A unique, meaningful and memorable name will help any restaurant to make an impression on regular and prospective customers.

You can use a range of different strategies to come up with a name that’s striking and easy to remember. It can be funny, quirky, or simply very creative.

To help you along in developing ideas for your new place, here are 13 interesting names that you should be able to get inspiration from:

1. Zenlighten – The blending of ‘zen’ and ‘enlighten’ is truly an enlightened one. These two words fit together snugly to make a unique brand name that’s memorable and easy to pronounce.
2. Banana Cabana – Rhyming words always make fantastic names if their meanings fit together nicely. In this case, it should do, if the premises are designed to resemble a cabana in some way.
3. Affluential – A blend of ‘affluent’ and ‘influential’ that produces a uniquely made up word and brand name. It’s a great name to target the luxury market, but it’d be good if it focused more on the food.
4. Beef Blackout – Restaurant names that focus on the food are effective most of the time, especially if the food is good. Just pick the words carefully and use basic cheats like words with the same first letters and you’ll be on your way.
5. Wasabi Junction – The word ‘wasabi’ is a great way to let people know you serve Japanese food, if you’re cool and want to be different from all the other places that use common Japanese related words in their restaurant names.
6. Bagel Bandit – With so many bagel stores around, it’s key to have a name to help you stand out in a distinct way. This name certainly does. It’s playful, fun, memorable and easy to pronounce.
7. Royal Lush – A modification of the poker term ‘royal flush’, this is another one of those awesome names that could be used for any high-end brand. It doesn’t let you know it’s a restaurant, but it conveys a upscale image of the underlying business.
8. Parabolic Chicken – This is a weird name and that’s probably why it gets attention. It’s hard to imagine chicken telling parables or having anything to do with parabolic equations, and that makes this one of the quirkiest restaurant names of all time.
9. Papa Jambalaya – Some names just work, while others don’t. This one does. Maybe it’s the repetitive syllables ending in ‘a’ that make this a joy to pronounce. Or perhaps both words just project a nice home-cooked image when combined.
10. Yangtze Doodle – A catchy and witty adaptation of ‘yankee doodle’ to transform an anglo-american song into a Chinese restaurant’s name (Yangtze is the longest river in China).
11. Jezebel’s Joint – A chef or owner’s name always makes a name unique and gives any place an instant identity. And a more unique word normally works better, such as ‘Joint’ vs ‘Café’, especially since it starts with the same letter as Jezebel.
12. Clam Chop – Quirky names that get you to stop and think are normally winners as they’ve already managed to get your attention. ‘Clam’ rhymes perfectly with ‘lamb’, which classically pairs up with ‘chop’, but clams don’t come in chops. Is it lamb, clams or both that they serve?
13. Big Juicy – Steaks? These are two positive words that are commonly used to describe many things, but food is often at the top of the list, particularly steaks. The name may be a little bland for some, but others will love it.

To review more examples of restaurant names, take a look at these clever but not very cool names, or learn how to use innovative word play to create a name.