Business and Summary and Basis of Presentation (Details)	9 Months Ended	12 Months Ended
Sep. 29, 2015 segment province restaurant state $ / shares	Dec. 30, 2014 $ / shares
Franchisor Disclosure [Line Items]
Number of states in which Noodles & Company operates \| state	35
Number of Canadian provinces \| province	1
Number of operating segments \| segment	1
Number of reportable segments \| segment	1
Common stock, par value (USD per share) \| $ / shares	$ 0.01	$ 0.01
Number of weeks in fiscal year	364 days	364 days
Company-Owned [Member]
Franchisor Disclosure [Line Items]
Number of restaurants	424
Franchise [Member]
Franchisor Disclosure [Line Items]
Number of restaurants	64

Number of operating segments. An operating segment is a component of an enterprise: (a) that engages in business activities from which it may earn revenues and incur expenses (including revenues and expenses relating to transactions with other components of the same enterprise), (b) whose operating results are regularly reviewed by the enterprise's chief operating decision maker to make decisions about resources to be allocated to the segment and assess its performance, and (c) for which discrete financial information is available. An operating segment may engage in business activities for which it has yet to earn revenues, for example, start-up operations may be operating segments before earning revenues.

No definition available.

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration