The sales of Orlando, Florida, U.S.A.-based restaurant operating firm Darden Restaurants soared in its fourth fiscal quarter of 2025, but its Fine Dining segment, which includes such chains as The Capital Grille and Eddie V’s Prime Seafood, took a hit in the period.
The company’s total sales in the quarter surged 10.6 percent year over year to USD 3.3 billion (EUR 2.9 billion), driven largely by a blended same-restaurant sales increase of 4.6 percent, as well as sales stemming from the acquisition of 103 Chuy’s Tex Mex restaurants and 25 net new restaurants.
For its entire 2025 fiscal year, Darden’s sales increased 6 percent to USD 12.1 billion (EUR 10.5 billion).
Two of its chains, LongHorn Steakhouse and Olive Garden, performed especially well in the three-month period, but sales in its Fine Dining segment declined 3.3 percent.
Pacific Management Consulting Group Founder and CEO John Gordon told SeafoodSource that fine dining has struggled across the restaurant industry. He attributed some of the slowdown in the subsector to restaurants like The Capital Grille being typically located in urban centers that are still impacted by employees working from home on a hybrid basis after the Covid-19 pandemic.
For its 2026 fiscal year, Darden will likely raise prices on its menus around 2 percent and then a bit more as the year goes on, CFO Raj Vanam said on an investor earnings call.
“We try to price as little as possible and still get the returns we could get. It’s worked well for us, and we always play the long game. We’ll continue to do that,” he said.
The company is implementing price increases partly because it expects food costs across all of its commodities to rise around 2.5 percent in the first half of its fiscal 2026 year. The company expects “mid single digit” inflation on seafood and beef.
Elsewhere, after closing 15 Bahama Breeze locations in May, Darden executives have determined that Bahama Breeze isn’t a strategic priority for the company and are considering selling the restaurants or converting them to other Darden brands, CEO Rick Cardenas said, per Restaurant Dive.
While Bahama Breeze has a fair amount of growth potential, it could benefit more under another owner, Cardenas said.