Texas Roadhouse sprints to best same-store sales since ’24

Texas Roadhouse started 2026 with a roar.

Same-store sales at the steakhouse chain jumped by 7.1% year over year during the quarter ended March 31, their best mark since the fourth quarter of 2024. The growth included positive traffic of 4.5% and pricing of 3.1%.

Executives credited a continued focus on execution and operations that has been the chain’s bread and butter for years.

“Our traffic and mix trends show that our guests continue to trust us to provide an experience worthy of their time and money,” CEO Jerry Morgan said during an earnings call Thursday.

In particular, Morgan called out a number of technology investments that have helped Texas Roadhouse become faster and more efficient, including the option for customers to pay on tablets at the table; digital kitchen display systems; and a new waitlist management system. It is also testing handheld ordering tablets for servers and seeing good initial feedback.

“It's working really well from the guest experience and from our employee experience and helping our managers run their business more efficiently, so all of it together is definitely helpful,” Morgan said of the various tech initiatives.

The chain also continues to get a boost from takeout. To-go sales accounted for 14.6% of weekly sales in the quarter, their highest point since the pandemic era, and are growing faster than dine-in sales.

The reason? Operations, of course. “I just really, really believe that it's about the demand for our product and the execution that our operators are continuing to focus on,” Morgan said.

The chain has not noticed much change in customer behavior this year, despite rising gas prices and declining consumer sentiment. The only area of the menu where people continue to cut back is alcohol, but even that is improving. Menu mix was slightly negative in the quarter at 0.5%.

“I don't think we've ever been able to find a correlation between gas prices and our traffic trend,” said Michael Bailen, VP of investor relations, during the earnings call. “I think people still want to go out there and have that simple luxury of a casual-dining meal with friends and family.”

Indeed, through the first five weeks of the current quarter, the chain’s same-store sales are up 6.5% year over year, even as average gas prices have risen past $4.50 a gallon.

The Louisville, Kentucky-based chain also signaled some relief on beef prices, which have been putting a crimp in profits over the past year. Commodity inflation in the quarter came in at 6.2%, slightly lower than it was expecting. Executives credited a shift in beef demand at retail, with consumers opting for other proteins as well as less expensive beef cuts, which has freed up some supply.

With that in mind, the company lowered its expectations for annual commodity inflation to between 6% and 7%, from 7% previously. They believe beef inflation will peak in the current quarter and will then run below 6% in the second half of the year.

Restaurant-level margin fell 36 basis points to 16.3% due to commodity and labor inflation, but that was an improvement compared to previous quarters.

The company opened four new Texas Roadhouse locations in the quarter and one location of Jaggers, its growing fast-casual concept. Franchisees also opened one Texas Roadhouse internationally and will add another six overseas this year.

Overall, the company expects to open a total of 35 company-owned restaurants this year across Texas Roadhouse, Jaggers and Bubba’s 33, its sports bar brand.

It finished the quarter with a total of 822 restaurants worldwide.

Total revenue increased 12.8% to $1.6 billion. Net income grew 8.6% to $123.4 million. Diluted earnings per share were $1.87, compared to $1.70 a year ago.

Texas Roadhouse's stock jumped more than 12% Friday morning.