The Fast-Casual Comeback Tour

In this episode of Motley Fool Money, analyst Emily Flippen is joined by analyst Sanmeet Deo and contributor Jason Hall to break down what has caused the rebound in fast-casual restaurant stocks, how consumer tastes have changed, and if fast-casual stocks are set up for continued strong performance in the year ahead.

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A full transcript is below.

This podcast was recorded on Jan. 19, 2026.

Emily Flippen: Fast casual stocks were smoked in 2025, but things have started to look up in the new year. We're digging into whether or not this is a real turnaround for food today on Motley Fool Money. Today is Tuesday, January 20th. Welcome to Motley Fool Money. I'm your host in Life Flipping, and today I'm joined by Fool analysts Sanmeet Deo and Jason Hall to discuss the rebound in fast casual stocks, what's been driving it, and what consumer trade down behavior means for the category in the year ahead. Now, it's no surprise, but 2025 was a rough year for fast casual stocks Wingstop, Chipotle, Cava, and Sweetgreen, all lost double digit amounts of value in the year 15, 37, 47, and 78% of their value, respectively. Obviously, that's a combination of concerns around valuation, trade downs for budget conscious shoppers, inflation, changing consumer behaviors, just name it. It's probably result. But it does seem like something fundamentally did shift over the course of the past year. Sanmeet I want to start with you and what's been driving the weakness in fast casual. What do you think investors have gotten wrong over the past years that caused such a contraction valuation?

Sanmeet Deo: Fast casual valuations have become almost SAS like, they were stretched beyond belief. I think what investors underestimate is the value gap between fast casual and casual dining. Traditionally, fast casual sin is better for you food at a slightly premium price, and consumers are willing to pay this price because the food felt healthier, fresher. Over the past year, I believe these fast casual companies, they just got a little too aggressive with pricing and took it too far. We saw menu price inflation, fast casual outpace the broader industry. When a bowl at Cava or a salad at sweet green pushes past 16 or $18 after delivery fees and tips, the consumer is going to start doing some new math. Meanwhile, casual dining has become a better value proposition, even one that consumers are willing to take despite health concerns or quality of food or whatnot. I also suspect the GLP-1s may be at play a little bit here, but that's a longer term thing. That's why things happen.

Emily Flippen: The first time you mentioned to me Sanmeet we worked together here at The Motley Fool, and you said, When GLP-1s came on the market, I'm concerned about what this means for food. I was like, I'm never concerned about Americans and eating. I don't care what drugs are on the market. Americans love to eat. As more time has passed, I do wonder if I was maybe overly dismissive of that trend because I do think we'll start to see it showing up here and it could be impacting these fast casual stocks. But while it did impact over 2025. I will say Jason 2026 has been weirdly enough, a bit different. Now, we're only 20 days into 2026 so far. But fast casual stocks have rebounded really aggressively. We're just now entering earning season here, so it's not like we have results from any of these companies that would be causing it, but those same companies, Wingstop, Chipotle, Cava Sweet Green, they're all up double digits for the year. Is there anything that is explaining this sudden snapback to you?

Jason Hall: Maybe this is foreshadowing, but I think we could even work Starbucks into this conversation to some degree, too. There's a few factors at play here, and Sanmeet mentioned some of them. The valuations were certainly very aggressive at the beginning of the year, but they were that way for a reason. A lot of these businesses, Cava is a good example, Wingstop. Prior to really the past year and a half, we've seen Chipotle go through these periods of very, very high growth, really good strong comps, like mid single digit or even better in some cases, and the unit economics that those businesses tend to get have always been really, really good, compared to the restaurant industry writ large, so those valuations were very, very high for those reasons, but then the growth went away. The market has reset expectations. I think at the end of the year, we saw a little bit of accelerated probably some tax harvesting going on with some sellers exiting those stocks toward the end of the year. Now, what have we seen more recently? Maybe some of those folks that sold to harvest those tax losses have decided, you know what? I'm going to reopen a position. They sold to harvest that tax loss, get past that 30 day window and buy back in. But I think maybe we see some momentum traders coming in and then just some fundamental investors saying, hey, businesses like Chipotle, Wingstop, these have been great businesses over the long term, and they've been winning businesses over the long term, and investors have maybe started to move back in. Part of my personal view as an investor and analyst has followed a lot of these businesses in this sector for over a decade, is this feels like a lot of macro pressure on people's wallets and not necessarily just changing tastes. I say changing tastes, because we are seeing some things that are happening. But I think eventually, the tides going to turn favorable and the winning businesses return to being winning businesses, right, winners continue to win, thinking about rule brreaker traits. The market is always looking forward. Investors are looking for what those businesses are going to be doing when they report later this month in early February for the most recent quarter and what are their guidances, looking for? I think it's a little bit of all of those things that are playing. But for me, I think the big thing is that investors that are starting to buy, I hope a lot of those people are just seeing these decent fundamentals for some of these in terms of valuation and the wonderful businesses that they are being able to go back to their winning ways.

Emily Flippen: In a sense, it's a story of comparisons. Like Sanmeet said, it's a value comparison of fast casual today versus the other option on the market. Then also the comparison of valuations, what we're seeing today versus where these markets have traded in the past. Up next, we're actually going to be talking more about that trade down in consumers and how grocery and convenience stores may be stealing the meals that used to belong to fast casual, so stick with us.

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Emily Flippen: Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. We're discussing the decline of fast casual food concepts and how consumers have been trading down in more cost conscious environments. This is something that probably doesn't take any listeners by surprise. I think the only segment of eating out that has been growing over the past year has been what they call value based food offerings for at least the outside of home food consumption industry. But it does beg the question of if consumers aren't eating at the Chipotles or even McDonald's of the world, where are they eating from? I want to pass it to you because I saw a stat the other day that really piqued my interest. There's a company suggested their data said that 85% of all consumers have tried to order food from convenience stores. In fact, Grubhub called 2025 the convenience stores became meal destinations. Does that track with what you see in the companies you follow?

Sanmeet Deo: I'm glad you mentioned this, this is a thing a trend that's at play when it comes to the restaurant industry in general. Here's a couple telling statistics. The share of consumers explicitly choosing deli prepared foods, instead of a restaurant meal has more than doubled since 2017, jumping from 12% to 28%. That's one. The other one, 23% of shoppers admit they're stopping less frequently at fast food or fast casual restaurants, specifically to buy these prepared meals instead. This plays right into a pick and shovel company that we've been looking at is Mama's Creations, Ticker MAMA Mama specializes in fresh, clean label prepared foods. Think deli style meatballs, pastas, grab and go meals. They've been aggressively expanding into the food service sections of grocery stores, convenience stores, mass market retail stores. They're in Costcos. That's big time. This gives consumers a chance to capitalize on convenience and freshness to satisfy their appetites. You can get it all by just hopping over to your grocery store or these stores, which they're going to anyway, grabbing a meal. They're usually vacuum sealed, very freshly prepared, clean ingredients, minimal ingredients. Then they get everything that they need to feed their families.

Emily Flippen: Now, I will say, I am one of those victims, I guess, if you can use that word of these pre prepared meals in the grocery, prepared food section of my grocery store. I will say I am increasingly buying them myself, whether it be from grocery stores or convenience stores. I'm certainly interested in learning more about Mama's creations. But, Jason, when you think about the shift that's happening in terms of that and consumer behavior, do you think that's going to be permanent, or do you think fast casual is positioned for a comeback if and when the economy improves, for instance?

Jason Hall: If we think about Uber Eats and Grubhub, they've changed the game in many ways, a lot of people didn't expect. Here's the thing. Besides whole foods a decade ago, who was going to eat grocery store sushi? But it's become far more prevalent right now. There's no doubt about that. I think that's one of the law of unintended consequences. You order your delivery food on Uber Eats and then they give you the pop up. Pick up a slurpy from 711 on the way or a bottle of booze on the liquor store that's across the street. All of these things are choices that we didn't have more. I think that has certainly increased the options, the food options that people have just at the top of a food screen on the phone screen, excuse me. But guys, competition is not new in the restaurant business in the food business. It's core to it. As I mentioned before, I firmly believe that macro, honestly, is probably the biggest win, not the only, but the biggest headwind for fast casual over the last year plus, and not necessarily changing consumer tastes or even more options that are available. I think there's still a bright future for the winners in that space. Let's remember the reason Chipotle's been a big winner and successful is its food has both been delicious and affordable. I'm sorry, but truck stop burritos and 711 sushi, they're not ever going to be known for the same quality ingredients and like. I'm sorry, but Cava, Chipole they're known for very high quality food. What's changed is the perception of value. Look at Brinker. Look at Brinker's Chili's. Is largest restaurant chain. I think the comps were 18% last quarter. Maggiano's were down, but their comps a year ago were like 20 something percent. Those businesses have done an exceptional job of creating these $15, like, multi course meals. There's a reality and a perception for a lot of the casual restaurants is, why would I go stand in line, pay all this money, wait 15 minutes in the line to get my food, and then go sit on a hard plastic table to eat or take it home when I can go to Chili's and sit down and get a better meal, a bigger meal for basically the same or less money. These businesses have to shift perception back to their favor or they're going to return to the growth that they're capable of.

Emily Flippen: I think that's a fair point. I will also say I do think there's a shift of not only value perception, but also quality, Jason, to your point. I do think the perception of quality of that 711 sushi, so to speak, is actually changed. We see prepared foods at convenience stores growing in popularity because there is a perception of quality there. Meanwhile, the perception of quality with Chipotle in particular, this went viral on social media. People perceive the quality of food not being as good as it once was. I think Panera went through a very similar thing after they were brought private. But there's a combination there of perception and quality that certainly needs to change to drive people back to fast casual chains. Up next, we're going to be looking forward to 2026, evaluating whether or not companies are actually moving forward with those changes to make this area investable again, going through some of y'all's favorite names in the fast casual space and also discussing what a potential spin off might tell us about what restaurants or companies are signing up for in terms of growth in the year ahead. Lots still to come, so please stick with us.

Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. As we wrap up today's show, we're going to be looking at the perception of fast casual and its pipeline in the years to come to see if it's still an investable area for retail investors. We're going to be picking your brains, Sanmeet and Jason for your favorite fast casual stocks to buy today. But first, we've discussed in the past how 2026 is shaping up to be a better year for IPOs in comparison to 2025. I am interested in how this could impact the fast casual food industry. Jason, you flagged for me that Jollibee, which is a Philippine based fast food company that's been expanding globally. We've talked about it here on the show before. They seem to be prep potentially spin off its international operations for potential listing in the United States. It lacks you could argue the brand recognition of its domestic operations there in the Philippines and its home turf, but it is growing faster than its domestic counterparts. What do you think is the rationale behind this decision?

Jason Hall: I think this year actually is a decade ago that Yum foods, Yum brands spun out its Chinese business that's the owner of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. At the time, it made sense to spin that China business off for a lot of factors. One of those was that it was very mature business in most of its markets, and that was the high growth opportunity. Stand that business up on its own with independent management and its own capitalization, access to capital markets, valuation multiple of the stocks. All of those things would be valued more appropriately. It's weird because Jollibee in the same situation, but you have to invert. Jollibee has over 10,000 global locations across all of its brands, but in North America, it's less than 120. This is the growth opportunity for it. By separating the business off, it has its own independent management, its own balance sheet, its own capitalization, and ideally, that it would be viewed and valued by the markets as a growth business. That'd be great for shareholders continue if they execute well on the growth strategy and they get a lot of traction, and they're able to scale this up, it'd be great for the founder and his family who still own some 45% of the business because it would grow their wealth, as well. I think for all of those reasons, really, you look at kind of the Yum brands spin off of China. It's the model. If they execute on it well, then it can be great. But what we don't know is Jollibee going to be in the US, like KFC had been for years and years and years in China. Only times going to tell us that one.

Emily Flippen: Sanmeet, when I look in the year ahead, I'm curious what would cause companies to become investable again in your mind. Is there anything that you're looking for specifically to show up in the metrics of these fast casual companies and report earnings to prove that a rebound is happening or even potentially not happening?

Sanmeet Deo: A key metric is usually Same-Store Sales, and the components of Same-Store Sales are pricing and traffic. Much of what the Same-Store Sales growth has been in the recent quarters has been pricing, as I was discussing earlier. I'm specifically looking for positive traffic comp trends because pricing has been, like I said, been going up and up and up for these fast casual companies. I think they've hit ahead. They're not going to be able to do that as much. What was happening in the prior quarters was traffic was down. People were coming into their stores less. Obviously, they're not going to spend much if they're not coming to the stores. What I'm seeing is if I see revenue going up but traffic going down, that's going to be a warning sign. Still a sign to pause. If I start seeing revenue flat but traffic up, that's going to be a positive sign. It's generally too close to earning season for me to buy in right now. I don't like to buy too close to when the reports are coming out, but I'm going to be watching for these trends very closely. If I start seeing fundamentals going up but stock prices going down, that's going to be a green flag for me to start buying some companies like Chipotle Wingstop or Domino's.

Emily Flippen: I like that. I know you said it's too close to earnings to buy now, and I totally respect that. But before we sign off here, I just have to put you on the spot. For 10 like, earning season, is it coming up? I want to do a quick lightning round. If you have a favorite, fast casual stock, that gun to your head, you have to buy right now prior to seeing their earnings. I'm curious if any are standing out. Jason, I want to start with you.

Jason Hall: Yeah, I'm going to pull one that I foreshadowed earlier, and that's Starbucks, which I think fits in this bucket. The thing is, sure, there's the trends, things that have been going on the macro things. I heard from plenty people that are like, my favorite Starbucks treat is just too expensive, and I'm not buying it anymore. That's happening. At the same time, the business has really had to refocus its operations and simplify. I've said before, I think their wonderful CEO who they stole from Chipotle is the best operator in food and beverage retail and is doing exactly the right things, simplifying the business making it a better place for employees to be able to serve customers more quickly and releveraging the way they use technology to serve the customer that's there versus the last customer that put in the order because they might be 10 miles away. We're seeing trends. They're not perfect. Things that Sanmeet talked about traffic is still not where it was even a year ago, and certainly down from where it was two years ago, but it's stabilizing. For around 20 times operating cash flow, I think it's really compelling. It looks expensive because they've booked some losses on the gap side based on some changes in their business, but on a cash flows basis, the business is very, very appropriately valued. You could maybe even say cheap, based on the trends around the turnaround.

Emily Flippen: I like that. I don't want to completely poo pooh your idea, though, Jason, but I do have a little bank on? I have to say, I now buy my coffee when I treat myself. I buy my coffee from my local convenience store. I go to Wawa to buy my coffee. I don't go to Starbucks anymore. I am part of the problem that Starbucks needs to fix. I have money and a gift card on my app that I have not spent. Starbucks needs to win me back personally before I can start to invest in them again.

Jason Hall: That is a fair point, and that is certainly a challenge that they have to the same thing with Chipotle. There's this perception that their average entre costs $5 more than it actually costs. These businesses have to fix those perceptions as much as the actual problems inside their doors.

Emily Flippen: Certainly. I do think they can do it, though. Sanmeet, do you have an idea that stands out to you?

Sanmeet Deo: Yeah, well, the obvious choice for me, I know, but I think I'm going to pivot here, and I'm going to say Wingstop. Ticker WING while it's not traditionally a fast casual restaurant, it is primarily a pickup and delivery business, solely focus on wings, chicken wings, chicken sandwiches now they have. It's just a fantastic operator. That's the thing that gets me with them. They operate small stores with minimal staff very simple menu with fantastic sauces, I think, and an easy ordering menu and a food that's translatable across the world that is often consumed with sporting events and special celebrations, mostly sporting events, which are throughout the year now. Their growth trajectory, to me, seems a lot faster higher than even though Chipotle, which I still love. Wingstop has a lot of white space in the United States, internationally, and with maybe even expanding some of their foods, which they do their menu, which they do at a moderate pace. I really like Wingstop.

Emily Flippen: I do, too, and their franchise model, to your point, really allows them to move quicker than company owned models, and that is certainly a benefit to Wingstop. Wingstop and Starbucks will certainly follow them. Hope they have a better 2026, and they did in 2025. Sanmeet and Jason, thank you both so much for joining today, and listeners, thank you for tuning in. As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talked about in the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against. Buy our sales docs based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows the Motley Fool editorial standards, and is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provide for informational purposes only. This see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our show notes. For Sanmeet Deo, Jason Hall, and the entire Motley Fool Money team, I'm Emily Flippen. We'll see you tomorrow.

Emily Flippen, CFA has positions in Cava Group. Jason Hall has positions in Chipotle Mexican Grill and Starbucks. Sanmeet Deo, CFA has positions in Chipotle Mexican Grill and Wingstop. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Cava Group, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Costco Wholesale, Domino's Pizza, and Starbucks. The Motley Fool recommends Sweetgreen and Wingstop and recommends the following options: short March 2026 $42.50 calls on Chipotle Mexican Grill. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.