5 Chain Restaurants With The Best Pot Roast, According To Customers

One of the most classic comfort meals in the U.S. is a good, old-fashioned pot roast. At the core, pot roast is a dish that is made with slow cooked beef cuts, potatoes, carrots, onions, and broth. While this popular dish did originate in Europe, it became popular in the 19th century in America, especially as it began popping up in cookbooks relatively often. Today, pot roast is still popularly made, with many various recipes to choose from, and it's also served in restaurants across the country.

We decided to comb through as many chain restaurants in the US as we could, specifically to find out which ones carried the best pot roasts. Surprisingly enough, pot roast isn't actually too popular of a menu item as of late. While we found about 10 popular chains that carried the dish — only five were reviewed in a favorable way across many sources. We checked sites like Yelp, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to see what people said about these specific pot roasts, and ultimately we came up with a small but mighty list.

Cracker Barrel is one of those classic chains that people go to when they're looking for a relaxed and homey atmosphere, a large menu with tons of choices, and welcoming service. There are well over 600 Cracker Barrel locations across 44 states in the U.S., so the odds of you being close to one at any given moment is fairly high — especially if you're on a road trip. While the all-day breakfast is one of the most popular sections of the menu, it's also a great place to go if you're craving a delicious pot roast.

The pot roast at Cracker Barrel is described on the menu as a slow roasted rib roast that's cooked with carrots, celery, onions, and gravy. Customers can choose between two or three sides to go with their pot roast, and there are over 27 options to choose from. To keep it classic, we would recommend getting the pot roast with a side of mashed potatoes and a vegetable of your choosing. It's also served with buttermilk biscuits or corn muffins — so you'll be sure to feel satisfied.

Customers love the pot roast at Cracker Barrel because it's said to be extremely tender, warm and comforting, and flavorful. Mashed even named the pot roast as the best item on the entire Cracker Barrel menu, which is saying quite a lot. Served in a single-sized blue dutch oven, the dish is also presented with an extra oomph, making it an all around enjoyable experience.

With over 300 locations across 39 US states and territories, Golden Corral is a buffet-style restaurant that offers an affordable and filling meal for customers, particularly useful for larger families who want to dine out without spending a fortune. The restaurant charges different prices per meal of the day, and the price includes an endless buffet. If you're heading to Golden Corral for lunch or dinner, you can expect items like fried chicken, baked fish, macaroni and cheese, meatloaf, and of course — pot roast.

After searching online for what customers had to say about Golden Corral's pot roast, we found an overwhelming amount of reviews that claim the pot roast to be the star of the buffet. Many customers go to Golden Corral just to get the post roast, and barely touch any of the other buffet offerings. People say that the pot roast is a consistently good menu item, something that they can depend on for a delicious, comforting meal. It's so good, in fact, that there are multiple copy-cat Golden Corral pot roast recipes floating around on the internet. So, if you want a delicious pot roast that can also come with endless mashed potatoes on the side, Golden Corral could be the perfect spot to visit.

Bob Evans is a chain that's known for a sprawling menu, options for family-sized portions, and country atmosphere. The restaurant as we know it today can be traced back to its first location in Ohio in 1962, and now there are over 400 locations in 18 states across the country. You can get just about anything at Bob Evans, from a huge breakfast menu, to seafood, bar bites, salads, and more. When we searched online to see what people said about Bob Evans pot roast, we were impressed to see that it's a big standout amongst the large menu.

The pot roast is called the "Fork-Tender Pot Roast" on the menu, and Bob Evans says that the meat is slow-roasted for 9 hours. It is then served with carrots, mashed potatoes, caramelized onions, a homestyle beef gravy, and green onions. The entree also includes dinner rolls on the side — perfect for dipping into the gravy.

Many customers are a fan of the pot roast as a family-meal order. In one detailed review we found online, a happy customer explained that the pot roast is so delicious because the meat melts in your mouth, is served with a surplus of carrots, the mashed potatoes are creamy, and the gravy is extremely flavorful. Other reviews shared that they rate the pot roast a solid 10 out of 10, with many claiming the dish as their favorite from the restaurant.

Back in 1955, a chain diner restaurant called Black Bear Diner was founded in California. It went on to expand across 14 states, and today there are over 150 locations. The diner serves extremely classic diner food, with items like country fried steak, french toast, burgers, chicken fingers, bacon macaroni and cheese, and endless others that we're sure you've eaten at some point in your life.

The slow-cooked pot roast from Black Bear Diner is only available on its dinner menu, so be sure to go during that time if you specifically want this dish. The beef is slow cooked with onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, red potatoes, herbs and spices, and beef gravy. Customers say that the pot roast has been a menu staple for years, and it's many people's go-to choice. They love it because it's consistently made, which customers have noted is special coming from a chain restaurant. The entire dish has been said to be moist, flavorful, and downright terrific.

Perkins is a chain restaurant that many people automatically associate with classic breakfast food. It did indeed start out as a pancake house in Ohio in the '50s, but today, Perkins offers much more on its menu besides all-day breakfast. The sprawling lunch and dinner menu covers a wide array of classic American dishes, including pot roast. This pot roast is made with chunks of braised beef, sweet green peas, carrots, onions, and beef gravy. The dish also comes with two choices of sides, and there are 10 total sides to choose from. For a pot roast, mashed potatoes is always the way to go, but you can also add a side of macaroni and cheese, a vegetable, or salad as well.

Perkins must be confident in its pot roast game, because in the fall of 2025, it even had a limited-time menu that was completely pot roast themed. Items like a pot roast breakfast skillet, pot roast melt, pot roast burger, and even pot roast nachos. Now, on a regular basis, Perkins has the classic pot roast and a pot roast stroganoff. In all of these dishes, people say that the meat is always cooked to a perfectly tender texture, and everything is well-seasoned. Customers online say that the classic pot roast dish from Perkins is absolutely delicious, and people wish that they could find a copy-cat recipe to make at home.

In order to find the chain restaurants with the best pot roast, we had to first go through the menus of most popular chain restaurants throughout the United States. We combed through over 30 chain restaurant menus that we thought would have pot roast, and we ended up finding about 10 restaurants that actually offered it. From there, we went on sites like Reddit, TikTok, Facebook, Yelp, and Instagram to see what people were saying about each chain's pot roast.

Eventually, we discovered that a few of the restaurants we found didn't have wonderful reviews about the pot roast. We ultimately found 5 restaurants that had a plethora of positive online reviews, and we dove in to find as much information as we could. This left us with a small but mighty group of chain restaurants that serve incredible pot roasts, according to customers.

Static Media owns and operates Mashed and Tasting Table.