The Most Instagrammed Chain Restaurant May Surprise You
Based on hashtags alone, one nationwide eatery is the most likely to make your grid.
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If you go out to a fancy meal at a super-exclusive restaurant, nobody would blame you for posting a photo on Instagram. But we’ll assume that, most of the time, we’re not all eating at ’gram-worthy hotspots. Or are we? New research from the restaurant furnishings experts at Affordable Seating suggest one national chain restaurant is surprisingly worthy of making the grid.
The Affordable Seating team analyzed around five million Instagram posts with restaurant-related hashtags mentioning ten of the country’s most popular chains — and, to be clear, we’re talking sit-down restaurants here, not fast food. According to the findings, TGI Fridays was the most popular restaurant to hashtag, with 1.3 million mentions.
In second place was Olive Garden, but with fully one-third fewer tags to its credit. That was followed by Applebee’s (777K), Buffalo Wild Wings (544K) and Texas Roadhouse (427K) rounding out the top five. Surprisingly, ironic/unironic fan-favorite Cheesecake Factory only came in seventh among the ten just below Outback Steakhouse. Longhorn Steakhouse, Chili’s Grill and Bar and Red Robin hold down the bottom three spots with mentions in only the five-figure range.
As for why TGI Fridays has the right vibes to top the list, Affordable Seating offered this analysis: “They are known for their iconic red and white striped interior, featuring memorabilia and eclectic artwork on their walls. The lighting is typically designed to be warm and inviting, with pendant lights, chandeliers, and other decorative lighting used to create a lively atmosphere.” Meanwhile, second place Olive Garden errs more on the side of earth tones and comforting ambiance (probably because of that whole “when you’re here, you’re family” thing). In the case of all of the top-Instagrammed chains, the common thread seems to be layouts and atmospheres that invite and encourage groups and social gatherings — in other words, occasions that invite taking a few pics.
“Analyzing the top restaurant chains through Instagram hashtags offers a valuable glimpse into the relationship between restaurants and social media influence,” Zach Kanoff, SVP of Chain Accounts for Affordable Seating, was quoted as saying. “It's not surprising that these top chain restaurants are popular on Instagram. Social media, especially platforms like Instagram, thrive on visually appealing content, and these restaurants often invest in creating eye-catching dishes and aesthetically pleasing dining experiences.”
While the announcement touted this a ranking of the most “Instagrammable” chain restaurants, we’ll hedge that a bit by saying these are certainly, among these ten contenders, the most “Instagrammed.” But no matter how you view the data, you still probably wouldn’t have guessed TGI Fridays would come out on top.
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