What Should I Name My Restaurant? 215 Unique Name Ideas

There are more than 190,000 non-chain restaurants in the United States alone. So, it’s no surprise settling on a creative restaurant name when starting a new restaurant can be a daunting task. 

Picking the right name gives new customers an idea about your business’s services, creates a good first impression, and helps you stand out from the competition.

Are all the good names already taken? How do you come up with something fresh? And what about business name best practices? 

Related: How to start a restaurant

If you’re not sure how to answer those questions, you’re in the right place. Keep reading to learn my top tips for finding the perfect name for your restaurant and how to make sure your favorite choices are available to use. 

Let’s dive in!

Tips for Choosing the Best Restaurant Name

If you’re struggling to choose a catchy name for your restaurant, one of the best things to do is just to start a brainstorming session. As you go through the tips outlined below, make a list of words, phrases, and terms associated with your business. 

From there, you can narrow down the list and cross off ideas you don’t like. 

Once you have several top considerations, we’ll walk you through how to make sure you’re allowed to use them. This last step helps you narrow down your list even more so you can make a final decision. 

1. Consider the Cuisine You Plan to Offer

There are several cuisine types, so it may be worth considering using some words that you plan to use on the menu. Maybe you want to focus on Mexican food, pizza, or steak. Or perhaps if your eatery will specialize in breakfast, brunch, or good coffee there is a related word to include in your name.

Add the different types of foods you want to offer on the menu to your brainstorming list. 

Remember to avoid anything limiting your business’s future growth if you decide to go in another direction down the road. 

2. Location-Specific Terms

Many restaurants are specific to a geographic service area. So, if that’s true for your business, consider adding a location-specific term to your business name. 

You can consider things like:

• City nicknames
• Neighborhoods
• Regions or states
• And descriptive terms

However, consider what happens if you expand outside your intended service area. Does the name become limiting? If so, it’s best to avoid it if you plan to expand or change directions later. 

3. Avoid Business Names That Are Hard to Pronounce or Spell

Despite the technological advances in voice search, assistants like Siri and Alexa struggle to understand slang and other confusing words. 

This could limit how often your business shows up in voice (and text-based) search if your name is hard to spell, pronounce, or hear. Because of that, it’s important to avoid complicated words, industry jargon, and using numbers in place of letters.  While having a unique restaurant name is good, being too unique may not be so good. 

Keep your business name as simple and easy to remember as possible so potential customers can easily find you. 

4. Consider Alliterations and Rhyming Words

Alliterations and rhymes are catchy and easy to remember. Because of that, they make for catchy restaurant names. 

That said, it’s not always easy to come up with them. Start with choosing a few of your favorite words from your master brainstorm list. 

Then, you can Google “words that start with D” to come up with a name like Divine Dining or C for Carver’s Cut or whatever letter you’re using to create an alliteration. Alternatively, you can search “words that rhyme with _____.” 

It can be time-consuming, but it’s an excellent place to start. 

And don’t forget to add any exciting finds to your brainstorm list while you’re at it. Try not to overthink the names you come up with.  Just write them all down as some of the more interesting ones may spark better ideas later.

5. Steer Clear of Initials or Obscure Acronyms

Initials and unusual acronyms are hard to remember, so they typically don’t make great names for a small business. They can also be challenging to pronounce and confusing for voice search as well. 

Furthermore, there are 325 different two-letter combination possibilities in the English language. And the odds of your customers remembering the specific letters you chose are pretty small. 

6. Imagery Words

Another consideration when brainstorming name ideas is whether there are industry-related words that could also lend themselves to be used in a logo or signage. For instance, a restaurant could use an image of a chef’s hat or fork and focus the name around the image.

Related: How to create a logo for your business. 

7. Try the Owner’s Name

If you’ve made it this far and are still struggling to find the best name, you can always consider using the business owner’s name or family name. Doing so works well if the owner also plans to be the face behind the business. 

Something to keep in mind is that using the owner’s name as the business name can make it more challenging to sell the business in the future. 

List of Unique Restaurant Business Names

Here is a list of some of the best restaurant names of existing businesses that may help give you some inspiration.  While many of these names may be available for you to use, be sure to check first to be sure they can be used.

Tips on how to check business name availability are after the list of names!

• 101 Pizzaria
• 211 Cafe 
• 2nd & 13th Sports Bar & Grill
• 3rd Avenue Grill
• Adams Mobile BBQ & Catering
• Alabama Bliss Bistro & Boutique
• Alabama Fish & Chicken 
• Alabama Grill
• Albatross Bar & Grill
• Ameka’s Cafe
• American Deli
• Andy’s Restaurant
• Anna’s Place
• Antak’s Deli
• Artisan Grille
• Ash Restaurant 
• Asia Bar & Grill
• Asian Bistro
• Asian Cafe
• August House
• Ay Chihuahua Mexican Restaurant
• B & B Taco Garage
• Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar
• Baja California Grill 
• Bama Nutrition
• Bamboo Cafe
• Banja’s Thai & Sushi
• Beach 2 Bay Cafe
• Beaver Lake Bistro
• Becca’s Bistro
• Big Daddy’s Fish & More
• Big John’s Diner
• Big Mike’s Sport Grill
• Big Potato Co
• Big Shake’s Hot Chicken
• Bistro 1307
• Bite Me Sandwiches
• Blue Dolphins Fish & Chicken
• Bobbie D’s Southern Cuisine
• Brash Pizza 
• Brewhas Pub & Grub
• Brick Oven
• Broadway Café
• Broadway Pizzeria
• Bubbles Wings & Cream
• Buenos Aires Grill & Cafe 
• Buster’s Southern Pit BBQ
• Buttered Biscuit
• Cafe 7181 
• Calhoun Steak House
• Capriccio Ristorante
• Carlos Street Tacos 
• Casa Fiesta Grill 
• Catalina Bayou Restaraunt
• Cedar House American Grill
• Char
• Charley’s Philly Steaks
• Cheesy Bob Grilled Cheese
• Chicken Fried Birmingham
• China Taste
• Chronic Tacos
• Cook Out
• Cotton Patch Cafe
• Country Garden
• Cozy Brown’s Kitchen
• Craft Bar & Grill
• Crave Cafe
• Croked Cow
• Crosseyed Catfish
• Cutters Pizza & Wings
• Daddy’s Kitchen
• Daisy’s Mexican Grill 
• Debra’s Southern Buffet
• Delta Biscuits 
• Delta Blues Hot Tamales
• Delta Grill
• Diablo’s Southwest Grill
• Dickey’s Barbecue Pit
• Dinky Diner
• Dixie Chicken 
• Downtown Cafe
• Downtown Diner
• Dragon’s Den Cafe
• Dreamland Bar-B-Que
• El Potrillo Mexican Restaurant
• El Ranchito Grill
• Excellent Burgers & Steak 
• Express Cafe 
• Fahrenheit 425
• Fancy’s On Fifth
• Fat Cow
• Fat Man Cafe
• Filling Station
• Finns & Hooves 
• Fire & Spice
• Fish On The Fly
• Flying Biscuit Cafe
• Foghorn’s Burgers & Wings
• Foodies Cafe & Catering
• Four Four Pell City 
• Frozen Rooster
• Fry Daddy’s 
• Funky Monkey Eats & Sweets
• Fuqua Southern Soul Food
• Gameday Sports Grill
• Garden Asian Fusion
• Garden Cafe & Coffee Shop 
• Garry’s Sling Blade
• Gavin’s Downtown
• Geogeo’s Grill
• Golden Dragon
• Golden Rooster
• Good Dog Cafe
• Grady’s Pizza & Subs
• Grampa’s Catfish & Seafood
• Granny Pooh’s Kitchen
• Grateful Bread
• Great American Pizza
• Green River Express 
• Groovy Grub Cafe
• G’s Country Kitchen
• Gulf Shores Diner
• Gumbo To Geaux At The Grill
• Gus’s Chicken
• Gusto Grill 
• Hancocks Country Bar-B Que
• Heart Of Dixie Grill
• Heat Pizza Bar
• Hector’s Kitchen
• Highway 51 Burgers & More
• Holy Smokes Barbecue
• Homegirls Jamaican Grill
• Horseshoe Grill
• Hot Diggity Dog
• Hot Stone
• Hyde Park Cafe
• India Cafe
• Island Dog
• It’s All Greek To Me!
• Joe’s Italian Grill
• J’s Wings & Things
• Juicy Seafood
• Kat’s Kitchen
• Kelly’s Burger Shack
• King Buffet
• King Burrito
• Krispy Krunchy Chicken
• LA Fiesta Grill
• Lab Bar & Kitchen
• Lake Martin Pizza Co
• Landing At Parker Creek
• Levee Bar & Grill
• Light House Cafe
• Lin’s Bamboo Garden
• Little Italy
• Little Tokyo
• Lobba’s Burger 
• Lotta Bull BBQ
• Lox Stock & Bagels
• Lulu’s Crab Boil
• Main Street Grill
• Main Street Kitchen
• Major League Hot Wings 
• Mama’s Place
• Mangos Cafe
• Metro Diner
• Mi Casa Mexicana
• Miguel’s Beach ‘n Baja
• Moore’s Country Kitchen
• Mr. Chen’s Authentic Chinese
• Nana’s Deli
• Nelchie’s Cajun Cuisine
• No 1 Chinese Restaurant
• Nothing But Noodles
• O Sushi Express 
• Off The Hook Marina & Grill
• Paw Paw’s Catfish N More
• Picnic Basket Cafe
• Poppy’s Smokehouse
• Pop’s Restaurant
• Pour Chop & Roll 
• Rock N Roll Sushi
• Rocks The House Cafe
• Roosters
• Roots & Revelry
• Roux Bayou Cafe & Catering
• Sapporo Japanese Steakhouse
• Shrimp Basket Gardendale 
• Simple Greek
• Simply Southern Cafe
• Sneaky Pete’s Hotdogs
• Soul Food Take Out
• Soups On
• Station 31 Kitchen
• Steakhouse 231
• Sunny’s Kitchen To Go
• Taco Mama
• Thai Fusion
• Thai One On Gadsden
• Thai Tanic
• Thai Town
• Tiny B’s Bistro
• Toki Hibachi & Sushi
• Touch Of Soul Cafe
• University Mexican Grill
• Urban Smoke Bar & Grill
• Valentino’s Italian Restaurant
• Vintage Cafe
• Wayback Burgers
• Weaver’s Restaurant
• West End Diner
• What The Cluck Wings
• Wildcat Cafe
• Wok ‘n Roll
• Yoshi Sushi Fusion

Is Your Restaurant Name Available to Use?

At this point, you should have several top considerations to choose from. And the best way to narrow it down further is to check each one for availability. 

This step is vital because using a name that someone else is using could be very costly, time-consuming to rebrand your business, and possibly embarrassing. There are several places to look to check whether a name is available to use, so let’s walk through some of the common ones.

Hopefully, you now have great restaurant name ideas. Once you have this list narrowed down to just a few and researched that they are all available, start asking friends, family, and potential customers their thoughts to get feedback, and then pick your perfect restaurant name!