• Twenty national pizza companies made Newsweek’s 2023 list of America’s Favorite Restaurant Chains.
• The Italian restaurant category featured two chains also listed in the pizza category, along with several other pizza-heavy chains that did not appear in the pizza category at all.

Newsweek has singled out 20 national pizza restaurant chains for honors in its new America’s Favorite Restaurant Chains 2023 list.

The awards are based on the results of a Newsweek/Statista survey of more than 4,000 customers and employees of restaurant chains across the U.S. All totaled, 220 restaurant chains made the list in 16 categories. Each restaurant includes a rating of 4 or 5 stars.

In the pizza category, America’s favorite chains include (in alphabetical order): Amerigo, Anthony’s Coal-Fired Pizza, Aurelio’s Pizza, Bellacino’s, Bertucci’s, BJ’s Restaurants, Brixx Wood Fired Pizza, Fazoli’s, Giordano’s, Grimaldi’s, Jet’s Pizza, Johnny’s Pizza, Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria, Marco’s Pizza, Mazzio’s, Mellow Mushroom, Mountain Mike’s Pizza, Papa Murphy’s, Pizza Inn, and Round Table Pizza.

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The pizza chains that received a 5-star rating included Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza, Aurelio’s Pizza, Bertucci’s, Brixx Wood Fired Pizza, Fazoli’s, Giordano’s, Johnny’s Pizza, Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria, Mountain Mike’s Pizza, and Pizza Inn.

The others on the list received 4 stars.

The Newsweek list included a category for Italian restaurant chains, where two of the pizza category chains— Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza and Bertucci’s—also appeared. In fact, several companies with a strong pizza component were ranked in the Italian category instead of the pizza category. It’s unclear how the survey distinguished between the two categories.

In addition to Anthony’s and Bertucci’s, restaurants listed in the Italian category were Biaggi’s Ristorante Italiano, Bravo! Italian Kitchen, Brio, Buca di Beppo, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Johnny Carino’s, LaRosa’s Family Pizzeria, Maggiano’s Little Italy, Olive Garden, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, Spaghetti Warehouse, The Old Spaghetti Pizza Factory and Vinny’s Italian Grill & Pizzeria.

In an introduction to the report, Nancy Cooper, Newsweek’s global editor in chief, noted that “it’s been something of a mixed bag” for restaurant chains in the past year.

Cooper’s summary echoed PMQ’s own recent Pizza Power Report in regard to declining foot traffic and the likely reason for higher overall restaurant sales during a year of rampant inflation. “While sales at chain restaurants have been up lately, the number of visits to them is actually down somewhat,” she said. “The higher sales figures come in part from the higher prices diners are being charged. Nonetheless, Americans still like going to chain restaurants—a lot.”