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Noodles & Company franchise — is it worth it?

Medium risk Shrinking network Item 19 disclosed

Noodles & Company is a quick-service restaurant brand with a disclosed Item 19, showing average net sales over $1.3 million and average EBITDA over $160,000 for company-owned stores.

Everything below is free, read straight off Noodles & Company's registered filing, with where the numbers land against quick-service restaurant peers. Weighing Noodles & Company against other options? Get a free shortlist of franchises that fit your budget.

Figures above are as disclosed in Noodles & Company's most recent FDD (registered 2026). Source: Wisconsin Dept. of Financial Institutions — Franchise Registration · filing 641091 — check it yourself. See every other Wisconsin-registered franchise.

How much does a Noodles & Company franchise make?

Noodles & Company is one of the franchisors that answers this on the record: its most recent FDD makes an Item 19 financial performance representation — actual unit earnings figures, disclosed by the franchisor itself. The headline figure is $1,352,345 in average unit revenue — read it alongside what Item 19 says about which units it covers (often only mature or top-performing locations). See every quick-service restaurant brand that discloses earnings in the Fast food & quick-service restaurant franchises with disclosed Item 19 earnings ranking.

Noodles & Company franchise profit vs. revenue

Revenue is not profit. An Item 19 almost always reports sales — what a location takes in — not what an owner keeps. Out of that number come Noodles & Company's 5% royalty, the ad fund, rent, payroll, supplies and debt service. No FDD tells you a Noodles & Company franchise's profit, because profit depends on your site, your rent and how you run it — so treat any "Noodles & Company franchise profit" figure quoted elsewhere as someone's estimate, not a disclosure. On $1,352,345 of revenue, a 5% royalty alone is about $67,617 a year before any other cost.

Noodles & Company lawsuits & legal history (FDD Item 3)

Noodles & Company's most recently filed Franchise Disclosure Document (2026) does disclose 1 legal proceeding in Item 3 . Item 3 is the item where a franchisor must put its material legal history on the record. Two things it is not: it covers the franchisor and its predecessors, parents and affiliates, so a disclosed case is not necessarily a suit against Noodles & Company itself; and a disclosure is a fact, not a finding of wrongdoing — most entries are contract disputes with former franchisees, which every large system accumulates. Item 3 of the source FDD describes each case.

Noodles & Company closures & failure rate

Before you sign, Noodles & Company will hand you a list of current owners to call as references — and they choose who's on that list. It won't include the owners who quit, got bought out, or were forced out last year. The FDD does report that number, even though the reference list leaves those people off. Below is what Noodles & Company's most recent filing shows, and whether it's normal for a quick-service restaurant of this kind.

The closest thing an FDD has to a failure rate is Item 20 — outlet openings, closures, terminations and non-renewals, reported by the franchisor. Noodles & Company's latest tables show a shrinking franchised network — more units left than opened. Net franchised outlets moved -9 to 83 in the latest reported year.

Quick-service restaurant franchises at a similar investment level

Anyone weighing Noodles & Company is really weighing it against the other brands their money could go into. These are the closest by total initial investment (FDD Item 7), each with its own FDD-based page.

Noodles & Company franchise — frequently asked