Darden Restaurants (DRI)
Operator of Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, and seven other full-service restaurant brands.
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Darden owns a shelf of restaurant chains and runs almost all of them itself: Italian family dinners, steakhouses at two very different price points, a beer hall, a Tex-Mex chain. Two brands bring in most of the money, and the bigger of the two is slowly ceding ground to the steakhouse beside it. The plan is not clever — open more dining rooms, take customers from weaker neighbours, hand the cash back to owners.
Item facts: FY2026 · 53 weeks ended May 31, 2026, from filings, earnings calls and company pages.
Judgment weights, not filed revenue
The band summarizes business focus and direction. ~ marks estimates.
8 in detail · 8 more below
Olive Garden
The chain that pays for everything else — 949 restaurants, a $25.00 bill per guest, and more profit per dollar of sales than any other Darden brand at 22.5%. Sales at existing restaurants rose 4.0% against an industry under 2%, yet Texas Roadhouse has passed it as the biggest US casual-dining chain.
Competes with Texas Roadhouse (Texas Roadhouse, Inc.) · Chili's Grill & Bar (Brinker International)
In plain English
Unlimited breadsticks, a bowl of salad in the middle of the table, and a bill a family can guess before they sit down. That promise, repeated across 949 dining rooms, is the single biggest thing Darden does.
The money is plain arithmetic: how many people walk in, times what each one spends — about $25.00 a head. Rent, managers and kitchen equipment cost roughly the same whether the room is half full or packed, so every extra table drops through hard. That is why Darden raises menu prices more slowly than its own costs rise: it gives up a little on each plate to keep the plates coming.
Uber Direct first-party delivery
Uber's drivers deliver orders placed on Darden's own channels, so Darden keeps the guest and pays a fee it makes nothing on. It held near 4.7% of Olive Garden's sales in the final quarter, and management expects little more from it.
Competes with Uber Eats marketplace (Uber) · DoorDash marketplace (DoorDash) · Olo Dispatch (Olo)
In plain English
You order from Olive Garden's own channels; a driver Darden never employed brings it to the door. Darden keeps the customer, sets the price and keeps the data, and pays Uber for the ride.
Why not just list on the delivery apps? Because there the app controls the price the guest sees, the customer data and the tips, and Darden has refused that trade. The economics of its own version are deliberately thin: the delivery fee passes straight through to Uber, so nothing is left over. Olive Garden went first, Cheddar's and Yard House followed. It is a service for existing guests, not a profit line.
LongHorn Steakhouse
Darden's growth engine: 618 steakhouses, $28.50 a head, sales at existing restaurants up 7.2%. Costly grocery beef pushes steak dinners out of the house and into LongHorn while raising its own costs. Watch the cattle cycle.
Competes with Texas Roadhouse (Texas Roadhouse, Inc.) · Outback Steakhouse (Bloomin' Brands)
In plain English
A steakhouse for a Tuesday rather than an anniversary — about $28.50 a person, across 618 restaurants, and the brand Darden leans on for growth.
Here is the twist in it. When beef gets dear, LongHorn's costs climb, but so does the steak in the supermarket chiller — and management says LongHorn has long charged less against grocery prices than it could. A ribeye cooked at home stops looking like the bargain, and people come out instead. That is the tailwind; the headwind is the same cattle cycle, which ran costs near 5.5% in one quarter of last year and is guided nearer 3% for the year ahead.
Yard House
A beer-first gastropub: 93 restaurants, a $37.00 bill per guest, and 28.9% of sales from alcohol — the most drink-heavy brand Darden owns. Each location takes more money than any other Darden restaurant, and each is the most exposed if nights out get cut.
Competes with The Cheesecake Factory (Cheesecake Factory Inc.) · BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse (BJ's Restaurants, Inc.)
In plain English
Cavernous room, a long bar crowded with draft taps, a menu long enough to suit a whole group. What Yard House really sells is an evening out rather than dinner.
Drinks are what make the numbers different. Almost twenty-nine cents of every dollar spent here goes on alcohol — pouring a beer takes far less kitchen work than plating a meal — and the bill runs about $37.00 a head, well above the family brands. There are only 93 of these, but each one takes in more money than any other restaurant Darden operates. The flip side: an evening out is easy to skip.
Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen
Darden's price floor: 184 restaurants at $19.50 a head, the cheapest bill it offers. Darden's own survey work put it first on affordability among casual chains — a gap it has to hold as wages climb about 3.5% next year.
Competes with Applebee's Neighborhood Grill + Bar (Dine Brands Global) · Chili's Grill & Bar (Brinker International)
In plain English
Dinner out for $19.50 a head, cooked in the kitchen from raw ingredients rather than reheated. That combination — scratch food at a price close to the cheapest chains — is the entire pitch, across 184 restaurants.
It only works while eating here stays close to the cost of cooking at home, and the gap is squeezed from both sides. Cooking from scratch needs more hands, and wages are expected to rise about 3.5% in the coming year. Meanwhile Chili's has been taking the same value-minded diners, with sales at its existing restaurants up around 9% on top of roughly 25% the year before.
Chuy's
The Tex-Mex chain Darden bought in 2024 for about $614M — 110 restaurants at a $20.00 bill per guest, now near the end of moving onto Darden's systems. It is the only Darden brand still on outside delivery apps, and next year's plan counts nothing from them.
Competes with Chipotle Mexican Grill (Chipotle) · On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina (private operator)
In plain English
Bought, not built. Darden paid roughly $614M in October 2024 for a Tex-Mex chain of 103 restaurants, now 110, with a bill around $20.00 a head.
Most of what an owner like Darden adds is unglamorous plumbing. It buys food for more than two thousand restaurants at once through its own distribution arm, so the same ingredients land cheaper than a hundred-restaurant chain could ever arrange — management sized those savings near $17M a year. Two years in, the work has moved on to making the recipes come out the same everywhere. Chuy's is also the one brand left selling through outside delivery apps, kept rather than converted.
The Capital Grille
The corporate dinner: 74 white-tablecloth steakhouses at $107.00 a head, a quarter of it drinks, and roughly half of Darden's fine-dining sales. That group grew just 1.2% last year while the cheaper brands ran several times faster.
Competes with Ruth's Chris Steak House (Darden) · Fleming's Prime Steakhouse (Bloomin' Brands)
In plain English
Dry-aged beef and a serious drinks bill — the restaurant a company books to entertain a client, or a family books for a birthday that matters. About $107.00 a head, and a quarter of that spent on wine and cocktails.
Seventy-four rooms is not many, but each takes in far more than an Olive Garden does, which is how a small brand carries roughly half of Darden's fine-dining sales. The weakness sits in who pays. When companies trim entertaining budgets, this is where Darden feels it first: fine dining managed only 1.2% growth at existing restaurants last year, against 4.0% and 7.2% at the two big chains.
Ruth's Chris Steak House
83 company-run steakhouses at $104.00 a head, bought in 2023 — plus roughly seventy more that other operators run under the name, the largest franchise base Darden owns. Growth here leans on franchisees rather than Darden's own building.
Competes with The Capital Grille (Darden) · Fleming's Prime Steakhouse (Bloomin' Brands)
In plain English
Darden already owned an upscale steakhouse when it bought this one in 2023, and it has kept the two deliberately apart — near-identical bills, separate names, separate rooms. Ruth's Chris runs 83 restaurants itself, at about $104.00 a head.
The quieter prize came attached to the deal: roughly seventy more Ruth's Chris restaurants that other companies own and operate, paying Darden for the use of the name. No kitchen staff, no rent — just a fee, which is why Darden's franchising team could grow faster once it arrived. The fees are small money today — Darden reports franchise income as not material — but it is the widest such network the company has.
Olive GardenThe chain that pays for everything else — 949 restaurants, a $25.00 bill per guest, and more profit per dollar of sales than any other Darden brand at 22.5%. Sales at existing restaurants rose 4.0% against an industry under 2%, yet Texas Roadhouse has passed it as the biggest US casual-dining chain.The chain that pays for everything else — 949 restaurants, a $25.00 bill per guest, and more profit per dollar of sales than any other Darden brand at 22.5%. Sales at existing restaurants rose 4.0% against an industry under 2%, yet Texas Roadhouse has passed it as the biggest US casual-dining chain.
In plain English
Unlimited breadsticks, a bowl of salad in the middle of the table, and a bill a family can guess before they sit down. That promise, repeated across 949 dining rooms, is the single biggest thing Darden does.
The money is plain arithmetic: how many people walk in, times what each one spends — about $25.00 a head. Rent, managers and kitchen equipment cost roughly the same whether the room is half full or packed, so every extra table drops through hard. That is why Darden raises menu prices more slowly than its own costs rise: it gives up a little on each plate to keep the plates coming.
Competes with Texas Roadhouse (Texas Roadhouse, Inc.) · Chili's Grill & Bar (Brinker International)
Uber Direct first-party deliveryUber's drivers deliver orders placed on Darden's own channels, so Darden keeps the guest and pays a fee it makes nothing on. It held near 4.7% of Olive Garden's sales in the final quarter, and management expects little more from it.Uber's drivers deliver orders placed on Darden's own channels, so Darden keeps the guest and pays a fee it makes nothing on. It held near 4.7% of Olive Garden's sales in the final quarter, and management expects little more from it.
In plain English
You order from Olive Garden's own channels; a driver Darden never employed brings it to the door. Darden keeps the customer, sets the price and keeps the data, and pays Uber for the ride.
Why not just list on the delivery apps? Because there the app controls the price the guest sees, the customer data and the tips, and Darden has refused that trade. The economics of its own version are deliberately thin: the delivery fee passes straight through to Uber, so nothing is left over. Olive Garden went first, Cheddar's and Yard House followed. It is a service for existing guests, not a profit line.
Competes with Uber Eats marketplace (Uber) · DoorDash marketplace (DoorDash) · Olo Dispatch (Olo)
LongHorn SteakhouseDarden's growth engine: 618 steakhouses, $28.50 a head, sales at existing restaurants up 7.2%. Costly grocery beef pushes steak dinners out of the house and into LongHorn while raising its own costs. Watch the cattle cycle.Darden's growth engine: 618 steakhouses, $28.50 a head, sales at existing restaurants up 7.2%. Costly grocery beef pushes steak dinners out of the house and into LongHorn while raising its own costs. Watch the cattle cycle.
In plain English
A steakhouse for a Tuesday rather than an anniversary — about $28.50 a person, across 618 restaurants, and the brand Darden leans on for growth.
Here is the twist in it. When beef gets dear, LongHorn's costs climb, but so does the steak in the supermarket chiller — and management says LongHorn has long charged less against grocery prices than it could. A ribeye cooked at home stops looking like the bargain, and people come out instead. That is the tailwind; the headwind is the same cattle cycle, which ran costs near 5.5% in one quarter of last year and is guided nearer 3% for the year ahead.
Competes with Texas Roadhouse (Texas Roadhouse, Inc.) · Outback Steakhouse (Bloomin' Brands)
Yard HouseA beer-first gastropub: 93 restaurants, a $37.00 bill per guest, and 28.9% of sales from alcohol — the most drink-heavy brand Darden owns. Each location takes more money than any other Darden restaurant, and each is the most exposed if nights out get cut.A beer-first gastropub: 93 restaurants, a $37.00 bill per guest, and 28.9% of sales from alcohol — the most drink-heavy brand Darden owns. Each location takes more money than any other Darden restaurant, and each is the most exposed if nights out get cut.
In plain English
Cavernous room, a long bar crowded with draft taps, a menu long enough to suit a whole group. What Yard House really sells is an evening out rather than dinner.
Drinks are what make the numbers different. Almost twenty-nine cents of every dollar spent here goes on alcohol — pouring a beer takes far less kitchen work than plating a meal — and the bill runs about $37.00 a head, well above the family brands. There are only 93 of these, but each one takes in more money than any other restaurant Darden operates. The flip side: an evening out is easy to skip.
Competes with The Cheesecake Factory (Cheesecake Factory Inc.) · BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse (BJ's Restaurants, Inc.)
Cheddar's Scratch KitchenDarden's price floor: 184 restaurants at $19.50 a head, the cheapest bill it offers. Darden's own survey work put it first on affordability among casual chains — a gap it has to hold as wages climb about 3.5% next year.Darden's price floor: 184 restaurants at $19.50 a head, the cheapest bill it offers. Darden's own survey work put it first on affordability among casual chains — a gap it has to hold as wages climb about 3.5% next year.
In plain English
Dinner out for $19.50 a head, cooked in the kitchen from raw ingredients rather than reheated. That combination — scratch food at a price close to the cheapest chains — is the entire pitch, across 184 restaurants.
It only works while eating here stays close to the cost of cooking at home, and the gap is squeezed from both sides. Cooking from scratch needs more hands, and wages are expected to rise about 3.5% in the coming year. Meanwhile Chili's has been taking the same value-minded diners, with sales at its existing restaurants up around 9% on top of roughly 25% the year before.
Competes with Applebee's Neighborhood Grill + Bar (Dine Brands Global) · Chili's Grill & Bar (Brinker International)
Chuy'sThe Tex-Mex chain Darden bought in 2024 for about $614M — 110 restaurants at a $20.00 bill per guest, now near the end of moving onto Darden's systems. It is the only Darden brand still on outside delivery apps, and next year's plan counts nothing from them.The Tex-Mex chain Darden bought in 2024 for about $614M — 110 restaurants at a $20.00 bill per guest, now near the end of moving onto Darden's systems. It is the only Darden brand still on outside delivery apps, and next year's plan counts nothing from them.
In plain English
Bought, not built. Darden paid roughly $614M in October 2024 for a Tex-Mex chain of 103 restaurants, now 110, with a bill around $20.00 a head.
Most of what an owner like Darden adds is unglamorous plumbing. It buys food for more than two thousand restaurants at once through its own distribution arm, so the same ingredients land cheaper than a hundred-restaurant chain could ever arrange — management sized those savings near $17M a year. Two years in, the work has moved on to making the recipes come out the same everywhere. Chuy's is also the one brand left selling through outside delivery apps, kept rather than converted.
Competes with Chipotle Mexican Grill (Chipotle) · On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina (private operator)
The Capital GrilleThe corporate dinner: 74 white-tablecloth steakhouses at $107.00 a head, a quarter of it drinks, and roughly half of Darden's fine-dining sales. That group grew just 1.2% last year while the cheaper brands ran several times faster.The corporate dinner: 74 white-tablecloth steakhouses at $107.00 a head, a quarter of it drinks, and roughly half of Darden's fine-dining sales. That group grew just 1.2% last year while the cheaper brands ran several times faster.
In plain English
Dry-aged beef and a serious drinks bill — the restaurant a company books to entertain a client, or a family books for a birthday that matters. About $107.00 a head, and a quarter of that spent on wine and cocktails.
Seventy-four rooms is not many, but each takes in far more than an Olive Garden does, which is how a small brand carries roughly half of Darden's fine-dining sales. The weakness sits in who pays. When companies trim entertaining budgets, this is where Darden feels it first: fine dining managed only 1.2% growth at existing restaurants last year, against 4.0% and 7.2% at the two big chains.
Competes with Ruth's Chris Steak House (Darden) · Fleming's Prime Steakhouse (Bloomin' Brands)
Ruth's Chris Steak House83 company-run steakhouses at $104.00 a head, bought in 2023 — plus roughly seventy more that other operators run under the name, the largest franchise base Darden owns. Growth here leans on franchisees rather than Darden's own building.83 company-run steakhouses at $104.00 a head, bought in 2023 — plus roughly seventy more that other operators run under the name, the largest franchise base Darden owns. Growth here leans on franchisees rather than Darden's own building.
In plain English
Darden already owned an upscale steakhouse when it bought this one in 2023, and it has kept the two deliberately apart — near-identical bills, separate names, separate rooms. Ruth's Chris runs 83 restaurants itself, at about $104.00 a head.
The quieter prize came attached to the deal: roughly seventy more Ruth's Chris restaurants that other companies own and operate, paying Darden for the use of the name. No kitchen staff, no rent — just a fee, which is why Darden's franchising team could grow faster once it arrived. The fees are small money today — Darden reports franchise income as not material — but it is the widest such network the company has.
Competes with The Capital Grille (Darden) · Fleming's Prime Steakhouse (Bloomin' Brands)
Named in filings, launches and programs
- Eddie V's Prime SeafoodBrandThirty-one upscale seafood restaurants carrying Darden's highest bill, about $126.00 a head — a small slice of the fine-dining group.
- Seasons 52BrandForty-four seasonal grills with wine bars at about $53.00 a head; a new president took charge in 2025.
- The Capital BurgerBrandThree burger restaurants at a $37.00 bill per guest — effectively a test concept, far too small to move Darden's results.
- International and US airport franchisingServiceOther operators pay to run Darden brands abroad and in US airports — 167 locations, with deals signed for India and Spain. Darden calls the income not material.
- Darden Direct DistributionBrandThe in-house arm that buys food centrally and gets it to every restaurant — the machinery behind about $17M of savings on the Chuy's deal.
- Olive Garden cateringServiceTrays of pasta for offices and parties; it added about 1.3 points to Olive Garden's sales growth in one quarter and is not counted in restaurant traffic.
- Never Ending Pasta Bowl / Buy One, Take OneProduct lineOlive Garden's rotating promotions; the take-home offer ran an extra week with more advertising behind it last winter.
- Olive Garden lighter portions menuProduct lineSeven smaller, cheaper dishes, in every restaurant from January 2026; they cost the brand roughly half a point of margin.
Eddie V's Prime SeafoodBrand
Thirty-one upscale seafood restaurants carrying Darden's highest bill, about $126.00 a head — a small slice of the fine-dining group.
Seasons 52Brand
Forty-four seasonal grills with wine bars at about $53.00 a head; a new president took charge in 2025.
The Capital BurgerBrand
Three burger restaurants at a $37.00 bill per guest — effectively a test concept, far too small to move Darden's results.
International and US airport franchisingService
Other operators pay to run Darden brands abroad and in US airports — 167 locations, with deals signed for India and Spain. Darden calls the income not material.
Darden Direct DistributionBrand
The in-house arm that buys food centrally and gets it to every restaurant — the machinery behind about $17M of savings on the Chuy's deal.
Olive Garden cateringService
Trays of pasta for offices and parties; it added about 1.3 points to Olive Garden's sales growth in one quarter and is not counted in restaurant traffic.
Never Ending Pasta Bowl / Buy One, Take OneProduct line
Olive Garden's rotating promotions; the take-home offer ran an extra week with more advertising behind it last winter.
Olive Garden lighter portions menuProduct line
Seven smaller, cheaper dishes, in every restaurant from January 2026; they cost the brand roughly half a point of margin.