Restaurant Competitor Analysis: 4 Easy Steps [Guide]

According to the Independent Restaurant Industry Report, 91% of restaurants continued to increase menu prices last year, which negatively impacted their business. 72% of restaurants reported the same or fewer customers in 2024 compared to the year prior! That’s why you need to fight for every customer, and to do that, you first have to understand your competition. How? By conducting a restaurant competitor analysis.

💡Quick Summary:

- Restaurant competitive analysis is the process of studying your competitors to understand what they do well and what they don’t.

- Outils d'analyse des concurrents make this process much simpler and more effective, so it’s definitely worth using them.

What is restaurant competitor analysis?

Restaurant competitor analysis is the process of researching, observing, and evaluating restaurants that could potentially take away your customers.

For what?

To determine your place in the market, see what works for your restaurant competition, and spot market gaps to grow your business.

It’s not just a one-time task; it’s useful at every stage of having your own business:

• Before opening: See how crowded the market is and find ways to stand out.

• When a restaurant is doing well: Keep an eye on competitors to improve and become people’s favourite choice.

• When a restaurant struggles: Learn from better-performing places and adapt their strategies to save your business.

• Before significant changes: Check how your competitors do it before trying something new.

Why do you need a restaurant competitive analysis?

Whether you own a small neighborhood restaurant, a few popular spots downtown, or an entire chain of well-known restaurants, you need competitor analysis.

Thanks to it, you gain competitive insights that will help you make the right decisions (ones that ensure customers will choose you over others).

In short, restaurant competitive analysis will help you:

• Understand the market: See what attracts customers to other restaurants and understand current restaurant trends

• Find your unique selling point: Discover what makes your place special compared to the competition and highlight it to stand out.

• Improve your offer and pricing strategy: See how competitors structure their menu offerings and pricing so you can adjust yours.

• Evaluate your marketing strategies: Learn which marketing tactics work for your competitors, and use this knowledge.

How to analyze your restaurant competitors? 4 Steps

Step 1: Identify your restaurant’s direct and indirect competitors

Start by defining who your competitors are. You can divide them into:

• Concurrents directs – restaurants that are very similar to yours, they can:

  • Have the same cuisine

  • Be in the same location

  • Operate under the same business model

  • Operate under the same service model

Exemple : McDonald’s and Burger King – both serve fast-food burgers and fries.

• Concurrents indirects – restaurants that offer different products and cuisines but still cater to the same customers as you.

Exemple : Crumbl Cookies vs. Starbucks – Crumbl offers gourmet cookies, while Starbucks focuses on coffee and beverages. Despite this, both compete for busy customers looking for sweet treats on the go.

OK, you can divide them into direct and indirect competitors, but how do you actually find them?

Voici my three easy methods to identify your competition 👇

Use Google search strategically

Google is one of the simplest and most effective tools for finding competitors.

You need only search using phrases your potential customers might use, such as:

• Best Italian restaurant in [location]

• Greek food near me

• Vegan cafés [location]

If you’re a bigger player in the restaurant industry, try these:

• [Your restaurant name] concurrents

• [Your restaurant name] alternatives

Remember that the results you get might not always be completely accurate – they depend on how well each restaurant handles its SEO and marketing strategies.

Ask the AI assistant

A more accurate way is to use an AI assistant, like Assistant de marque.

It can easily identify your restaurant’s biggest competitors – doesn’t matter if it’s a street taco place in New York or a fast-casual restaurant chain like Shake Shack.

Here’s a quick overview of what you need to do:

1. Sign up for a free trial of Brand24.
2. Create a project for your restaurant – you have to enter your restaurant’s name.
3. Let the tool collect data about your restaurant.
4. Once the data is ready, go to the AI Brand Assistant and ask to identify your competitors.

I’ve just shown you how Brand Assistant works using McDonald’s as an example.

Outils de référencement

You can also use an SEO tool, like Semrush.

However, keep in mind that these tools show you domains that compete with you in search results – they don’t directly show brand names.

That’s why this method might not always be the most precise for small or local restaurants.

Voici comment cela fonctionne :

1. Log in to your Semrush account and go to the Recherche biologique tab. Then, enter your restaurant’s website domain.

2. Semrush will show you, among other things, the keywords your site is ranking for (the Overview tab):

3. If you go to the Competitors section, you’ll see a list of domains that are your main competitors in search results.

I showed you how this method works, using the example of the local sushi restaurant chain Blufish in Illinois.

Step 2: Examine the most important information

The next step is to gather the most essential information about your competitors.

Here’s what to focus on:

• Business model: What business model are these restaurants (fast food, casual dining, fine dining, etc.)? Do they provide delivery or takeout services? Which online ordering system do they use?

• Reservations: Do they accept reservations? If yes, is it online, by phone, or both? What platforms or systems do they use for bookings?

• Messages de la marque: What is their unique selling point (USP), and how do they communicate with guests?

• Pricing strategy and menu analysis: How do they price their menu items compared to others? What are the menu offerings? Do they offer special deals like happy hours, discounts, or loyalty programs?

• Social media presence: Which platforms do they use, and how engaged are their followers? Are they visible enough to attract new customers?

⚠️ It’s essential to use social media effectively to showcase the restaurant’s unique story, purpose, and values. As a result, you’ll have more guests in your restaurant!

• Advertising strategy: Where and how do they advertise? Do they focus more on online channels or traditional offline methods? How effective is their advertising?

• Brand sentiment: What are people saying about these restaurants online? Is the overall feedback positive, negative, or neutral? How does sentiment vary across different online channels?

⚠️ Analyse des sentiments automatically categorizes restaurant mentions as positive or negative. It helps you quickly understand how people feel about a restaurant and find the strengths and weaknesses to attract more customers. Also, you can address issues and negative online reviews before they escalate.

• Customer online reviews: What ratings and feedback do they have on review platforms like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google? What do customers say about their food, service, and atmosphere?

• Share of voice: How much online buzz and attention do your competitors get compared to you and others?

⚠️ Part de voix reveals how popular a restaurant is within a specific market. The bigger its share, the more likely it is to attract diners.

• Stratégie de référencement: How well do the competitors show up in search engines? Which keywords are they ranking for?

Step 3: Learn about their target audience

To truly understand your competitors, you need to know their target market.

Who are these people eating in these restaurants? What do they talk about when mentioning the restaurant? When do they talk online about your competitors? What emotions do they express?

This is especially important if you’re conducting a competitive analysis of your indirect competitors because you’re targeting the same customers.

By gaining insights into customer preferences and understanding their online behaviors, you can tailor your marketing and offerings to better attract them!

Voici comment :

Analyze what their audience is talking about

Take a close look at online conversations about your competitor. What topics come up most often?

These discussions reveal what matters most to their guests. Different main topics include opportunities to stand out in the industry, but also ideas you should avoid.

Comment faire ?

Utilisation Analyse du sujet – it analyzes all the mentions of your competitor and automatically categorizes the conversations into key themes.

The results are clearly presented, along with key metrics.

The most discussed topics about Burger King:

1️⃣ Promotions, menu items, and social media content (2.6k mentions, 270M reach)

2️⃣ Comparisons of different fast food chains and their offerings (1.3k mentions, 13M reach)

3️⃣ Updates and news about various restaurant brands and industry development (1.5k mentions, 8.2M reach)

Identify when their guests are the most eager to engage on social media

Track when their target market is active on social media. The best time to publish is exactly when people are most likely to engage with your content!

If you know these peak hours, you will be able to better schedule your own posts.

How can you do this?

Use Brand24’s Heures chaudes feature. It shows you the best time to post on social media based on three key factors:

• When the most mentions are published
• When those mentions generate the most reach
• When people are most actively interacting with them

The best hours for Burger King to post on Instagram and gain high engagement (GMT+1):

✔️ Monday DE 12 À 13 HEURES, 3-4 PM
✔️ Tuesday DE 9 À 10 HEURES
✔️ Thursday 5-6 PM, 7-9 PM
✔️ Saturday 5-6 AM, 5-6 PM, 7-8 PM

Learn where they come from

Check the geographic locations of your competitor’s online audience.

If you know where mentions, reach, and interactions come from, you can tailor your marketing and business efforts to attract more similar customers or discover new markets to expand.

How can you do this?

Use Brand24’s Analyse géographique – it shows:

• The locations of online mentions
• The locations where their reach is the highest
• Where people interact the most

You’ll see precisely which countries and what the numbers are.

Burger King has the highest reach in these three markets:

1️⃣ Indonesia – over 278M
2️⃣ United States – over 128.5M
3️⃣ Spain – almost 58.5M

Step 4: Benchmark with competitors

Of course, what would a analyse concurrentielle be without a comparison?

With Brand24, you can benchmark your restaurant’s online performance with your competitors’.

Il suffit de se rendre sur le site Comparaison tab, where you’ll find an overview with all the most important mesures de la performance des entreprises.

Let’s take a look at how McDonald’s performs compared to its two biggest global competitors – KFC and Burger King:

Conclusion :

✔️ Undoubtedly, McDonald’s delivers the best overall performance.

✔️ Cependant, KFC has the highest percentage of positive mentions (33%) and also the lowest percentage of negative mentions (13%).

✔️ Burger King turned out to be the weakest in this comparison.

The best restaurant competitor analysis tools to use in 2025:

Without a well-conducted competitive analysis, you can’t increase your chances of success in that highly competitive restaurant industry.

You can only conduct this analysis properly with the help of these three tools:

✅ AI Brand Assistant (powered by Brand24): Your personal assistant for everything – from identifying competitors to running detailed analyses. “He” does everything for you, you gain powerful insights, and can make informed decisions.

✅ Brand24 : My “to-go” outil d'écoute sociale for tracking competitors’ online mentions. With many AI-powered features, you can create complex analyses for your restaurant and its indirect and direct competitors. All happening in real-time!

✅ Semrush: My favorite complement to make sure your restaurant’s competitive analysis is comprehensive. With this tool, you can easily see which keywords your competitors rank for and how much traffic their websites get.

Try the best competitor analysis tools now during a free trial period!