Struggling Seafood Chains That Are Making Waves Again

Seafood can make for a luxurious meal, particularly if one isn't lucky enough to live near the ocean. It's a real treat to eat flaky cod or halibut, big meaty shrimp, or delectably tender clams, all lightly breaded and deep-fried and served alongside french fries, some great-tasting restaurant coleslaw, and maybe some hushpuppies. Chain establishments offering a beloved line of seafood staples have traditionally been big players in both the sit-down restaurant industry and its more populist and informal counterpart of the fast food scene.

For better or for worse, consumer tastes change and cycle. Every so often, the restaurant companies that specialize in indulgent seafood seem to suffer mightily. Not only do they face the same problems as other restaurants, but they also need to grapple with the ever-changing prices of seafood. By and large, fish-focused restaurants aren't as prominent in North America as they once were, with all kinds of seafood chains closing down an alarming number of locations in recent years. But there's hope for the future. Many of those restaurants that were once seemingly close to drowning are coming back up for air. Here are some seafood chains that are still swimming and making big splashes.

At one point, it appeared as if Red Lobster was dead in the water. The laid-back but classy seafood chain had been a go-to for those seeking a straightforward business lunch, date night, or celebratory meal of crab, lobster, shrimp, chowder, and a basket of Cheddar Bay Biscuits since 1968. In 2024, it looked like it was only a matter of time before the venerable seafood chain sank. After suffering some significant financial losses — and, specifically, losing a lot of money on its Endless Shrimp promotion after making it permanent in 2023 — Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy to stay afloat. Within three months of doing so, as many as 99 Red Lobster restaurants had closed.

Not only did Red Lobster recover, but it recovered in a remarkably swift fashion. Parties associated with Fortress Investment Group formed RL Investor Holdings LLC and injected over $60 million into the operation. By September 2024, and with the blessing of a court, Red Lobster emerged from bankruptcy. The downsized and salvaged Red Lobster then began a program of economic reinvention, simplifying the menu, changing some recipes, and planning a new look for its dining rooms.

With a menu built around its distinctively diamond-shaped fish filets encased in a salty, crispy brown shell, hushpuppies, clam strips, and surprisingly delicious crumblies, Long John Silver's became one of the first names in fast food fish and seafood not long after its 1969 founding in Kentucky. By the end of the 1980s, Long John Silver's was one of the most commonly found fast food restaurants in the United States, with approximately 1,500 locations. But just a few years later, the company was in trouble. In 1998, after shutting down 25 outlets, Long John Silver's Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It cited $457 million in debt and assets of only $329 million.

By the early 2020s, Long John Silver's decline had continued to a point where it only retained roughly 500 locations. But the world needs Long John Silver's, and the chain's executives agreed. Under the leadership of its president, Nate Fowler, Long John Silver's underwent a reboot. The company reevaluated its franchisee agreements, its economic structure, and onsite technology. It also changed up the menu slightly, making the fish thicker, improving its marinades, and rolling out value-priced options, a loyalty program, and a smartphone app.

Just two years after the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. made its fictional debut as a lucrative seafood supplier in the 1994 blockbuster "Forrest Gump," a real-life restaurant with the same name opened in Monterey, California. Similar to how Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue recites all the different, tasty ways to prepare shrimp, the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurants — which have popped up in dozens of locations in heavily foot-trafficked areas, primarily near tourist hotspots — sells shellfish in addition to other tried-and-true seafood favorites.

Landry's, which also owns chains such as Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse, Rainforest Cafe, Morton's The Steakhouse, and Claim Jumper, bought the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. in 2010. At that point, it was a chain of 32 locations. This number has since dwindled, with restaurants shutting down in Charleston, Maui, and Baltimore, the latter of which closed by order of the city's health department over issues with its food permit. After a few years of downturn, however, Landry's is looking to grow the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. once more. In 2025, plans were put into motion to open a new restaurant in the well-traveled resort area of South Padre Island in Texas.

The enduring image of the prim and proper English butler is thanks in part to Arthur Treacher, a British actor who played several variations of the role before serving as the sidekick in the "The Merv Griffin Show." In 1969, he licensed his name to an upstart fast food chain selling the quintessential English meal, with the first Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips opening its doors in Ohio. The restaurant's menu was novel and pleasing enough to encourage massive and rapid growth, exploding into a national chain of 826 restaurants in about a decade. Three years after the frozen fish company Mrs. Paul's Kitchen acquired Arthur Treacher's, it sold it off to Lumara Foods of America in 1982, and the chain filed for bankruptcy two years later. What was once a major fast food company shrank to only 27 outlets by 2010, and, by 2021, the only real Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips remaining was the one in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

As it sat on the brink of oblivion, Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips waged an astonishing comeback. After hot dog company Nathan's Famous bought the fish joint in 2021, it made plans to restore Arthur Treacher's as a low-cost ghost kitchen concept. Meanwhile, the freestanding, full-service version of Arthur Treacher's is now three times its former size. The third store opened in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, in April 2025.

Once a family-owned seafood market in the Boston area that also sold fish and chips baskets, Legal Sea Foods has grown a lot since 1950. Eventually becoming a full-service, slightly upscale restaurant chain offering clams, oysters, lobster, and fried fish, as well as a seafood shipping operation, Legal Sea Foods grew to a modest but robust network of 35 restaurants by the late 2010s, raking in more than $240 million in annual sales.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic happened, forcing the majority of public spaces, restaurants included, into temporary shutdowns to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Casual eateries suffered massively in 2020, and by August of that year, multiple Legal Sea Foods outlets wound up closing down forever, reducing the chain to 31 entries. The post-pandemic economic climate wasn't much kinder to Legal Sea Foods. By early 2025, this number had decreased even further.

But while some of its restaurants have shut down, Legal Sea Foods has also opened new locations. In July 2024, it debuted a large new spot on the Chicago Riverwalk as its flagship eatery. It is also rethinking other aspects of its operations under its owner, PPX Hospitality Brands, which took over in 2020. The parent company relocated the Legal Sea Foods corporate office after concluding that its current headquarters were outdated, as well as constructing a new innovation center in Milford, Massachusetts.

After starting out as Mr. D's Seafood and Hamburgers in Donelson, Tennessee, in 1969, Captain D's Seafood became one of the biggest names in fast food fish, particularly in the South. By the mid-2000s, more than 600 Captain D's were in operation — a number that quickly and severely declined in 2008. The chain's biggest franchisee at the time, Serve Holdings LLC, filed for bankruptcy. After struggling to pull in enough customers, the franchisee found itself in debt to Captain D's to the tune of six figures.

Over the next decade and a half, more Captain D's restaurants continued to close. The operation consisted of just over 500 locations by 2024. These closures included its restaurant in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, plus a number of spots in Texas. Nevertheless, in 2025, Captain D's announced an assertive plan to expand, and into uncharted territory, too. Over the next two years, it will expand into Maryland with two new restaurants. It will also grow its footprint in Texas, with three new locations on the way, including one near San Antonio's Lackland Air Force Base. Captain D's corporate office is also on the lookout for franchisees who want to place restaurants in Canada, Central and Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, and several countries in Asia.