Noodles & Company Closures in 2026: The Confirmed Numbers

Noodles & Company plans to close 30 to 35 company-owned restaurants and about five franchise locations during fiscal 2026. The company announced the plan on January 12, 2026, and reaffirmed it with second quarter results in July. It follows 42 closures in 2025. If you are looking for what is on the menu today, see our full Noodles & Company menu, prices and calories guide. As of June 30, 2026, the chain operated 318 company-owned and 78 franchise restaurants, for a total of 396.

Closure numbers at a glance

How many Noodles & Company locations have closed?

Here is the timeline, with each figure tied to company reporting.

The most recent update came with second quarter fiscal 2026 results, reported July 24, 2026. The company said it had closed 46 company-owned restaurants and 11 franchise locations since July 1, 2025. During that quarter alone, two company-owned restaurants and two franchise locations shut down. The quarterly filing put the twelve-month figure higher still, at 52 permanent company-owned closures and 13 franchise closures.

The store count has fallen steadily through the year. Company-owned restaurants went from 364 at the end of June 2025, to 349 in September, 340 in December, 320 in March 2026, and 318 by the end of June 2026.

Why is Noodles & Company closing locations?

This is the part most coverage gets wrong. The closures are not happening because sales are falling. Same-store sales are growing, and the growth is accelerating.

That is seven consecutive quarters of positive comparable sales. In the second quarter of 2026 the company also reported restaurant contribution margin of 17.2 percent, up from 12.8 percent a year earlier, and adjusted EBITDA of $10.8 million, up 79 percent. Net loss narrowed to $4.0 million from $17.6 million.

So what is driving the closures? The company is cutting restaurants that cannot turn a profit no matter how much they sell. The stated reasons are unfavourable lease terms, high operating costs, and weak markets.

Decisions like this are made thoughtfully and with a long-term view of the business.Joe Christina, President and CEO, January 2026

The sales transfer effect

There is a second reason the math works. Christina has said the company closes restaurants that sit close to higher performing ones, and that roughly a third of the closed restaurant’s sales transfer to those nearby locations. That raises average unit volume at the surviving restaurants and improves margins.

In plain terms: when one store closes, roughly one in three of its customers drives to the next one. The company keeps part of the revenue and drops all of the rent. Company-owned average unit volume rose 15.9 percent to $1.57 million in the second quarter, which is partly this effect and partly genuine growth. Christina has said most of the recent sales and traffic growth came independently of transferred sales.

The pressure behind the plan

Two things sit behind the closure programme that the company does not lead with.

First, the stock. Noodles & Company shares have traded below $1 for an extended period, putting the company at risk of delisting from the Nasdaq. Second, activist pressure. Galloway Capital Partners, which holds just over 6 percent of shares, has pushed the company to sell roughly 200 of its restaurants. In September 2025 the company hired Piper Sandler to explore options for maximising shareholder value, including a possible sale, refinancing, or a refranchising strategy. No decision has been announced.

The wider industry picture

Noodles & Company is not alone. Rising labour costs, occupancy expenses, and slower consumer spending have pushed many restaurant operators to shrink their footprints and concentrate money behind higher-traffic locations.

Is my local Noodles & Company closing?

There is no official list. The company has not released which locations will close in 2026, and it has not done so in previous years either. Here is how to check your own store.

1. Open the Noodles & Company app or website and set your location. Closed stores drop off the location finder, usually within days.
2. Call the restaurant. Staff often know weeks ahead.
3. Check the store’s Google listing. Permanent closures get marked there, sometimes before the company site updates.
4. Watch local news. Closures are usually covered by local outlets on the day they happen.

What customers say about it

The company blames costs and leases. Customers point somewhere else. In a Reddit thread asking what went wrong, customers repeatedly named high prices and shrinking portions as the reason they stopped going. One widely shared complaint described small bowls of noodles at $18.

Other comments from the same discussion blamed constant menu changes that made the food cost more while quality dropped, described the brand as having become less noodles and more company, and set out the value problem directly: fast casual used to cost less than a sit-down restaurant, and now the gap is small enough that speed is the only advantage left.

There is evidence the company heard this. During its 30th anniversary in 2025, the chain ran a campaign that brought back 1990s pricing for a short period, putting Buttered Noodles and other dishes at $4.95. Former CEO Drew Madsen, who stepped down in 2025, named two causes for the chain’s problems: a strong value-conscious climate, and slower guest adoption of the upgrades made to some historic menu items. That second point matters. Customers did not take to the replacements for dishes they already liked. Our guide to the best dishes at Noodles & Company covers which items reviewers still rate.

Company background

What happens next

The company says these steps are meant to strengthen the health of the brand and its financial position. After second quarter results it raised full-year guidance to revenue of $485 million to $500 million, comparable sales growth of 8 to 11 percent, and adjusted EBITDA of $34 million to $38 million. The CFO said he expects debt to fall to about three times adjusted EBITDA by year end.

Three things to watch through the rest of 2026:

• Whether comparable sales hold. Double-digit growth is what makes this a portfolio cut rather than a collapse. Management said third quarter company-owned comps were running at about 10 percent early in the quarter.
• Whether the 30 to 35 target moves. In 2025 the company revised its closure guidance upward as the year went on.
• Whether the strategic review concludes. A sale, refinancing or refranchising deal would change the closure picture.

Frequently asked questions

Our sources

Every number on this page traces back to company reporting or coverage of it. Where we could, we used the company’s own filings rather than secondhand reports.