The restaurant business in Russia is being significantly transformed under the influence of two factors: the transition to a digital model of orders and a decrease in the purchasing power of the population. In the context of digitalization and increased competition, restaurant business enterprises are faced with the need to improve strategic management. The research aims to determine the direction of transformation of strategic management in the restaurant business in the context of digitalization. The methodological basis of this research is a systemic approach. During the research, the author applied general scientific methods, including induction, deduction, analysis, synthesis, and ascent from the abstract to the concrete. The author also analyzed special literature on the chosen research topic. Particularly, sources on the problem of strategic management and digitalization of structures included in the public restaurant system became the basis for the literature review. Some materials were taken from the RSCI and Scopus websites. The main result of this research lies in the development of a strategy for modeling, forecasting the features of the formation and development of consumer behavior characteristic of the restaurant business in unstable socio-economic conditions. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.