Major food chains are reinventing themselves. We ranked their efforts to see who's winning the Great Restaurant Reset.

Cracker Barrel launched a $700 million "strategic transformation" plan in 2025 aimed at updating stores, menus, and improving the brand's relevance.

However, financial results showed essentially flat revenue in 2025 — a third straight sluggish year.

The most visible part of the refresh — its logo and brand redesign — backfired badly, with intense backlash forcing them to scrap the new logo. Management in September projected an 8% traffic drop for Q1 FY 2026, tied to the controversy.

Stock for Cracker Barrel was down more than 52% this year.

Over the past year, Pizza Hut has quietly rolled out a refreshed logo and shaken up its menu and value strategy, launching new deals and limited-time items (like budget-friendly personal-pizza options) designed to win back customers amid sagging same-store sales.

Yum! Brands, the parent company of Pizza Hut, is openly exploring a sale of all or part of the brand — that's about as loud a vote of "this turnaround isn't working yet" as it gets.

US same-store sales and system sales have been in negative territory, facing a 5% drop in both Q1 and Q2, a 7% decline in Q3 at US locations, and its operating profit was down 8% in Q3.

Stock for Yum, which also includes other fast food titans like Taco Bell and KFC, was up more than 15% year-to-date.

Parent company Bloomin' Brands announced in November a $75 million, multi-year turnaround plan for Outback Steakhouse, aimed at restoring the chain to its steakhouse roots by improving food quality, updating its restaurants and service, and refining the overall guest experience.

As its rebrand effort is in its earliest stages, as tracked by Business Insider, it hasn't had the same runway that other brands have. Still, the chain has been struggling for two years, with the recent quarter showing only flat comparable store sales growth.

As part of a cost-cutting overhaul, they have abruptly closed 21 restaurants, with more closures planned.

There is a clear, funded strategy and some sequential improvement, but the brand is still closing units and lagging key steakhouse competitors, so the revitalization isn't yet taking root.

Bloomin' Brands' stock was down more than 46% year-to-date.

Despite its long run as a growth darling, Chipotle logged two straight quarters of negative same-store sales in 2025 (Q1 and Q2), followed by a flat outlook for the rest of the year.

Management is repositioning itself around chicken, tweaking menu innovation and marketing, and opening new units at a rapid pace — a pragmatic, multi-front effort to adapt to a changing market.

So far, this approach appears to be buying time, but it hasn't yet produced a dramatic rebound; instead, it seems more like an attempt at stabilization, setting the stage for a potential recovery if consumer traffic returns.

Chipotle stock is down more than 37% year-to-date.

Since emerging from bankruptcy in late 2024 under its new private-equity-backed owner, RL Investor Holdings, and new CEO Damola Adamolekun, Red Lobster has launched a leaner, value-driven, and experience-focused turnaround.

The overhaul includes ditching the "Endless Shrimp" all-you-can-eat deal, simplifying the menu, reviving fan favorites (like hush puppies and popcorn shrimp), and adding new dishes — including their viral seafood boils — to appeal to younger diners.

As the only private company on the list, Red Lobster's financial situation is murkier than the others ranked by Business Insider.

However, foot traffic data from Placer.ai shows that the company's restaurants in June began seeing consistently positive trends in the monthly average visits per location for the first time in over 18 months. And, although its financial performance is still below 2023 levels, Consumer Edge credit and debit card data indicate that Red Lobster posted sales growth of 20% in 2025 Q3, and its average transaction size increased by 10% year-over-year, far outpacing the 1% growth seen for the overall casual dining sector.

Mike Perry, the founder of the creative agency Tavern, which has worked on rebranding efforts with companies including Budweiser and Burger King, told Business Insider that Red Lobster's rebranding effort lands squarely in the middle range: not as catastrophic as Cracker Barrel, but not as innovative as others like Starbucks.

"I think so far they've played it safe, like 'we'll clean it up, we'll package it up and resell it,' which, frankly, it's private equity money anyway, so they're doing the PE playbook appropriately, and it'll work for them, but it's not going to have staying power. It's certainly not going to make you an icon," Perry said.

KFC launched its Kentucky Fried Comeback campaign in mid-July, as sales in recent years have been weak enough that the legacy chicken chain has lost share to competitors like Raising Cane's and Wingstop.

Recent quarters have shown US same-store sales down around 5%, which has dragged down parent company Yum's results. Globally, though, KFC has strung together 11 consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth, with about 8% systemwide sales growth internationally.

"The category remains fiercely competitive, and a true comeback will ultimately require more substantial enhancements to its menu, marketing, and real estate strategies," R.J. Hottovy, head of analytical research at the location intelligence and foot traffic data software firm, Placer.ai, told Business Insider when KFC's comeback campaign launched.

For now, the US rebrand is clearly not "fixed," but internationally the brand refresh is working, and the marketing reboot is resonating — so it ranks slightly above the chains that are still sliding across the board.

Under its new leadership, Starbucks launched the "Back to Starbucks" plan in late 2024, focusing on re-centering the company on its core identity as a neighborhood coffeehouse rather than a discount-driven chain.

The plan was intended to deliver 7-9% comparable store sales growth; instead, same-store sales remain under pressure, and the most recent updates indicate flat US comparable store sales in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025, and a modest uptick globally, with CEO Brian Niccol acknowledging it as a slow and steady recovery.

While foot traffic and comps are not roaring back like Chili's, you can see the reinvention beginning to stabilize Starbucks' business. The scale of investment and early green shoots justify calling the turnaround moderately effective — especially versus peers that are still in full decline.

Starbucks' stock was down more than 7% year-to-date as of December 24.

Applebee's has rolled out a renovation and modernization program called its "Lookin' Good" program — updating the menu, remodeling dining rooms to update décor, modernizing interior design, and streamlining kitchens for off-premises and delivery business.

After two years of declining traffic, Applebee's delivered a 4.9% same-store sales increase in Q2 2025, driven primarily by traffic growth — the first traffic increase in roughly two years.

Dine Brands credits the improvement to menu innovation as well as well-messaged value. The company is now focusing on a 2025 plan that emphasizes marketing and remodels to reinforce its brand repositioning.

The re-emphasis on "neighborhood" value and refreshed menus is clearly translating into positive comps and traffic — a textbook sign of an effective revitalization taking hold.

Stock for Dine Brands Global, Applebee's' parent company, is up more than 8% year-to-date.

Chili's, with its newly simplified menu, streamlined operations, and restaurant refurbishment, has become a case study in turnaround success. Early quarters in 2025 showed 31% same-store sales growth, propelled by a nearly 21% increase in traffic.

Analysts have called it one of the best turnarounds "of all time" in the casual dining sector, crediting a multi-year strategy focused on simplifying the menu, sharpening value, and operational execution, rather than relying on flashy stunts.

"If you look at what Chili's has done, its last two years have been maybe the most extraordinary thing I've seen in the business in 20 years," Restaurant Business editor in chief Jonathan Maze told Business Insider.

Chili's is the clearest example where a planned revitalization has delivered outsize traffic and sales gains, shifted category share, and won over both guests and Wall Street. On a pure rebrand effectiveness basis, it's the standout winner in recent memory.

Stock for Chili's parent company, Brinker International, was up more than 14% year-to-date as of December 19.