What multiple do restaurants sell for?

Restaurants sold on BizBuySell in the five years to Q2 2026 averaged 2.18 times owner earnings and 0.39 times revenue. The median sale price was $220,000.

Is 2.18 an SDE multiple or an EBITDA multiple?

SDE. Seller's discretionary earnings adds the owner's own compensation and personal expenses back to profit, because the buyer of an owner-operated business is taking on the owner's job too. EBITDA does not add those back and is used for larger businesses that already run without the owner, where the multiple is set by different buyers and cannot be read off this figure.

Is the multiple applied to profit or to revenue?

To earnings, in almost every case. Buyers price from seller's discretionary earnings, which is book profit plus the owner's compensation, personal expenses run through the business, and one-time items. The revenue multiple of 0.39 is a sanity check, not the method.

Does a restaurant sell for more if it runs without the owner?

Generally yes, and it is the single biggest lever most owners have. A buyer is purchasing an income stream, so work that only the current owner can do reduces what the business is worth to anyone else. This is a general pattern across owner-operated businesses rather than a finding about restaurants specifically.

Restaurant valuation

What is a restaurant worth?

Restaurants sold through BizBuySell in the five years to Q2 2026 went for a median price of $220,000, at an average of 2.18 times owner earnings and 0.39 times revenue. Your own figure starts from what the business really earns its owner, then moves on how much of it runs without you.

Average earnings multiple: 2.18; Times SDE (seller's discretionary earnings)
Average revenue multiple: 0.39; Times gross revenue
Median sale price: $220,000; Across reported sales

Source: Restaurants, BizBuySell, Business Valuation Multiples by Industry. Reported sales, Q3 2021 through Q2 2026. Accessed 2026-09-01.

How restaurants are priced

Buyers of owner-operated businesses price from earnings, not from revenue. The earnings figure they use is what the business really puts in the owner's pocket, which is book profit plus your own compensation, the personal costs running through the business, and any one-time items. That number is your seller's discretionary earnings, usually written SDE, and it is almost never the profit on the tax return.

Work out that number first, then apply the multiple. For restaurants the average earnings multiple in this data is 2.18, so a business earning its owner a given amount is priced at roughly 2.18 times that amount. The revenue multiple of 0.39 is a cross-check rather than a method, useful for spotting a price that has drifted a long way from what similar businesses fetched.

Restaurants against the rest of food and restaurants

The wider food and restaurants sector averages 2.27 times earnings and 0.42 times revenue, on a median sale price of $200,000. Restaurants sit at 2.18 and 0.39, on $220,000.

Read that as context and not as a target. Both lines are averages across every reported sale in the category, which mixes tidy businesses with messy ones and strong years with weak ones. Where an individual business lands inside that spread comes down to the things below.

SDE or EBITDA, and which one applies to you

The multiple above is applied to SDE, not to EBITDA, and the difference decides which number is yours. SDE counts the owner's own pay and benefits as earnings, because in an owner-operated business the buyer is stepping into the owner's job as well as buying the company. EBITDA does not add that back, because it describes a business that already pays a manager to do it.

Smaller restaurants are almost always priced on SDE. Larger ones that run without the owner are usually priced on EBITDA, and the multiple there is set by different buyers on different logic, so it cannot be read off the figure above. The dividing line is roughly two million dollars of yearly earnings, which is the same line this site uses to decide whether an M&A firm is the right route. Moving from one to the other is itself the single biggest thing an owner can do to the price.

What moves a restaurant above or below 2.18

The published multiple is where the category sits on average. The spread around it is wide, and the same four things account for most of it in every industry we work in. This part is general, and it is not drawn from the restaurants figures above.

The first is how much of the business depends on you personally. A buyer is purchasing an income stream, so every duty only you can perform is a reason to pay less. The second is customer concentration, because one client at forty percent of revenue is a risk the buyer inherits. The third is whether revenue repeats, since contracted and recurring work prices well above work that has to be won again every month. The fourth is the state of your books, and it is the one owners underrate most. Earnings you cannot evidence are earnings a buyer will not pay for.

What these figures cannot tell you

These are averages of sales that were reported, which is not the same as every sale that happened, and the source notes its own set runs from under $50,000 to well over $20 million. An average drawn across a range that wide sets expectations. It does not value a business.

Your number depends on your recast earnings and on the four drivers above, and working it out takes a look at your actual figures. That is what the valuation report does, and James Bell sets the range himself.

Common questions

What multiple do restaurants sell for?: Restaurants sold on BizBuySell in the five years to Q2 2026 averaged 2.18 times owner earnings and 0.39 times revenue. The median sale price was $220,000.
Is 2.18 an SDE multiple or an EBITDA multiple?: SDE. Seller's discretionary earnings adds the owner's own compensation and personal expenses back to profit, because the buyer of an owner-operated business is taking on the owner's job too. EBITDA does not add those back and is used for larger businesses that already run without the owner, where the multiple is set by different buyers and cannot be read off this figure.
Is the multiple applied to profit or to revenue?: To earnings, in almost every case. Buyers price from seller's discretionary earnings, which is book profit plus the owner's compensation, personal expenses run through the business, and one-time items. The revenue multiple of 0.39 is a sanity check, not the method.
Does a restaurant sell for more if it runs without the owner?: Generally yes, and it is the single biggest lever most owners have. A buyer is purchasing an income stream, so work that only the current owner can do reduces what the business is worth to anyone else. This is a general pattern across owner-operated businesses rather than a finding about restaurants specifically.

Work out your own number

An average tells you where the category sits. It does not tell you what your business is worth. The valuation report works out your recast earnings and gives you a range that James Bell sets himself. If a sale is further out, the exit-readiness assessment shows which of the four drivers above is costing you the most, and the playbook covers the whole process end to end.

Get Your Valuation Report

Other food and restaurants businesses

The same figures, for businesses a buyer weighs against restaurants.