Despite industry headwinds, some of Orange County\u2019s largest restaurant chains posted solid sales gains in 2025, with 16 of 27 brands reporting growth last year.<\/p>\n
Twenty-seven of the county\u2019s largest restaurant companies generated over $40 billion in systemwide sales for 2025, up 8.1% from the year before, according to Business Journal research and Technomic data.<\/p>\n
Taco Bell kept its No. 1 spot with systemwide sales of over $18 billion in 2025, up 13% from 2024.<\/p>\n
The Irvine-based fast-food chain has been outperforming its sister brands at Yum Brands Inc. and outpacing the restaurant industry with cumulative same-store sales growth. Taco Bell credited its foot traffic and digital sales performance to \u201cbrand buzz, value\u201d and \u201cconversation-driving menu launches.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat approach is translating into strong, consistent performance, with positive same-store sales growth every quarter for the past five years \u2013 23 straight quarters through Q1 2026 \u2013 and led to sustained momentum throughout 2025, without a single negative sales week,\u201d the taco chain said in a statement.<\/p>\n
It currently has 1,000 employees at its local headquarters and surpassed 9,000 restaurants at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n
Another top grower in\u00a0the last few years\u00a0has been\u00a0Costa Mesa-based\u00a0Panini Kabob Grill, with nine of its 32 restaurants in OC.\u00a0Jumping two spots to No. 14 this year, the Mediterranean chain reported systemwide sales of $210 million\u00a0for 2025, a 15% increase from the year before.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur growth has been driven by strong unit-level economics and consistency in execution,\u201d CEO Mike Rafipoor said. \u201cExpansion is being driven by the scalability of our model and strong returns at the unit level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kura Sushi USA Inc., based in Irvine, reported a 19% increase in systemwide sales to $283 million, driven primarily by a record 15 new openings in 2025 (Nasdaq: KRUS).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe our growth potential in the U.S. market is close to at least 300 locations,\u201d Chief Executive Hajime \u201cJimmy\u201d Uba told the Business Journal. \u201cBased on this, we have adopted a 20% annual unit growth strategy in order to capture market share before direct competitors emerge, and last year\u2019s expansion was driven by this strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kura Sushi\u2019s OC headcount rose 37% to 221 employees as of April, aided by its newest location at The Village in Orange. Of its 89 restaurants, five are in Orange County.<\/p>\n
Across the OC-based chains, local headcount fell 5% to 18,808 employees, down from over 19,700 a year ago. The 27 companies operate 562 physical restaurants in OC as of April. In total, these chains have opened over 17,150 stores.<\/p>\n
New Owners for Del Taco, CPK<\/p>\n
Del Taco\u2019s presence in Orange County, in terms of restaurant workers, has diminished by 29% since last year.<\/p>\n
In December, its former parent company, Jack in the Box, sold the Lake Forest-based taco chain to Fremont-based Yadav Enterprises for approximately $119 million, a notable discount from the $585 million Jack in the Box paid in 2022.<\/p>\n
The No. 6-ranked taco chain has 2,000 employees in Orange County, down from 2,800 a year ago. In 2025, systemwide sales declined 5.3%, from $951 million in 2024 to $901 million.<\/p>\n
Yadav says it is executing an 18-month business refresh that includes bringing back some of the chain\u2019s original menu techniques.<\/p>\n
Costa Mesa-based California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) also changed ownership last year. It was\u00a0purchased by\u00a0an investor group led by Consortium Brand Partners with Eldridge Industries, Aurify Brands and Convive Brands.<\/p>\n
No. 10-ranked California Pizza Kitchen fell 14% to $350 million in systemwide sales for 2025. Convive\u2019s Chief Executive Jon Weber has also been named CEO of CPK.<\/p>\n
King\u2019s Seafood Company,\u00a0the Costa Mesa\u00a0owner and operator of\u00a0Water Grill\u00a0and\u00a0King\u2019s Fish House, purchased the O Sea\u00a0restaurant brand\u00a0founded in Old Towne Orange by former company employee\u00a0Mike Flynn. The seafood company, which also runs its own distribution facility in Santa Ana, subsequently closed the location last month without revealing plans for the brand.<\/p>\n
The operator reported systemwide sales of $196 million in 2025, down 2% from the previous year.<\/p>\n
List Debuts<\/p>\n
A newcomer to this year\u2019s list is GEN Restaurant Group, owner of the GEN Korean BBQ restaurant chain which got its start in Tustin.<\/p>\n
Ranked No. 13, the group generated systemwide sales of $212 million in 2025 and counts 59 restaurants as of April. With three locations in Orange County, including the flagship Tustin outpost, GEN has 180 local employees.<\/p>\n
The company recently announced it would be pausing physical restaurant expansion to focus on expanding its retail line of Korean food, sauces,\u00a0snacks\u00a0and drinks \u2013 the same products served in its dining rooms \u2013 in up to 2,000 stores by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n
Another addition is Newport Beach\u2019s Bluewater Grill, which operates eight seafood restaurants across California and Arizona. The company, founded by Jim Ulcickas and Rick Staunton in 1996, reported systemwide sales of $52 million for 2025, down 4.1% from a year ago.<\/p>\n
Industry Challenges<\/p>\n
Pieology\u00a0Pizzeria\u2019s parent company,\u00a0The Little Brown Box Pizza LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California, on Dec. 8.<\/p>\n
The petition was signed by founder\u00a0Carl Chang, the company chair and majority stakeholder of the Irvine-based chain.\u00a0Chang\u00a0told the Business Journal in December that the\u00a0reorganization will allow the chain to get back to its roots.<\/p>\n
According to Technomic,\u00a0Pieology\u00a0dropped 33% to $68 million in systemwide sales in 2025.<\/p>\n
It is down to one location in Orange County\u00a0out of 65\u00a0restaurants in\u00a0total.<\/p>\n
In the face of rising construction costs, Lazy Dog Restaurants CEO Chris Simms and his team are creating what he calls \u201cthe restaurant of the future\u201d to get the company back to physical restaurant growth.<\/p>\n
The Newport Beach-based casual dining chain, known for its large lodge-themed dining rooms, has designed a new restaurant model that will be less expensive to build. Lazy Dog is evaluating three sites to build the first version and plans to start construction this summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re excited to really use that new model as we get back to growing at a more normal rate,\u201d Simms told the Business Journal.<\/p>\n
No. 8-ranked Lazy Dog has 51 restaurants as of April, and generated systemwide sales of $419 million in 2025, up 3.2%.<\/p>\n
Chipotle El Pollo Loco Swings Positive<\/p>\n
Following recent struggles with same-store sales, No. 2-ranked Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. reported a 0.5% increase in the first quarter ended March 31. The Newport Beach-based chain is the second most valuable publicly traded company headquartered in Orange County with a $42 billion market cap (NYSE: CMG).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are also seeing gains in throughput and hospitality across our restaurants, supported in part by the rollout of our high-efficiency equipment package, which is helping teams prepare food more efficiently and serve more guests during peak periods,\u201d CEO Scott Boatwright told analysts on April 29.<\/p>\n
Chipotle generated systemwide sales of almost $12 billion in 2025, up 5.4%.<\/p>\n
No. 5-ranked El Pollo Loco Holdings Inc. reported last week that same-store sales in the first quarter jumped 5.8%. The Costa Mesa company now expects full-year same-store sales growth of 2% to 4% in 2026.<\/p>\n
In 2025, El Pollo Loco generated systemwide sales of $1.1 billion, up 2.7% from 2024 (Nasdaq: LOCO).<\/p>\n
2026 Drop Offs<\/p>\n
The list no longer includes Xperience Restaurant Group, which was previously headquartered in Cypress until its owner, Z Capital Group LLC (ZCG), combined the operator with Pink Taco and Mrs. Fields to form a new organization called Apex Hospitality.<\/p>\n
It now oversees all restaurant and entertainment operations under one umbrella and is managed by ZCG\u2019s Affinity Interactive, an operator of hospitality and gaming-adjacent businesses.<\/p>\n
Xperience owned and operated 11 restaurant brands, including Las Brisas in Laguna Beach, Sol Mexican Cocina and El Torito.<\/p>\n
Corporate operations have been moved to Las Vegas and will be managed from there, according to a ZCG representative. The Cypress office will be closed later this year.<\/p>\n
Pick Up Stix, originally founded by local entrepreneur and philanthropist Charlie Zhang, was also removed as it is no longer based in Laguna Hills and has moved its corporate headquarters to Bloomington, Minnesota.<\/p>\n
Research Director Desmond Celo contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite industry headwinds, some of Orange County\u2019s largest restaurant chains posted solid sales gains in 2025, with 16…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-310593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}