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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

For the fiscal year ended December 26, 2004

For the transition period from              to             

Commission file number 0-49916

RED ROBIN GOURMET BURGERS, INC.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)

(303) 846-6000

(Registrant’s Telephone Number, Including Area Code)

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:    None

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:    Common Stock, $0.001 par value

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  x    No  ¨

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.    ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).     Yes  x    No  ¨

The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates (based on the closing price on the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter on The NASDAQ National Market) was $336.9 million. All executive officers and directors of the registrant and all persons filing a Schedule 13D with the Securities and Exchange Commission with respect to the registrant’s common stock have been deemed, solely for the purpose of the foregoing calculation, to be “affiliates” of the registrant.

There were 16,178,727 shares of common stock outstanding as of April 1, 2005.

Certain information required for Items 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 of Part III of this annual report on Form 10-K is incorporated by reference to the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for the 2005 annual meeting of stockholders.

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RED ROBIN GOURMET BURGERS, INC.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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PART I

ITEM 1.    Business

Overview

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, is a casual dining restaurant chain focused on serving an imaginative selection of high quality gourmet burgers in a family-friendly atmosphere. Unless otherwise provided in this annual report on Form 10-K, references to “Red Robin,” “we”, “us” and “our” refer to Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. and our consolidated subsidiaries. As of April 1, 2005, Red Robin owns and operates 141 restaurants in 17 states, with an additional 122 restaurants operating under franchise or license agreements in 24 states and two Canadian provinces.

Our menu features our signature product, the gourmet burger, which we make from premium quality beef, chicken, veggie patties, pot roast, pork, fish or turkey and serve in a variety of recipes. We offer a wide selection of toppings for our gourmet burgers, including fresh guacamole, roasted green chilies, honey mustard sauce, grilled pineapple, crispy onion straws, sautéed mushrooms and a choice of six different cheeses. In addition to gourmet burgers, which accounted for approximately 47.2% of our total food sales in 2004, we serve an array of other food items that are designed to appeal to a broad group of guests, including a variety of appetizers, salads, soups, pastas, seafoods, other entrees, desserts and our signature Mad Mixology^® alcoholic and non-alcoholic specialty beverages.

Our restaurants are designed to create a fun and memorable dining experience in a family-friendly atmosphere and provide our guests with an exceptional dining value. Our concept attracts a broad guest base by appealing to the entire family, particularly women, teens, kids ages 8 to 12 whom we refer to as tweens, and younger children. Our mascot “Red” appeals to toddlers, and our carousel horses, televisions in the floors, three dimensional art and humorous posters appeal to children of all ages. We believe that our quick meal preparation, upbeat, popular music and enthusiastic team members enable us to achieve high sales productivity and create a sense of activity and excitement. All of our menu items are designed to be delivered to guests in a time-efficient manner, and we have a per person average check of approximately $10.36, including beverages.

To increase guest traffic, we locate our restaurants near high activity areas, such as regional malls, lifestyle centers, big box shopping centers and entertainment centers. We believe that women, teens and tweens are extremely attractive consumers to real estate developers in these types of locations as they often strive to attract a consumer base similar to ours. We further believe that these individuals are the primary visitors to the high activity areas where our restaurants are located and are predominantly responsible for family dining decisions. Data from an independent source indicates that in 2003 approximately 30.0% of our guests are in the highly desirable under 18 consumer segment, which compared to 20.0% in the major casual dining bar and grill chains. In addition, approximately 54.0% of our guests are females and approximately 58.0% of our guest visits include families accompanied by teens and tweens. We believe our unique guest demographic mix provides us with a competitive advantage over other casual dining chains, enhancing our ability to enter into real estate locations favorable to us.

We believe that the appeal of our imaginative, high quality product offerings, our fun, family-friendly atmosphere, and our ability to operate in a wide variety of real estate formats and geographic locations have created an attractive restaurant model, providing us with significant opportunities for continued growth through both new company-owned and franchised restaurants.

History

The first Red Robin^® restaurant was opened in Seattle, Washington in September 1969. In 1979, the first franchised Red Robin^® restaurant was opened in Yakima, Washington by Mike Snyder and his brother. Mike Snyder subsequently became our president and chief operating officer in 1996, and was elected chief executive

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officer in 1997. In 2000, we completed a series of financing transactions that helped position our company for future growth. At that time, we acquired The Snyder Group, a 14-restaurant franchise company owned by Mike Snyder, in exchange for equity, cash and notes. In addition, a private equity firm, whose principals had substantial experience in the restaurant industry, made an equity investment of $25.0 million in our company through its affiliates. As a result of these two transactions, Mike Snyder acquired a significant equity interest in our company and the private equity firm became, at the time, our largest stockholder. In January 2001, our management formed Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc., a Delaware corporation, to facilitate a reorganization of the company. The reorganization was consummated in August 2001, and since that time, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. has owned all of the outstanding capital stock of Red Robin International, Inc., and our other operating subsidiaries through which our company-owned restaurants are operated. We completed an initial public offering of our common stock in July 2002.

Concept and business strategy

Our objective is to be the leading gourmet burger and casual dining restaurant destination. To achieve our objective, we have developed the following strategies.

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We believe these and other lifestyle and demographic trends will continue to be favorable to us and offer us strong opportunities for future restaurant expansion.

Unit level economics

In 2004, our comparable company-owned restaurants generated average sales of $3.2 million. The average cash investment cost for our free-standing restaurants opened in 2004 was $2.2 million, excluding land and pre-opening costs. Pre-opening costs averaged $227,100 per restaurant during 2004.

Our existing restaurants range in size from 3,800 square feet to 10,700 square feet. Our prototype restaurant is a free-standing building with approximately 6,350 square feet, approximately 200 seats and a patio. Based on this prototype, we expect that our average cash investment cost for our free-standing restaurants in 2005 will be $2.3 million, excluding land and pre-opening costs. We expect pre-opening costs will average $245,000 per restaurant in 2005.

Expansion strategy and site selection

We are pursuing a disciplined growth strategy that includes the addition of company-owned and franchised restaurants. Our restaurant expansion strategy focuses primarily on further penetrating existing markets with a cluster strategy and selectively entering into new markets. We believe this clustering strategy enables us to gain operating efficiencies, increase brand awareness and enhance convenience and ease of access for our guests, all of which we believe leads to significant repeat business. For example, clustering enables us to reduce costs

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associated with regional supervision of restaurant operations. We also believe this approach reduces the risks involved with opening new restaurants given that we better understand the competitive conditions, consumer tastes, demographics and discretionary spending patterns in our existing markets. In addition, our ability to hire qualified team members is enhanced in markets in which our brand is well known.

We believe that our site selection strategy is critical to our success and we devote substantial time and effort to evaluating each site. Our site selection criteria focuses on identifying markets, trade areas and other specific sites that are likely to yield the greatest density of desirable demographic characteristics, heavy retail traffic and a highly visible site.

In order to maximize our market penetration potential, we have developed a flexible physical site format that allows us to operate in a range of real estate venues located near high activity areas such as regional malls, lifestyle centers, big box shopping centers and entertainment centers. Approved sites generally have a population of at least 70,000 people within a three-mile radius and at least 100,000 people within a five-mile radius. Sites generally require a strong daytime and evening population, adequate parking and a visible and easy entrance and exit.

Our real estate team focuses on site selection and future development, and thoroughly analyzes each prospective site before we sign a lease or purchase agreement. Prior to committing to a restaurant site, members of our senior management team visit and thoroughly evaluate the proposed site. Our chief executive officer and/or our chief financial officer personally visit and approve all new sites.

With the exception of the 21 sites for which we own the real estate, we operate our restaurants under leases. Our primary site objective is to secure a suitable site, with the decision to buy or lease as a secondary objective. We believe that our unique guest demographic mix provides us with a major competitive advantage in securing sites. Our long-standing relationships with several major retail developers and owners and our favorable demographics afford us the opportunity to negotiate additional sites in their new developments.

Restaurant locations

We believe that there are significant opportunities to grow our concept and brand on a nationwide basis, and we continue to believe that our concept and brand can support as many as 755 additional company-owned or franchised restaurants throughout the United States.

In 2004, we opened 22 new company-owned restaurants. In 2005, we expect to open 26 to 28 new company-owned restaurants. In 2004, our franchisees opened 17 new restaurants, and we believe our franchisees will open an additional 15 to 17 new franchise restaurants in 2005.

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As of April 1, 2005, we have 141 company-owned restaurants and 122 franchised restaurants in 31 states and two Canadian provinces as shown in the table below:

Menu

Our menu features our signature product, the gourmet burger, which we define as “anything that can go in, on or between two buns”. We make our gourmet burgers from premium quality beef, chicken, veggie patties, pot roast, pork, fish or turkey, and serve them in a variety of recipes. We offer a wide selection of toppings for our gourmet burgers, including fresh guacamole, roasted green chilies, honey mustard sauce, grilled pineapple, crispy onion straws, sautéed mushrooms and a choice of six different cheeses. For example, one of our signature creations, the Banzai Burger, is marinated in teriyaki and topped with grilled pineapple, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise.

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In addition to gourmet burgers, which accounted for approximately 47.2% of our total food sales in 2004, we serve an array of other food items that are designed to appeal to a broad group of guests, including a variety of appetizers, salads, soups, pastas, seafoods, other entrees and desserts. One of our top selling non-burger menu items is the Crispy Chicken Tender Salad, which features crisp greens topped with lightly fried chicken breast, hard-boiled egg, diced tomato, cheddar cheese, bacon bits and green onion served with house bread and a choice of dressing. We serve all of our burgers and sandwiches with “bottomless” french fries. Our guests can also choose from a wide variety of beverages, including fountain beverage products, smoothies, monster milkshakes, our Strawberry Ecstasy and our signature Mad Mixology^® alcoholic and non-alcoholic specialty beverages, including our Freckled Lemonade.

All of our menu items are prepared to order in our restaurants. The food items currently on our menu range in price from $2.99 to $11.49, with a per person average check of approximately $10.36, including beverages. Sales of alcoholic beverages represented approximately 7.7% and sales of non-alcoholic beverages represented 13.8% of total restaurant sales in 2004.

We continuously experiment with food and beverage items and flavor combinations to create selections that are imaginative and exciting to our guests. Ideas for new menu items are generated at the restaurant level as well as through consumer research and franchisees. Menu items are rotated on and off the menu based on the changing tastes of our guests. Every new recipe idea goes through our test menu development process. The proposed menu item must appeal to a sufficient number of guests and require a preparation time of less than eight minutes to be added to our menu. In addition, the corresponding ingredients must retain or improve the overall menu quality while meeting our gross profit margin targets. All new menu items are then test marketed for 8 to 12 weeks in selected restaurants. Our franchisees are given the opportunity to review proposed menu items and offer feedback before the recipes are finalized and added to the menu.

Guest loyalty and experience

Through our unique guest service philosophy, which we describe as “unbridled”, we feel we have created a culture that has enabled us to build a strong and loyal guest base. Unbridled acts are common in our company, as our team members have a history of going far beyond the customary level of guest service. In 2002, we were proud to be recognized as a gold winner of Restaurants & Institutions 2002 Choice in Chains Award for excellence in customer service, food quality and overall dining experience, as voted on by a nationally representative sample of consumers. In 2004, we were proud to be a large business category finalist of the Colorado Restaurant Association’s, Restaurant Neighbor Award, which celebrates restaurateurs’ commitment to community involvement.

We use many industry standard techniques to measure our guests’ experiences at our restaurants. These include comment cards, mystery shoppers, internet feedback, market area and in-restaurant consumer research. We also employ several additional techniques at the restaurant level, including a “systems check” performed each week by our general managers to track and measure our guests’ experiences. This “systems check” evaluates our speed of service, our food preparation times, seating utilization measures and guest feedback for each week. The key measurement criteria evaluated in our “systems check” contribute to our ability to give our guests the “gift of time.” We strive to provide guests with a 37-minute dining experience at lunch and a 42-minute experience at dinner. Our regional operations directors utilize these and other reports to determine which restaurants in their region may need additional support to address any problems.

Marketing and advertising

During 2004, we spent an aggregate of 2.7% of restaurant sales on marketing efforts. Of this amount, we spent less than 1.0% of restaurant sales on major media initiatives such as television commercials, radio advertisements and free-standing inserts in newspapers and other print media. We expect to continue investing a similar percentage of restaurant sales in marketing efforts in the future, primarily in connection with driving

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comparable restaurant sales and new restaurant openings. Our marketing strategy focuses on building positive, long term relationships by making emotional connections with our team members and guests. We do this by:

We accomplish these objectives through four major marketing initiatives.

In-restaurant marketing

We spend a significant portion of our marketing funds communicating with our guests while they are in our restaurants. The core of our strategy revolves around keeping our menu items fresh, with innovative gourmet burgers and other offerings. Throughout the year, we promote new burgers and new non-burger items. These items are featured along with our existing gourmet burgers and entrees on table merchandising and other printed materials throughout our restaurants. This strategy focuses on highlighting both our core menu burgers along with new burgers and other food items and beverages. The goal is to enhance our brand by creating variety and excitement for our guests and team members, which we believe drives frequency of visits.

New restaurant openings

We use new restaurant openings as opportunities to reach out to the local community and media. Our openings are often covered by local media. We employ a variety of marketing techniques in connection with our new restaurant openings, including community “Sneak Preview” parties, with invitations to media personalities, community leaders and local businesses. We also typically tie our openings to a charitable organization.

Local restaurant marketing

We believe we are a wholesome, values-focused leader in family casual dining. With our focus on women, teens and tweens, we have a unique opportunity to market our restaurants locally. We reach out to schools, churches, charities, and community organizations to build brand awareness within the communities that we serve.

Advertising

Although our restaurant concept is not media driven, we do spend a limited amount of our marketing dollars on media vehicles in select markets to build brand awareness. This includes radio, free-standing newspaper inserts, outdoor billboards, and on-screen cinema advertising.

Operations

Restaurant management

Our restaurant operations are divided into four distinct geographic regions which are overseen by a senior regional operations director who reports to our vice president of restaurant operations. In general, each geographic region contains four to six regional operations directors, one to three regional recruiters, a regional training manager and one to two regional kitchen managers. Our regional directors oversee five to eight company-owned restaurants each, which we believe enables them to better support the general managers and achieve sales and cash flow targets for each restaurant within their region. In certain instances, regional operations directors invest a limited portion of their time on franchised operations in their respective regions.

Our typical restaurant management team consists of a general manager, an assistant general manager, a kitchen manager and one or two assistant managers. Most of our restaurants employ approximately 85 hourly

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team members, many of whom work part-time. The general manager of each restaurant is responsible for the day-to-day operation of that restaurant, including hiring, training and development of team members, as well as operating results. The kitchen manager is responsible for product quality, daily production, shift execution, food costs and kitchen labor costs. Our restaurants are generally open Sunday through Thursday from 11:00 AM until 10:00 PM and on Friday and Saturday from 11:00 AM to 11:00 PM.

Operational tools and programs

We utilize a customized food and beverage analysis program that determines the optimal food and beverage costs for each restaurant and provides additional tools and reports to help us identify opportunities, such as waste management, which we believe affords us lower than industry average food and beverage costs. We also utilize a labor program to determine the optimal staffing needs of each restaurant based on its actual guest flow and demand.

We employ several additional operational tools. For example, each week every general manager performs a “systems check” that tracks and measures our guests’ experiences based upon key criteria. This “systems check” evaluates our speed of service, food preparation times, seating utilization measures and guest feedback for each week. Our regional operations directors utilize these and other reports to determine which restaurants in their region may need additional support to address any problems.

Training

We strive to maintain quality and consistency in each of our restaurants through the careful training and supervision of team members and the establishment of, and adherence to, high standards relating to personnel performance, food and beverage preparation and maintenance of our restaurants. Each location has eight to ten certified trainers who provide classroom and on-the-job instruction for new team members. All of our trainers participate in an eight-hour training seminar on good training skills, which provides them with knowledge and tactics to enable them to be better trainers and coaches. We provide all new team members with complete orientation and one-on-one training for their positions to ensure they are able to meet our high standards. All of our new team members are trained by partnering with a certified designated trainer to assure that the training and information they receive is complete and accurate. Team members are certified for their positions by passing a series of tests.

New restaurant managers are required to complete an eight-week training program that includes service, kitchen and management responsibilities. Newly trained managers are then assigned to their home restaurant where they spend one additional training week with their general manager. We place a high priority on our continuing management development programs in order to ensure that qualified managers are available for our future openings. We conduct semi-annual performance reviews with each manager to discuss prior performance and future performance goals. Once a year, we hold a general manager conference in which our general managers receive additional training on financial management, food preparation, hospitality and other relevant topics.

When we open a new restaurant, we provide training to team members in each position to ensure the smooth and efficient operation of the restaurant from the first day it opens to the public. Prior to opening a new restaurant, our dedicated training and opening team travels to the location to prepare for an intensive seven-day training program for all team members hired for the new restaurant opening. Part of the training team stays on-site during the first week of operation and an additional team of training support arrives for on-site support during the second and third weeks. We believe this additional investment in our new restaurants is important because it helps us provide our guests with a quality dining experience from day one. We also make on-site training teams available when our franchisees open new restaurants. After a restaurant has been opened and is operating smoothly, the general manager supervises the training of new team members.

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Recruiting and retention

In 2004, we were proud to be a recipient of Nation’s Restaurant News’ 2004 People and Performance Awards, sponsored by Coca-Cola^®. This award honors multi-unit food service operators for excellence in recruiting, retention and recognition of hourly and management team members. We seek to hire experienced general managers and team members. We support our team members by offering competitive wages and benefits, including a 401(k) plan, an employee stock purchase plan, medical insurance and stock options for general managers. We motivate and prepare our team members by providing them with opportunities for increased responsibilities and advancement, as well as significant performance-based incentives tied to sales, profitability, certain qualitative measures and length of service at one of our restaurant locations. For example, we provide our general managers with the use of a Jeep Wrangler for two years if they increase restaurant sales in a single restaurant by 15.0% for four consecutive quarters. If this increase is maintained for eight consecutive quarters, we give the manager outright title to the Jeep Wrangler. We also provide various other incentives including vacations, car allowances and quarterly sales and profit bonuses. Our most successful general managers are eligible for promotion to training general manager status and are entitled to receive more lucrative compensation packages based on various performance criteria. We also provide monetary rewards for general managers who develop future managers for our restaurants.

Restaurant franchise and licensing arrangements

As of April 1, 2005, we have 27 franchisees that operate 122 restaurants in 24 states and two Canadian provinces, and we have 21 exclusive franchise development arrangements with these franchisees. Our two largest franchisees are Red Robin Restaurants of Canada, Ltd., with 18 restaurants throughout Alberta and British Columbia, Canada, and Top Robin Ventures, Inc., with 16 restaurants in Southern California. In 2004, our franchisees opened 17 new restaurants and we expect our franchisees to open 15 to 17 additional new restaurants in 2005. The success of our current franchisees and the popularity of our concept have created significant interest by potential franchisees.

Each franchise arrangement typically consists of an area development agreement and a separate franchise agreement for each restaurant. Our current form of area development agreement grants exclusive rights to a franchisee to develop a minimum number of restaurants in a defined area, typically over a five-year period. Individual franchise agreements relate to the operation of each restaurant opened and typically have a term of 20 years with a renewal option for an additional ten years if certain conditions are satisfied.

Under our current form of area development agreement, we collect a $10,000 area development fee for each restaurant the franchisee agrees to develop at the time we enter into the area development agreement. When a franchisee opens a new restaurant, we collect an additional franchise fee of $25,000. We may charge lower area development fees and franchise fees for existing franchisees. Area development fees and franchise fees are recognized as income when all material obligations and initial services to be provided by us have been performed, generally upon the opening of the restaurant. Until earned, these fees are accounted for as deferred income, a liability. Our current form of franchise agreement requires the franchisee to pay a royalty fee equal to 4.0% of adjusted restaurant sales.

Franchisees are required to spend a minimum of 1.5% of adjusted restaurant sales on local advertising or promotional activities and to pay an advertising fee of 0.5% of adjusted restaurant sales to a cooperative advertising fund for marketing studies and the development of commercials or other print and electronic media promotional material. We also have the ability under most of our franchise agreements to require the franchisee to contribute up to 4.0% of adjusted sales to a separate national advertising and marketing fund. The royalty fee and advertising and marketing contributions of our franchisees vary depending on when the agreements were executed and the number of restaurants that the franchisee committed to open during the term of the area development agreement.

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Franchise compliance assurance

We have instituted a comprehensive system to ensure the selection of quality franchisees and compliance with our systems and standards, both during the development and operating of franchise restaurants.

To continuously improve our operations, we maintain a franchise marketing advisory council, a franchise business advisory council and a food and beverage committee. The councils provide advice to us regarding operations and consist of three franchisee representatives and three members of our senior management. The food and beverage committee, which is also comprised of three franchisee representatives and three members of our senior management team, helps determine which items are selected for menu testing and which items will be featured in future promotions. In addition, several times each year we solicit feedback and insights on specific topics from the broad group of franchisees and then get together with them to discuss and share their insights. These gatherings are an effort to attain a high level of franchisee buy-in and to assure the system is evolving in a positive direction through the exchange of best practices.

Management information systems

All of our restaurants use computerized management information systems, which are designed to improve operating efficiencies, provide corporate management with timely access to financial and marketing data, and reduce restaurant and corporate administrative time and expense. We believe our management information systems are sophisticated and are sufficient to support our restaurant expansion plans.

With the data provided by our information systems, we can report daily, weekly and period-to-date numbers on an automated daily report that is delivered electronically to our restaurants and our field personnel. On a weekly and a periodic basis, we issue other electronic reports that provide comparative data regarding food, labor and other cost information. Our information systems also enable us to automatically post restaurant-level data, such as restaurant sales, cash and credit card receipts and promotion usage into our corporate accounting software. We also use our information systems to capture information regarding our payroll and the status of new and existing team members. Specifically, we use Menulink, a Windows-based product, to perform our restaurant-level bookkeeping, electronic ordering and food cost and management functions. Our Radiant Systems, formally Aloha Technologies, point-of-sale system facilitates the supply of data to Menulink and also assists with labor

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scheduling and credit card authorizations. Our new Scheduling Team Members and Reporting System (NuSTaRs) helps our managers schedule the optimal amount of team members at any time. We believe these systems enable both restaurant-level and corporate-level management to adequately supervise the operational and financial performance of our restaurants as necessary to support our planned expansion.

Food preparation, quality control and purchasing

We believe that we have some of the highest food quality standards in the industry. Our systems are designed to protect our food supply throughout the preparation process. We provide detailed specifications to suppliers for our food ingredients, products and supplies. We inspect specific qualified manufacturers and growers. Our purchasing team and restaurant managers are certified in a comprehensive safety and sanitations course by the National Restaurant Association. Minimum cook temperature requirements and twice-a-day line checks ensure the safety and quality of both burgers and other items we use in our restaurants.

We rely on SYSCO Corporation, a national food distributor, as the primary distributor of our food ingredients, supplies and other products. Our current contract with SYSCO ends on June 30, 2007. To maximize our purchasing efficiencies and obtain the lowest possible prices for our ingredients, products and supplies, while maintaining the highest quality, our centralized purchasing team generally negotiates fixed price contracts with terms of between one month and one year or monthly commodity pricing formulas. In order to provide the freshest ingredients and products, and to maximize operating efficiencies between purchase and usage, each restaurant’s kitchen manager determines the restaurant’s daily usage requirements for food ingredients, products and supplies. Accordingly, the kitchen manager orders from approved local suppliers and our national master distributor and all deliveries are inspected to ensure that the items received meet our quality specifications and negotiated prices. We believe that competitively priced, high quality alternative manufacturers, suppliers, growers and distributors are available should the need arise.

Team members

As of March 6, 2005, we had just over 13,000 employees, whom we refer to as team members, consisting of approximately 12,900 team members at company-owned restaurants and 176 team members at our corporate headquarters and in our regional offices. During our higher volume summer months, we experience an increase in the number of hourly team members in our restaurants of approximately 10.0%. None of our team members are covered by any collective bargaining agreement. We consider our team member relations to be good.

Competition

The restaurant industry is highly competitive. We compete on the basis of the taste, quality, price of food offered, guest service, ambiance, location and overall dining experience. We believe that our guest demographics, our gourmet burger concept, attractive price-value relationship, and the quality of our food and service enable us to differentiate ourselves from our competitors. Although we believe we compete favorably with respect to each of these factors, many of our direct and indirect competitors are well-established national, regional or local chains, and some have substantially greater financial, marketing, and other resources than we do. We also compete with many other restaurant and retail establishments for site locations and team members.

Seasonality

Our business is subject to seasonal fluctuations. Historically, sales in most of our restaurants have been higher during the summer months and winter holiday season. As a result, our quarterly and annual operating results and comparable restaurant sales may fluctuate significantly as a result of seasonality and other factors. Accordingly, results for any one quarter are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected for any other quarter or for any year and comparable restaurant sales for any particular future period may decrease.

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Trademarks

Our registered trademarks and service marks include, among others, the marks “Red Robin^®”, “America’s Gourmet Burgers & Spirits^®”, “Mad Mixology^®” and our logo. We have registered these marks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. We have registered or have registrations pending in Canada for our most significant trademarks and service marks. In order to better protect our brand, we have also registered the Internet domain name www.redrobin.com. We believe that our trademarks, service marks, and other proprietary rights have significant value and are important to our brand-building efforts and the marketing of our restaurant concepts. We have in the past, and expect to continue to vigorously protect our proprietary rights. We cannot predict, however, whether steps taken by us to protect our proprietary rights will be adequate to prevent misappropriation of these rights or the use by others of restaurant features based upon, or otherwise similar to, our concept. It may be difficult for us to prevent others from copying elements of our concept and any litigation to enforce our rights will likely be costly and may not be successful. Although we believe that we have sufficient rights to all of our trademarks and service marks, we may face claims of infringement that could interfere with our ability to market our restaurants and promote our brand. Any such litigation may be costly and divert resources from our business. Moreover, if we are unable to successfully defend against such claim(s), we may be prevented from using our trademarks and/or service marks in the future and may be liable for damages.

Government regulation

Our restaurants are subject to licensing and regulation by state and local health, safety, fire and other authorities, including licensing and regulation requirements for the sale of alcoholic beverages and food. To date, we have not experienced an inability to obtain or maintain any necessary licenses, permits or approvals, including restaurant, alcoholic beverage and retail licensing. The development and construction of additional restaurants will also be subject to compliance with applicable zoning, land use, and environmental regulations. We are also subject to federal regulation and state laws that regulate the offer and sale of franchises and substantive aspects of a franchisor-franchisee relationship. Various federal and state labor laws govern our relationship with our team members and affect operating costs. These laws include minimum wage requirements, overtime, unemployment tax rates, workers’ compensation rates, citizenship requirements and sales taxes. In addition, the Federal Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in public accommodations and employment.

Available Information

We maintain a link to investor relations information on our website, www.redrobin.com, where we make available, free of charge, our Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and all amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission. We are providing the address to our website solely for the information of investors. Information contained on our website is not incorporated by reference herein and our web address is included as an inactive textual reference only.

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Executive officers

The following table sets forth information about our executive officers and other key officers as of April 1, 2005:

Michael J. Snyder.    Mr. Snyder was elected as our president, chief operating officer and as a director in April 1996, and currently serves in these positions under the terms of his employment agreement with the Company. In March 1997, Mr. Snyder was elected as our chief executive officer. In May 1997, Mr. Snyder was elected as our chairman of the board. From 1979 to May 2000, Mr. Snyder also served as president of The Snyder Group Company.

James P. McCloskey.    Mr. McCloskey was elected as our chief financial officer and secretary in June 1996. From March 1994 to January 1996, Mr. McCloskey served as chief financial officer for Avalon Software in Tucson, Arizona. From July 1988 to March 1994, Mr. McCloskey served as chief financial officer for Famous Amos Cookies in San Francisco, California.

Michael E. Woods.    Mr. Woods joined us in January 1997 as our vice president of franchise development and was appointed senior vice president in January 1999. From 1992 to June 1999, Mr. Woods also served as director of corporate development for The Snyder Group Company.

Robert J. Merullo.    Mr. Merullo joined us in April 2000 as our senior vice president of restaurant operations. Mr. Merullo was the director of operations for The Snyder Group Company from November 1991 to April 2000.

Todd A. Brighton.    Mr. Brighton joined us in April 2001 as our vice president of development with management responsibility over real estate and design and construction. From August 1999 to April 2001, Mr. Brighton was director of real estate with RTM Restaurant Group and was responsible for strategic analysis and market planning for three restaurant chains. From November 1996 to July 1999, Mr. Brighton was the western development manager for Blockbuster Entertainment, Inc. and was responsible for all real estate development in 17 states and select international markets.

Eric C. Houseman.    Mr. Houseman joined us in 1993 and has served as our vice president of restaurant operations since March 2000. From 1993 to March 2000, Mr. Houseman served in various regional operations management positions with our company.

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G. Dwayne Chambers.    Mr. Chambers joined us in August 2003 as our vice president of marketing with responsibility for marketing, advertising, media buying and public relations. From July 1999 to May 2003, Mr. Chambers served as vice president of marketing for Sonic Drive Ins. From May 1987 to June 1999, Mr. Chambers served in various positions including vice president at Moroch and Associates in Dallas, where he directed the agency’s McDonald’s account.

John W. Grant.    Mr. Grant joined us in January 1995 as our director of real estate and legal and was promoted to vice president and general counsel in August 1996. From December 1993 to December 1994, Mr. Grant was self-employed as an attorney in Santa Barbara, California.

Jeffrey T. Neely.    Mr. Neely joined us in November 2003 as our vice president of franchise operations. From February 2000 to October 2003, Mr. Neely served as senior director of franchise and license operations at Einstein & Noah Bagel Corporation. From September 1989 to January 2000, Mr. Neely served as president and chief executive officer of Domino’s Pizza Neely Enterprises of Wichita.

Robert F. Fix.    Mr. Fix joined us in March 2001 as our vice president of franchise sales. From 1996 until March 2001, Mr. Fix was director of U.S. franchise development for Boston Pizza International of Richmond in British Columbia, Canada.

Douglas D. Gammon.    Mr. Gammon joined us in November 2003 as our vice president of human resources. From March 1997 to October 2003, Mr. Gammon served as senior vice president of human resources and people development at Taco Cabana, Inc. From December 1989 to March 1997, Mr. Gammon served as vice president of human resources at Marriott International.

Lisa A. Dahl.    Ms. Dahl joined us in March 1997 as our corporate controller and was promoted to vice president in January 2003. Prior to joining us, Ms. Dahl was an accounting director for Vicorp Restaurants. Ms. Dahl is a certified public accountant and has served as chairperson for the National Restaurant Association Finance Executive Group.

Robert K. Jakoby.    Mr. Jakoby joined us in March 1997 as manager of restaurant systems, was later promoted to director of management information systems and in January 2004 was promoted to vice president of management information systems and chief information officer. From May 1993 to March 1997, Mr. Jakoby was store systems project manager for Boston Chicken, Inc. Mr. Jakoby currently serves as chairman of the National Restaurant Association MIS executive study group and also serves on the Nation’s Restaurant News Foodservice Technology Advisory Board.

Ray S. Masters.    Mr. Masters joined us in May 1996 as director of purchasing and was promoted to vice president of purchasing in October 1998. Prior to joining us, Mr. Masters held multi-unit national account executive sales positions with SYSCO Foods and Johnsonville Foods.

Scott A. Schooler.    Mr. Schooler joined us in April 2000 as vice president of food and beverage. He was the director of food and beverage for The Snyder Group Company from March 1987 to April 2000.

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RISK FACTORS

An investment in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully read and consider the risks described below before deciding to invest in our common stock. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows could be materially harmed. In any such case, the trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. When determining whether to invest in our common stock, you should also refer to the other information contained or incorporated by reference in this annual report on Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and the related notes.

Risks related to our business

Our growth strategy depends on opening new restaurants. Our ability to expand our restaurant base is influenced by factors beyond our control, which may slow restaurant development and expansion and impair our growth strategy.

We are pursuing an aggressive but disciplined growth strategy, which, to be successful, will depend in large part on our ability and the ability of our franchisees to open new restaurants and to operate these restaurants on a profitable basis. We anticipate that our new restaurants will generally take several months to reach planned operating levels due to inefficiencies typically associated with new restaurants, including lack of market awareness, the need to hire and train sufficient team members and other factors. We cannot guarantee that we, or our franchisees, will be able to achieve our expansion goals or that new restaurants will be operated profitably. Further, we cannot assure you that any restaurant we open will obtain operating results similar to those of our existing restaurants. One of our biggest challenges in meeting our growth objectives will be to locate and secure an adequate supply of suitable new restaurant sites. We have experienced delays in opening some of our restaurants and may experience delays in the future. Delays or failures in opening new restaurants could materially and adversely affect our planned growth. The success of our planned expansion will depend upon numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including the following:

Our restaurant expansion strategy focuses primarily on further penetrating existing markets. This strategy could cause sales in some of our existing restaurants to decline.

Our areas of highest concentration are California, Colorado, Washington and Oregon. In accordance with our expansion strategy, we intend to open new restaurants primarily in our existing markets. Because we typically draw guests from a relatively small radius around each of our restaurants, the sales performance and guest counts for restaurants near the area in which a new restaurant opens may decline due to the opening of new restaurants.

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Our expansion into new markets may present increased risks due to our unfamiliarity with the area.

Some of our new restaurants will be located in areas where we have little or no meaningful experience. Those markets may have different competitive conditions, consumer tastes and discretionary spending patterns than our existing markets, which may cause our new restaurants to be less successful than restaurants in our existing markets. An additional risk in expansion into new markets is the lack of market awareness of the Red Robin^® brand. Restaurants opened in new markets may open at lower average weekly sales volumes than restaurants opened in existing markets, and may have higher restaurant-level operating expense ratios than in existing markets. Sales at restaurants opened in new markets may take longer to reach average annual company-owned restaurant sales, if at all, thereby affecting the profitability of these restaurants.

Our expansion may strain our infrastructure and other resources, which could slow our restaurant development or cause other problems.

We face the risk that our existing systems and procedures, restaurant management systems, financial controls, information and accounting systems, management resources and human resources will be inadequate to support our planned expansion of company-owned and franchised restaurants. We may not be able to respond on a timely basis to all of the changing demands that our planned expansion will impose on our infrastructure and other resources. If we fail to continue to improve our infrastructure or to manage other factors necessary for us to achieve our expansion objectives, this could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.

Our ability to utilize our revolving credit agreement and our ability to raise capital in the future may be limited, which could adversely impact our business.

Our revolving credit agreement contains a number of restrictive covenants that limit our ability to, among other things, engage in mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and sale-leaseback transactions, and to sell assets, incur indebtedness, make investments, create liens and pay dividends. Our revolving credit agreement also requires us to maintain compliance with specified financial ratios and tests. These restrictions could affect our ability to operate our business and may limit our ability to take advantage of potential business opportunities as they arise. In addition, because our revolving credit agreement expires in May 2006, we cannot give any assurance that we will be able to renew this agreement at or prior to that time.

Changes in our operating plans, acceleration of our expansion plans, lower than anticipated sales, increased expenses or other events, including those described in this section, may cause us to seek additional debt or equity financing on an accelerated basis. Financing may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all, and our failure to raise capital when needed could negatively impact our growth and other plans as well as our financial condition and results of operations. Additional equity financing may be dilutive to the holders of our common stock and debt financing, if available, may involve significant cash payment obligations and covenants and/or financial ratios that restrict our ability to operate our business.

If our franchisees cannot develop or finance new restaurants or build them on suitable sites or open them on schedule, our growth and success may be impeded.

Under our current form of area development agreement, franchisees must develop a predetermined number of restaurants in their area according to a schedule that lasts for the term of their development agreement. Franchisees may not have access to the financial or management resources that they need to open the restaurants required by their development schedules, or be able to find suitable sites on which to develop them. Franchisees may not be able to negotiate acceptable lease or purchase terms for the sites, obtain the necessary permits and government approvals or meet construction schedules. In the past, we have agreed to extend or modify development schedules for certain area developers, and we may do so in the future. Any of these problems could slow our growth and reduce our franchise revenues.

Additionally, our franchisees depend upon financing from banks and other financial institutions in order to construct and open new restaurants. Over the past several years, financing has been difficult to obtain for some

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small operators. Should these conditions continue, the lack of adequate availability of debt financing could adversely affect the number and rate of new restaurant openings by our franchisees and adversely affect our future franchise revenues.

Our franchisees could take actions that could harm our business.

Franchisees are independent contractors and are not our employees. We provide training and support to franchisees, but the quality of franchised restaurant operations may be diminished by any number of factors beyond our control. Consequently, franchisees may not successfully operate restaurants in a manner consistent with our standards and requirements, or may not hire and train qualified managers and other restaurant personnel. Our image and reputation, and the image and reputation of other franchisees, may suffer materially and system-wide sales could significantly decline if our franchisees do not operate successfully.

The acquisition of existing restaurants from our franchisees may have unanticipated consequences that could harm our business and financial condition.

We may seek to selectively acquire existing restaurants from our franchisees. To do so, we would need to identify suitable acquisition candidates, negotiate acceptable acquisition terms and obtain appropriate financing. Any acquisition that we pursue, whether or not successfully completed, may involve risks, including:

Future acquisitions of existing restaurants from our franchisees, which may be accomplished through a cash purchase transaction or the issuance of our equity securities, or a combination of both, could result in potentially dilutive issuances of our equity securities, the incurrence of debt and contingent liabilities and impairment charges related to goodwill and other intangible assets, any of which could harm our business and financial condition.

Our operations are susceptible to changes in food availability and cost which could adversely affect our operating results.

Our profitability depends in part on our ability to anticipate and react to changes in food costs. We rely on SYSCO Corporation, a national food distributor, as the primary distributor of our food ingredients, supplies and other products. Any increase in distribution prices or failure to perform by SYSCO could cause our food costs to increase. There also could be a significant short-term disruption in our supply chain if SYSCO failed to meet our distribution requirements or our relationship was terminated at the end of the contract term on June 30, 2007 or earlier by SYSCO upon breach or material deterioration of our financial position.

Various factors beyond our control, including adverse weather conditions, governmental regulation, production, availability, recalls of food products and seasonality may affect our food costs or cause a disruption in our supply chain. Chicken represented approximately 18.0% and beef represented approximately 10.6% of our food purchases in 2004. We enter into annual contracts with our beef and chicken suppliers. Our contracts for chicken are fixed price contracts. Our contracts for beef are generally based on current market prices plus a processing fee. Changes in the price or availability of chicken or beef could materially adversely affect our profitability. We cannot predict whether we will be able to anticipate and react to changing food costs by adjusting our purchasing practices and menu prices, and a failure to do so could adversely affect our operating results. In addition, because we provide a “value-priced” product, we may not be able to pass along price increases to our guests.

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Our quarterly operating results may fluctuate significantly and could fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors due to seasonality and other factors, resulting in a decline in our stock price.

Our quarterly operating results may fluctuate significantly because of several factors, including:

Our business is also subject to seasonal fluctuations. Historically, sales in most of our restaurants have been higher during the summer months and winter holiday season of each fiscal year. As a result, our quarterly and annual operating results and comparable restaurant sales may fluctuate significantly as a result of seasonality and the factors discussed above. Accordingly, results for any one quarter are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected for any other quarter or for any year and comparable restaurant sales for any particular future period may decrease. In the future, operating results may fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors. In that event, the price of our common stock would likely decrease.

A decline in visitors to any of the regional malls, lifestyle centers, big box shopping centers and entertainment centers near the locations of our restaurants could negatively affect our restaurant sales.

Our restaurants are primarily located near high activity areas such as regional malls, lifestyle centers, big box shopping centers and entertainment centers. We depend on high visitor rates at these centers to attract guests to our restaurants. If visitors to these centers decline due to economic conditions, changes in consumer preferences or shopping patterns, changes in discretionary consumer spending or otherwise, our restaurant sales could decline significantly and adversely affect our results of operations.

If we lose the services of any of our key management personnel, our business could suffer.

Our future success significantly depends on the continued services and performance of our key management personnel, particularly Mike Snyder, our chief executive officer and president; Jim McCloskey, our chief financial officer; Mike Woods, our senior vice president of franchise development; Bob Merullo, our senior vice president of restaurant operations; Todd Brighton, our vice president of development; and Eric Houseman, our vice president of restaurant operations. Our future performance will depend on our ability to motivate and retain these and other key officers and key team members, particularly regional operations directors, restaurant general managers and kitchen managers. Competition for these employees is intense. The loss of the services of members of our senior management or key team members or the inability to attract additional qualified personnel as needed could materially harm our business.

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Approximately 68% of our company-owned restaurants are located in the Western United States and, as a result, we are sensitive to economic and other trends and developments in this region.

As of April 1, 2005, we operate a total of 96 company-owned restaurants in the Western United States. As a result, we are particularly susceptible to adverse trends and economic conditions in this region, including its labor market. In addition, given our geographic concentration, negative publicity regarding any of our restaurants in the Western United States could have a material adverse effect on our business and operations, as could other regional occurrences such as local strikes, energy shortages or increases in energy prices, droughts, earthquakes, fires or other natural disasters.

Our future success depends on our ability to protect our proprietary information.

Our business prospects will depend in part on our ability to develop favorable consumer recognition of the Red Robin^® name and logo. Although Red Robin^®, America’s Gourmet Burgers & Spirits^® and Mad Mixology^® are federally registered trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in Canada, our trademarks could be infringed in ways that leave us without redress, such as by imitation. In addition, we rely on trade secrets and proprietary know-how, and we employ various methods, to protect our concepts and recipes. However, such methods may not afford adequate protection and others could independently develop similar know-how or obtain access to our know-how, concepts and recipes. Moreover, we may face claims of infringement that could interfere with our use of our proprietary know-how, concepts, recipes or trade secrets. Defending against such claims may be costly and, if we are unsuccessful, we may be prevented from continuing to use such proprietary information in the future and/or be forced to pay damages. We do not maintain confidentiality and non-competition agreements with all of our executives, key personnel or suppliers. In the event competitors independently develop or otherwise obtain access to our know-how, concepts, recipes or trade secrets, the appeal of our restaurants could be reduced and our business could be harmed. We franchise our system to various franchisees. While we try to ensure that the quality of our brand and compliance with our operating standards, and the confidentiality thereof are maintained by all of our franchisees, we cannot assure that our franchisees will avoid actions that adversely affect the reputation of Red Robin or the value of our proprietary information.

Future changes in financial accounting standards may cause adverse unexpected operating results and affect our reported results of operations.

Changes in accounting standards can have a significant effect on our reported results and may affect our reporting of transactions completed before the change is effective. As an example, the recent change requiring that we record compensation expense in the statement of operations for employee stock options using the fair value method may likely have a significant negative effect on our reported results. New pronouncements and varying interpretations of pronouncements have occurred and may occur in the future. Changes to existing rules or differing interpretations with respect to our current practices may adversely affect our reported financial results.

Compliance with changing regulation of corporate governance and public disclosure may result in additional expenses.

Keeping abreast of, and in compliance with, changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, new SEC regulations and The NASDAQ National Market rules, has required an increased amount of management attention and external resources. We remain committed to maintaining high standards of corporate governance and public disclosure. As a result, we intend to invest all reasonably necessary resources to comply with evolving standards, and this investment has resulted in and will continue to result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. During 2004, we incurred $822,500 of costs to comply with the Section 404 internal control requirements of the

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Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. These costs were primarily related to professional services and additional independent auditor fees. We anticipate that we will continue to incur significant costs related to ongoing compliance with Section 404 in the future.

Risks related to the restaurant industry

Changes in consumer preferences or discretionary consumer spending could negatively impact our results of operations.

Our restaurants feature burgers, salads, soups, appetizers, other entrees such as carnitas fajitas and pasta, desserts and our signature Mad Mixology^® alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages in a family-friendly atmosphere. Our continued success depends, in part, upon the popularity of these foods and this style of casual dining. Shifts in consumer preferences away from this cuisine or dining style could have a material adverse affect on our future profitability. The restaurant industry is characterized by the continual introduction of new concepts and is subject to rapidly changing consumer preferences, tastes and eating and purchasing habits. While burger consumption in the United States has grown over the past 20 years, the demand may not continue to grow or taste trends may change. Our success will depend in part on our ability to anticipate and respond to changing consumer preferences, tastes and eating and purchasing habits, as well as other factors affecting the food service industry, including new market entrants and demographic changes. Also, our success depends to a significant extent on numerous factors affecting discretionary consumer spending, including economic conditions, disposable consumer income and consumer confidence. Adverse changes in these factors could reduce guest traffic or impose practical limits on pricing, either of which could harm our results of operations.

Health concerns relating to the consumption of beef or other food products could affect consumer preferences and could negatively impact our results of operations.

Like other restaurant chains, consumer preferences could be affected by health concerns about the consumption of beef, the key ingredient in many of our menu items, or negative publicity concerning food quality, illness and injury generally, such as negative publicity concerning E. coli, “mad cow” or “foot-and-mouth” disease, publication of government or industry findings concerning food products served by us, or other health concerns or operating issues stemming from one restaurant or a limited number of restaurants. This negative publicity may adversely affect demand for our food and could result in a decrease in guest traffic to our restaurants. If we react to the negative publicity by changing our concept or our menu, we may lose guests who do not prefer the new concept or menu, and may not be able to attract a sufficient new guest base to produce the revenue needed to make our restaurants profitable. In addition, we may have different or additional competitors for our intended guests as a result of a concept change and may not be able to compete successfully against those competitors. A decrease in guest traffic to our restaurants as a result of these health concerns or negative publicity or as a result of a change in our menu or concept could materially harm our business.

Labor shortages could slow our growth or harm our business.

Our success depends in part upon our ability to attract, motivate and retain a sufficient number of qualified, high-energy team members. Qualified individuals of the requisite caliber and number needed to fill these positions are in short supply in some areas. The inability to recruit and retain these individuals may delay the planned openings of new restaurants or result in high employee turnover in existing restaurants, which could harm our business. Additionally, competition for qualified team members could require us to pay higher wages to attract sufficient team members, which could result in higher labor costs. Most of our employees are paid on an hourly basis. These employees are paid in accordance with applicable minimum wage regulations. Accordingly, any increase in the minimum wage, whether state or federal, could have a material adverse impact on our business.

We are subject to extensive government laws and regulations that govern various aspects of our business. Our operations and our ability to expand and develop our restaurants may be adversely affected by these laws and regulations, which could cause our revenues to decline and adversely affect our growth strategy.

The restaurant industry is subject to various federal, state and local government regulations, including those relating to the sale of food and alcoholic beverages. While in the past we have been able to obtain and maintain

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the necessary governmental licenses, permits and approvals, our failure to maintain these licenses, permits and approvals, including food and liquor licenses, could adversely affect our operating results. Difficulties or failures in obtaining the required licenses and approvals could delay or result in our decision to cancel the opening of new restaurants. Local authorities may suspend or deny renewal of our food and liquor licenses if they determine that our conduct does not meet applicable standards or if there are changes in regulations.

We are subject to “dram shop” statutes in some states. These statutes generally allow a person injured by an intoxicated person to recover damages from an establishment that wrongfully served alcoholic beverages to the intoxicated person. A judgment substantially in excess of our insurance coverage could harm our financial condition.

Various federal and state labor laws govern our relationship with our employees and affect operating costs. These laws include minimum wage requirements, overtime pay, unemployment tax rates, workers’ compensation rates, citizenship or residency requirements and sales taxes. Additional government-imposed increases in minimum wages, overtime pay, paid leaves of absence and mandated health benefits such as those to be imposed by recently enacted legislation in California, increased tax reporting and tax payment requirements for employees who receive gratuities, or a reduction in the number of states that allow tips to be credited toward minimum wage requirements could harm our operating results.

The federal Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in public accommodations and employment. Although our restaurants are designed to be accessible to the disabled, we could be required to make modifications to our restaurants to provide service to, or make reasonable accommodations for, disabled persons.

We are also subject to federal regulation and state laws that regulate the offer and sale of franchises and aspects of the licensor-licensee relationship. Many state franchise laws impose restrictions on the franchise agreement, including limitations on non-competition provisions and the termination or non-renewal of a franchise. Some states require that franchise materials be registered before franchises can be offered or sold in the state.

A significant increase in litigation could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and business prospects.

As a participant in the restaurant industry, we are sometimes the subject of complaints or litigation from guests alleging illness, injury or other food quality, health or operational concerns. Recently, the restaurant industry also has been subject to an increase in claims that the menus and practices of restaurant chains have led to the obesity of some guests. Adverse publicity resulting from these allegations could harm our restaurants, regardless of whether the allegations are valid or whether we are liable. In fact, we are subject to the same risks of adverse publicity resulting from these sorts of allegations even if the claim actually involves one of our franchisees. Further, employee claims against us based on, among other things, discrimination, harassment or wrongful termination may divert our financial and management resources that would otherwise be used to benefit the future performance of our operations.

Our success depends on our ability to compete effectively in the restaurant industry.

Competition in the restaurant industry is increasingly intense. We compete on the basis of the taste, quality, and price of food offered, guest service, ambiance and overall dining experience. We believe that our operating concept, attractive dining value, quality of food and guest service, enable us to differentiate ourselves from our competitors. Our competitors include a large and diverse group of restaurant chains and individual restaurants that range from independent local operators that have opened restaurants in various markets, to well-capitalized national restaurant companies. In addition, we compete with other restaurants and with retail establishments for real estate. Many of our competitors are well established in the casual dining market segment and some of our competitors have substantially greater financial, marketing and other resources than do we.

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Risks related to our company

Our stock price may be volatile.

The market for equity securities has been extremely volatile. The following factors could cause the price of our common stock in the public market to fluctuate significantly:

Our common stock began trading on July 19, 2002, and prior to this date there was no public market for shares of our common stock. The stock market is subject to significant price and volume fluctuations. Fluctuations or decreases in the trading price of our common stock may adversely affect stockholders’ ability to trade their shares. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class action litigation has often been instituted. A securities class action suit against us could result in substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources that would otherwise be used to benefit the future performance of our operations.

Some of our stockholders could exert influence over us, and may not make decisions that are in the best interests of all stockholders.

As of March 15, 2005, Mike Snyder owns 9.5% of our outstanding common stock. Our officers, directors and principal stockholders, i.e., stockholders holding more than 5.0% of our common stock, including Mike Snyder, together hold approximately 12.8% of our outstanding common stock. These stockholders, acting individually or together, could exert influence over various matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors and approval of significant corporate transactions. This concentration of ownership could delay or prevent a change in control of our company, and make some transactions more difficult without the support of these stockholders. The interests of these stockholders may not always coincide with our interests as a company or the interest of other stockholders. Accordingly, Mike Snyder and these other stockholders could cause us to enter into transactions or agreements that our other stockholders might not approve. Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws require a 66 ²/3% supermajority vote of our stockholders to remove a director or to amend specified provisions of our certificate of incorporation or bylaws.

Provisions in Delaware law and our charter may prevent or delay a change of control, even if that change of control may be beneficial to our stockholders.

We are subject to the Delaware anti-takeover laws regulating corporate takeovers. These anti-takeover laws prevent Delaware corporations from engaging in business combinations with any stockholder, including all affiliates and associates of the stockholder, who owns 15.0% or more of the corporation’s outstanding voting stock, for three years following the date that the stockholder acquired 15.0% or more of the corporation’s voting stock unless specified conditions are met.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws include a number of provisions that may deter or impede hostile takeovers or changes of control. These provisions:

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ITEM 2.    Properties

We currently lease the majority of our company-owned restaurant facilities under operating leases with remaining terms ranging from less than one year to just over 20 years. These leases generally contain renewal options which permit the Company to renew the leases at defined contractual rates or prevailing market rates. Certain leases provide for contingent rents, which are determined as a percentage of adjusted restaurant sales in excess of specified levels. The Company records a contingent rent liability and the corresponding rent expense when specified levels have been achieved or when management determines that achieving the specified levels during the fiscal year is probable. Certain lease agreements also require the Company to pay maintenance, insurance and property tax costs.

We own real estate for 21 company-owned restaurants located in Mesa, Peoria, and Prescott, Arizona; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Moreno Valley and Yuba City, California; Castle Rock, Greeley and Highlands Ranch, Colorado; Columbia, Maryland; St. Peters, Missouri; Chagrin Highlands, North Olmstead and Westchester, Ohio; Homestead and Oxford Valley, Pennsylvania; Chesapeake, Fairfax, Glen Allen and Potomac Mills, Virginia; and Issaquah, Washington. See “Restaurant Locations” under Item I for additional information regarding our restaurants.

We own real estate in Oswego, Illinois; Grove City, Ohio; Toringdon, North Carolina and Monroe, Washington where we plan to develop new company-owned restaurants. In addition, we own one property in Lake Howell, Florida and a second property in Grapevine, Texas, both of which we lease to others.

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Our corporate headquarters are located in Greenwood Village, Colorado. We occupy this facility under a lease that expires on May 30, 2011. We lease approximately 1,500 square feet of regional office space in Seattle, Washington, under an agreement expiring in October 2005. In addition, we lease approximately 2,900 square feet of regional office space in Tustin, California, under an agreement expiring in December 2007.

ITEM 3.    Legal Proceedings

Occasionally, we are a defendant in litigation arising in the ordinary course of our business, including claims resulting from “slip and fall” accidents, employment related claims and claims from guests or team members alleging illness, injury or other food quality, health or operational concerns. To date, none of these types of litigation, all of which are generally covered by insurance policies, has had a material effect on us, and as of the date of this filing, we are not a party to any litigation that we believe would have a material adverse effect on our business or financial condition.

ITEM 4.    Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders

No matters were submitted to a vote of stockholders during the fourth quarter of the fiscal year covered by this report.

PART II

ITEM 5.    Market for the Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Our common stock is listed on The NASDAQ National Market under the symbol RRGB. The table below sets forth the high and low per share sales prices for our common stock as reported by The NASDAQ National Market.

As of April 1, 2005, there were approximately 3,750 registered owners of our common stock.

Dividends

We did not declare or pay any cash dividends on our common stock during 2004 or 2003. We currently anticipate that we will retain any future earnings for the operation and expansion of our business. In addition, our revolving credit agreement prohibits us from declaring or paying any dividends or making any other distributions on any of our shares, subject to specified exceptions. Accordingly, we do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends on our common stock in the foreseeable future.

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Any future determination relating to our dividend policy will be made at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on then existing conditions including our financial condition, results of operations, contractual restrictions, capital requirements, business prospects and other factors our board of directors may deem relevant.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

We did not repurchase any of our registered securities during the fourth quarter of 2004. As of April 1, 2005, the Company has no programs which have been approved by stockholders pursuant to which we would repurchase any of our equity securities. As of April 1, 2005, we have a right to repurchase 11,495 shares of common stock at the lower of fair value or issuance price related to unvested early exercise options that were exercised in April 2002. This right expires when the shares vest on January 29, 2006.

Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans

We maintain five equity-based compensation plans—the 1996 Stock Plan, the 2000 Stock Plan, the 2002 Stock Plan, the 2004 Stock Plan and the employee stock purchase plan. Our stockholders have approved each of these plans.

The following table sets forth for each of our equity compensation plans, the number of shares of our common stock subject to outstanding options and rights under these plans, the weighted-average exercise price of outstanding options, and the number of shares remaining available for future award grants under these plans as of December 26, 2004 (in thousands, except per share data):

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ITEM 6.    Selected Financial Data

The table below, which contains selected consolidated financial and operating data, gives effect to corrections for lease accounting and certain other immaterial adjustments for all years presented. The statement of income, cash flow and balance sheet data for each year has been derived from our consolidated financial statements. You should read this information together with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this annual report on Form 10-K.

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ITEM 7.    Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Organization of Information

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations provides a narrative on our financial performance and condition that should be read in conjunction with the accompanying consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this annual report on Form 10-K. This discussion and analysis contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Future results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors including, but not limited to, those discussed in “Risk Factors” under Item 1 and elsewhere in this annual report on Form 10-K. This section includes the following discussions:

Overview

Restatement

Unit Data and Comparable Restaurant Sales

Results of Operations

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Contractual Obligations

Inflation

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Forward-Looking Statements

Overview

Red Robin, which was founded in 1969, is a casual dining restaurant chain focused on serving an imaginative selection of high quality gourmet burgers in a family-friendly atmosphere. As of April 1, 2005, we operate 141 company-owned restaurants in 17 states. We began franchising the Red Robin^® brand in 1979 and as of April 1, 2005, we have 27 franchisees that operate 122 restaurants in 24 states and two Canadian provinces. Our objective is to be the leading gourmet burger and casual dining restaurant destination. In managing our operations, we focus on four cornerstones that we believe are essential to the success of our business: Values, People, Burgers and Time.

Our restaurants are designed to create a fun and memorable dining experience in a family-friendly atmosphere and provide our guests with an exceptional dining value. Our concept attracts a broad guest base by appealing to the entire family, particularly women, teens, kids ages 8 to 12 whom we refer to as tweens, and younger children. All of our menu items are prepared to order in our restaurants. The food items currently on our menu range in price from $2.99 to $11.49, with a per person average check in 2004 of approximately $10.36, including beverages. During 2004, our company-owned comparable restaurants had average unit volumes that exceeded $3.2 million.

We are pursuing a disciplined growth strategy that includes the addition of company-owned and franchised restaurants. Our restaurant expansion strategy focuses primarily on further penetrating existing markets with a cluster strategy and selectively entering into new markets. We believe that our site selection strategy is critical to our success and we devote substantial time and effort to evaluating each site. Our site selection criteria focus on identifying markets, trade areas and other specific sites that are likely to yield the greatest density of desirable demographic characteristics, heavy retail traffic and a highly visible site. Our prototype restaurant is a free-standing building with approximately 6,350 square feet, approximately 200 seats and a patio. Based on this prototype, we expect that our average cash investment cost for our free-standing restaurants in 2005 will be $2.3 million, excluding land and pre-opening costs.

Our fiscal years ended December 26, 2004, December 28, 2003 and December 29, 2002 are referred to as 2004, 2003 and 2002, respectively. Each year presented included 52 weeks. We also refer to our fiscal year ending December 25, 2005 as 2005.

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Restatement

On February 7, 2005, the Office of the Chief Accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a letter to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants expressing its views regarding certain operating lease-related accounting issues and their application under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (GAAP). In light of this letter, management initiated a review of our lease accounting and determined that our previous methods of accounting for rent holidays and for leasehold improvements funded by landlord incentives or allowances under operating leases (tenant improvement allowances) were not in accordance with GAAP. As a result, we have restated our audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal years ended December 28, 2003 and December 29, 2002. Our restated financial statements also reflect certain immaterial adjustments as further described in Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements, included elsewhere herein.

See Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a summary of the effects of the restatement of the Company’s consolidated balance sheet as of December 28, 2003, as well as on the Company’s consolidated statements of income and cash flows for 2003 and 2002. The accompanying Management’s Discussion and Analysis gives effect to these corrections. In 2005, we will amend our 2004 quarterly filings to reflect this restatement. See Note 18 to the consolidated financial statements.

The cumulative effect of this restatement resulted in an increase in the accumulated deficit of $590,000 as of December 30, 2001, and decreases in net income of $288,000 and $377,000 for the fiscal years ended December 28, 2003 and December 29, 2002, respectively.

Unit Data and Comparable Restaurant Sales

The following table details restaurant unit data for our company-owned and franchise locations for the years indicated.

Since December 26, 2004 and through April 1, 2005, we have opened 4 additional company-owned restaurants and our franchisees have opened 4 additional franchise restaurants. These openings bring our total restaurant count as of April 1, 2005, to 141 company-owned restaurants, 122 franchised restaurants and 263 total restaurants. We expect to open an additional 22 to 24 company-owned restaurants and anticipate that our franchisees will open 11 to 13 additional restaurants during the remainder of 2005.

We reflect restaurants as comparable in the first period following five full quarters of operations. Our company-owned comparable restaurant sales increased 7.5% in 2004, 4.1% in 2003 and 1.8% in 2002.

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Results of Operations

Operating results for each period presented below are expressed as a percentage of total revenues, except for the components of restaurant operating costs, which are expressed as a percentage of restaurant revenues: