain restaurants hit particularly hard. While the likes of Texas Roadhouse and LongHorn Steakhouse have thrived, a handful of steak joints that once served as go-to destinations for beef lovers have reported a drop in sales and foot traffic in the years since. Some have even been forced to close a huge chunk of their locations in an effort to get back on track. As 2025 progresses, these are the steakhouse chains that we're most concerned may struggle this year.

At its height, Black Angus Steakhouse — originally known as Stuart Anderson's Black Angus — boasted over 100 restaurants in 13 states. The chain was founded in 1964, with its core premise being that customers could order soup or salad, a steak, and a baked potato for just $2.99 (the equivalent of $20.35 today). Unsurprisingly, its prices are a little bit different in 2025, as is Black Angus Steakhouse's share of the market. At the time of writing, you can only find the Burbank-based steakhouse franchise in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Washington, and Hawaii, with the chain experiencing its fair share of financial trouble over the years.

Back in 2004, its previous owner, American Restaurant Group, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the chain as part of a deal with its creditors. Five years later, the American Restaurant Group filed for bankruptcy protection for itself, with the Black Angus Steakhouse franchise subsequently sold on to Versa Capital Management Inc. In 2015, the latter also refinanced Black Angus Steakhouse.

Unfortunately, Black Angus Steakhouse's struggles still persist. In 2023, Debtwire named it as one of several chains it believed to be on its way to bankruptcy. Black Angus Steakhouse insisted that this wasn't on the cards, with its vice president of growth, Deborah Shapiro, telling Restaurant Business that "in today's restaurant climate, it is a fair question, but thankfully one that does not pertain to us." Regardless, sales did drop by nearly 29% between 2018 and 2023.

The road has been far from easy for Logan's Roadhouse. Known for its wood-fired steaks and yeast rolls, the retro-style steakhouse chain was founded in 1991 and experienced rapid growth in the second half of the decade. During its lifespan, it's already experienced bankruptcy twice. The first time was in 2016, when it decided to close 18 restaurants amid sizable debts and poor sales. A second declaration came in 2020, when its parent company, Craftworks, filed for Chapter 11 protection itself , saddled with debt after buying Logan's Roadhouse just two years prior.

After Craftworks filed for bankruptcy, it was announced that all of the remaining Logan's Roadhouse restaurants that had already temporarily shuttered in March of that year due to COVID-19 would close indefinitely. Craftworks also furloughed approximately 18,000 employees. While Logan's Roadhouse was ultimately saved via an acquirement by Fortress Investment Group's SPB Hospitality, only 194 of its 261 restaurants reopened.

The chain has gradually chipped away at this number in the years since. Logan's Roadhouse locations closed in both Texas and Michigan in 2024, announced through signs hung in the doorways, with the latest number of units sitting at roughly 130 restaurants. While sales rebounded slightly from 2021 to 2022, they dropped again in 2023. That was enough for the restaurant to rank at 119 in Technomic's Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report for 2024, but still not quite on par with its peak in the 1990s.

Once upon a time, there were at least 110 Sirloin Stockade restaurants on hand to satisfy diners' meat cravings. Sadly, those days are long behind us. The chain — which first opened in Oklahoma City in 1966 — is famous for its all-you-can-eat buffet (plus the 1,800-pound plastic cow that once sat outside its original restaurant), but has dramatically slimmed down its operations over the decades. As of January 2025, there are just eight locations listed on the Sirloin Stockade website, spread across four states: Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Press for the steakhouse chain wasn't exactly glowing in 2024. The chain's latest closure came in August when a Sirloin Stockade location in Corsicana, Texas, went viral on TikTok. A former assistant manager shared an inside peek at the kitchens, as well as alleging that the restaurant's kitchen had black mold and the meat contained tapeworms. Corsicana-Navarro County Public Health District closed the restaurant not long after, and while a sign posted on the front door claimed that it would reopen once it was cleaned and repaired, that day never came. The Corsicana restaurant has since permanently closed, with the location scrubbed from the Sirloin Stockade website.

While there's still time for Sirloin Stockade to bounce back, customers have also shared their complaints about the state of the restaurant on Reddit. Some have noted that the interiors are dated, with others blasting the food as low-quality. All in all, it's not the most positive outlook.

The origin story of Western Sizzlin' couldn't be more wholesome. Its founder, Nicholas Pascarella, was traveling around the U.S. in the 1960s to hunt down affordable land for his steakhouse ambitions. After being forced to stop in Augusta, Georgia, with a flat tire, he made his way to a tire store where the workers convinced him that their city was the right place for the business. Fast forward several decades, however, and you'll no longer find a Western Sizzlin' in Augusta.

In fact, despite once being the second-largest steakhouse chain in the country with over 600 locations, you'll no longer find Western Sizzlin' in a lot of places. Known for its FlameKist steak (a process that involves simultaneously grilling both the top and bottom of the steak) and Gold Dust seasoning, it struggled in the wake of Pascarella's death in 1988. Frank Carney, co-founder of Pizza Hut, purchased the business but despite initially boosting sales, fell short of its ambitions of reaching 1,000 units. Instead, Western Sizzlin' started shuttering locations and was down to 350 within four years.

By 1992, Western Sizzlin' had liabilities of $51.2 million, forcing it to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection until a group of 28 franchisees bought out its 320 locations a year later. As of today, this number has shrunk even further. Recent years have been marked by multiple restaurant closures. Now owned by Biglari Holdings, there are just 33 Western Sizzlin' restaurants nationwide in 2025, only ranging as far west as Oklahoma.

Is it fair to describe a restaurant as a chain if all but one of its locations are closed for good? That's currently the case for Lone Star Steakhouse. Over three decades after it was founded by major Pizza Hut franchisee Jamie B. Coulter, as of January 2025, the chain has shrunk down to just one restaurant in Guam.

As the name suggests, Lone Star Steakhouse was inspired by Texan cuisine, serving up supersized steaks and seafood in its heyday. However, it was actually founded well beyond the Lone Star State in North Carolina, with four more restaurants opening within seven months of its debut. Lone Star Steakhouse grew rapidly through the 1990s, ranking sixth in Fortune magazine's list of the fastest-growing companies — higher than any other restaurant. At its peak, it boasted over 260 locations.

But then things took a downturn. While food and labor costs soared and other competitors emerged, Coulter later admitted that Lone Star Steakhouse was slow to respond to operational problems. Lone Star Steakhouse saw its stock price plummet and started closing restaurants. While its prognosis looked brighter in 2006 after it was acquired by Lone Star Funds, it took another hit during the Great Recession and shuttered even more locations. A bankruptcy filing came in 2017, as did even more closures until, finally, all of its U.S. restaurants were gone for good, leaving Guam the last man (or, dare we say it, "lone star") standing.

Previously known as Charlie Brown's Steakhouse, Charlie Brown's Fresh Grill (which we're sad to report has nothing to do with the Charlie Brown of Snoopy fame) is another chain that may not see 2026. While its menu also spotlights chicken and fish, steaks have always been its specialty, with its hand-carved prime rib — slow-roasted with the chain's own dry rub — long serving as the shining star.

The chain is based in New Jersey, where it once held a reputation as a family-favorite hot spot. In fact, Charlie Brown's was so popular at one time that it boasted nearly 50 restaurants. In 2010, however, its then-owner CB Holding — which also owned the East Coast chains Bugaboo Creek and The Office – filed for bankruptcy and closed nine Charlie Brown's restaurants, having already closed 20 locations just days earlier. 

CB Holding held debts between $100 million and $500 million at the time. The bankruptcy filing came on the heels of a dramatic few months. Not only had Charlie Brown's employees filed a class-action lawsuit over tips and pay, but its CEO, Russell D'Anton, was accused of tax evasion, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and accepting over $1 million in kickbacks from vendors (for which he was later imprisoned)! In comparison, Charlie Brown's Fresh Grill's recent history has been far less dramatic. However, it's still nowhere near the heights of its prime, with just two New Jersey restaurants left open in Scotch Plains and Woodbury.

Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar is one of multiple restaurant chains under the Bloomin' Brands umbrella. Founded in Newport Beach, California, it serves up high quality meat and a wine selection curated from vineyards across the globe, priding itself on offering a slightly more upscale experience than the classic American steakhouse. Case in point: the chain added A5 Wagyu – the highest tier possible given by the Japanese Meat Grading Association to the notoriously expensive beef – to its menu at select locations in 2024.

Regardless, Bloomin' Brands decided to axe underperforming locations across all of its brands in 2024, Fleming's Prime Steakhouse included. Additional restaurants had already shuttered in the years prior, including a Baltimore restaurant at the height of COVID-19 and a 23-year-old restaurant in La Jolla, San Diego, in 2023. The chain reported a 7.3% drop in traffic in the third quarter of 2024. However, Fleming's did see an uptick in sales from 2022 to 2023 — and, despite the drop in traffic, customers seem to be spending more per visit — leaving it in a much more optimistic position than several of the other chains on this list.

When BLT Steak debuted in 2004, it had high aspirations of reinterpreting the American steakhouse by incorporating elements of the classic French bistro. For several years, it managed to do just that. With locations in the likes of New York, Hawaii, and Washington, D.C., it became a favorite with high-powered clientele, including the likes of the Obamas, Tom Hanks, and Jeff Bezos. Most famously, it even made headlines when reporters from the New York Times overheard White House attorneys discussing how President Donald Trump should handle to rumors of Russia's interference in the U.S. election.

Sadly, you can forget about dropping by to eavesdrop on equally compelling conversations. Like a lot of business, BLT Steak's parent company BLT Restaurant Group was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. While it secured a $3.3 million PPP loan, it still ended up filing for bankruptcy in 2022. Restaurant closures ensued, with all BLT Steak locations in the U.S. closed as of January 2025.

Its more upscale sister restaurant, BLT Prime, is still clinging on to the U.S. market. However, its presence also seems precarious. At the time of writing, there are just two BLT Prime restaurants left in the world — one in Miami and one in New York. Another location once operated out of the Trump International Hotel (which was famously the only restaurant in D.C. that Trump visited during the four years of his first presidency, where his go-to order was a well-done steak with ketchup) but closed in 2022.

Steak is one of three core pillars at Kona Grill, along with seafood and sushi. While today it's owned by The ONE Group — which is also the parent group of STK and Benihana — it was originally founded in Scottsdale, Arizona, back in 1998. After a period of rapid growth that saw it expand internationally to the likes of the UAE, Canada, and Mexico, the chain's ascent ground to a halt when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2019.

As is typically the case when a restaurant files for bankruptcy, this led to the abrupt closure of multiple stores. While you could find at least 46 Kona Grill restaurants in 2017, today just 27 remain open in the U.S. Although The ONE Group saved the business from bankruptcy, the COVID-19 pandemic was, of course, right around the corner, which did no restaurant chain any favors.

The years since haven't been much kinder to Kona Grill. In 2023, an in-depth review of the company found that nearly a quarter of its restaurants were underperforming, while same-store sales dropped by 9.7% in the first few months of 2024 compared to the first quarter of 2023. With The ONE Group implementing new tactics to boost growth — such as maximizing productivity with smart scheduling and embracing new value offerings — and optimistically claiming that Kona Grill could hit 200 restaurants nationwide, fingers crossed for more positive results in 2025.

Outback Steakhouse may have had its start in Tampa, but today it's a global brand with locations as far-flung as Saudi Arabia, the Dominican Republic, Hong Kong, and the Bahamas. The Aussie-themed steakhouse chain (which is nowhere near as authentically Australian as you may think) has over 600 restaurants dotted across the U.S., having expanded aggressively in the early 2000s when it opened over 100 restaurants in 2004 alone. Now owned by Bloomin' Brands, Outback Steakhouse still serves its juicy steaks and iconic not-so-Aussie dishes, such as the Bloomin' Onion, but has recently started modernizing its restaurants en masse amid a relatively disappointing period for the company.

When Bloomin' Brands decided to start shuttering underperforming restaurants in 2024, the vast majority of those affected were Outback Steakhouses, whose total unit count had already dropped from 693 at the end of 2022 to 688 at the end of 2023. Despite the fact that Outback Steakhouse still ranks high in terms of customer satisfaction, sales also dipped in 2024. The first quarter saw a 1.2% drop compared to the same period in 2023, while customer foot traffic declined by 4.2%. The second quarter brought another round of disappointment. In an effort to turn things around, Bloomin' Brands revealed plans to simplify Outback Steakhouse's menu and pivot to more value deals. Watch this space to see how that strategy plays out in 2025.