Americans are open to new dining experiences: 69% say they like to try new foods and cuisines, according to YouGov Profiles. That openness creates room for emerging restaurant, QSR, fast casual, and specialty dining brands to break through. But in a crowded market, which brands are building real consumer momentum.

To answer the question, YouGov first screened 70 emerging dining brands for national awareness. The 34 emerging dining brands that at least 10% of Americans had heard about were then evaluated.


This article covers:

Top 20 emerging dining brands in the U.S.

Auburn, Alabama-founded Chicken Salad Chick ranks first in our overall ranking of U.S. emerging dining brands, ahead of Cook Out, Just Salad, Nothing Bundt Cakes, and KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot.

The ranking is based on an equal-weighted composite of five indexed inputs: Net Buzz, Consideration among aware consumers, Net Recommendation among current and former customers, On the Rise among aware consumers, and Innovation among aware consumers.

Essentially, this means that YouGov indexed all five metrics to make their results comparable, allowing each metric to contribute equally to the final Emerging Momentum score. For instance, the top brand by Net Buzz was Nothing Bundt Cakes, with a score of 12.9, while Just Salad had a Net Recommendation score of 92.8. The indexing process allows these differently scaled metrics to be weighted equally in the final score.

Awareness, used to qualify brands for the final study, does not factor into the final momentum score.

The top 20 also shows the range of brands competing for consumer attention, from Southern quick-service concepts and regional chicken chains to bakery, coffee, dessert, global fast-casual, and experiential dining brands.

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What sets the overall leader apart

Chicken Salad Chick’s profile shows broad strength across the indexed components that make up the final score. It outperforms the average of all other qualifying brands on every input, with especially strong scores on On the Rise and Innovation.

Because the five inputs use different underlying scales, YouGov indexed each component from 0 to 100 across the 34 qualifying brands before calculating the final composite.

The chart above compares Chicken Salad Chick with the average of the other 33 qualifying brands, showing that Chicken Salad Chick outperformed other emerging restaurants across all measured metrics, with consumers especially more likely to view the fast-casual restaurant as Innovative and On the Rise.

Where perceived momentum meets innovation

This view shows which emerging dining brands are seen as both gaining momentum and bringing new ideas to the market. Brands further to the right score higher on Innovation; brands higher on the chart are more likely to be seen as On the Rise.

Although the linear trend line in the above suggests a positive correlation between perceived Innovation and perceived growth, the relationship is not one-to-one. Brands such as KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot and Just Salad score highly on both measures, suggesting consumers see them as driving innovation and gaining traction. Others, such as Cook Out, are viewed as strongly On the Rise despite more moderate Innovation scores, indicating that their USP likely sits elsewhere.

Not included in this year’s study? Reach out to suggest an emerging dining brand for inclusion next year or discuss brand tracking options.

Buzz leaders

Las Vegas-born specialty cake brand Nothing Bundt Cakes leads the Buzz ranking with a Net Buzz score of 12.9. Jet’s Pizza, the Michigan-born Detroit-style pizza chain, follows at 10.8, ahead of Chicken Salad Chick at 10.3. Greensboro-born Cook Out and Chicago-style chain Portillo’s round out the top five.

Net Buzz measures whether consumers have heard more positive than negative information about a brand over the past two weeks. For emerging dining brands, this can reflect a mix of earned attention, advertising, word of mouth, local familiarity, and customer experience.

Nothing Bundt Cakes’ Buzz lead is supported by stronger performance among younger adults. Gen Z respondents aware of the specialty cake brand report a higher Net Buzz score than U.S. adults overall.

The result points to a brand generating positive conversation, especially among younger audiences. For an emerging or specialty dining brand, favorable discussion can be a positive indicator well before it approaches household-name recognition.

Consideration leaders

Cook Out leads on Consideration among aware consumers, with 63.6% of those aware of the brand saying they would consider purchasing from it. Golden Chick, the San Marcos, Texas-born chicken chain, follows at 61.0%, ahead of Tuscaloosa-rooted Taco Casa, Mission BBQ, and Just Salad.

Consideration helps distinguish brands that are not only known, but actively in the purchase set. Several leaders in this measure are regional or format-specific brands.

Cook Out’s profile shows how regional strength can shape national emerging-brand momentum. In North Carolina and South Carolina, where the brand started, and Georgia, Florida, Virginia, and Tennessee, where it announced it would next open locations, the quick-service brand posts much higher awareness than it does nationally, while also maintaining strong Consideration among aware consumers.

The pattern is useful for interpreting emerging dining brands more broadly. A brand may not yet have national awareness comparable with larger restaurant chains, but it can still show strong conversion in markets where it has deeper consumer familiarity.

YouGov can provide additional cuts that show where awareness is converting into consideration by market, audience, or consumer segment.

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On the Rise leaders

Chicken Salad Chick ranks first for On the Rise, with 54.1% of aware consumers saying the brand is on the up. KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot follows closely at 53.6%, with Just Salad, Cook Out, and Paris Baguette also in the top five.

On the Rise measures perceived growth among people who know the brand. It is not a store-count measure or a forecast, but it captures whether consumers believe a brand is gaining traction.

Innovation leaders

Chicken Salad Chick also ranks first on Innovation, with 54.4% of aware consumers saying the brand is bringing new ideas to the food service market. KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot ranks second at 53.7%, followed by Seoul-founded Korean fried chicken brand bb.q Chicken, Just Salad, and Hawaiian Bros Island Grill.

Innovation can come from different places: format, menu, customer experience, cuisine, occasion, or brand positioning. In this ranking, the leaders include fast-casual specialists, experiential dining concepts, and international or globally inspired brands.

Korean fried chicken brand bb.q Chicken has lower national awareness than KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot and Jollibee, but among consumers who know it, its Innovation score is close to KPOT’s and higher than Jollibee’s.

This comparison shows how a brand with a smaller national footprint can still be strongly associated with new ideas among the consumers who recognize it.

Brands outside this year’s emerging pool can contact YouGov to discuss whether a future custom study or tracker could help measure their awareness, momentum, and brand-health profile.

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Other qualifying brands in the study

The Top 20 table highlights the leading brands in the final ranking. The full 34-brand qualifying field also included the following brands:

  • The Halal Guys
  • Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken
  • Mountain Mike’s Pizza
  • Black Bear Diner
  • Kung Fu Tea
  • Miller’s Ale House
  • Fogo de Chão
  • Taco John’s
  • Shipley Do-Nuts
  • Pollo Campero
  • The Human Bean
  • Yard House
  • Another Broken Egg Cafe
  • Mellow Mushroom

Want to see how your brand performed? YouGov can provide deeper cuts from the study, including category context, audience segments, market-level reads, and how your brand compares with other emerging dining brands. Get in touch.

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Methodology

YouGov’s 2026 U.S. emerging dining brands study was conducted July 15–August 2, 2026 among U.S. adults in a nationally representative survey.

The study began with 70 candidate brands selected to reflect emerging, challenger, regional-to-national, international, and specialty dining brands. Respondents were first asked which brands they had ever heard of. The 34 brands that exceeded the awareness threshold of 10% nationally advanced to the final ranking stage.

The final Emerging Momentum Score is an equal-weighted composite of five indexed inputs:

  • Net Buzz
  • Consideration among aware consumers
  • Net Recommendation among customers from last 12 months
  • On the Rise among aware consumers
  • Innovation among aware consumers

Each input was min-max indexed from 0 to 100 across the 34 qualifying brands before being combined into the final score. Awareness was used as the qualification stage and is not included as a ranking input.

Disclosure: The data analysis in this article was conducted by YouGov with the assistance of AI tools. For some ranked brands, customer base measured for Recommendation is below n=100. This pertains to KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot (#5), bb.q Chicken (#8), Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants (#12), Hawaiian Bros Island Grill (#13), Paris Baguette (#14), and Black Rock Coffee Bar (#17).

Question wording:

  • Awareness: “Which of the following food service brands have you ever heard of?”
  • Net Buzz: “Over the past two weeks, which of the following food service brands have you heard something positive about (whether in the news, through advertising, or talking to friends and family)?” minus “Now, which of the following have you heard something negative about over the past two weeks?”
  • Consideration: “When you are in the market next to purchase food or drink, from which of the following would you consider purchasing?”
  • Net Recommendation: “Which of the following food service brands would you recommend to a friend or colleague?” minus “And which of the following food service brands would you tell a friend or colleague to avoid?”
  • On the Rise: “Based on anything you know, have seen, or heard about these brands, which do you think are on the rise?”
  • Innovation: “Based on anything you know, have seen, or heard about these brands, which do you think are bringing new ideas to the food service market?”

This study focuses on emerging dining brands and is separate from YouGov BrandIndex’s daily tracking of established dining brands. YouGov BrandIndex tracks 116 established dining brands across 16 brand-health metrics; those established brands were outside the scope of this emerging-brand study

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