Posted on 10/23/2026 7:22:10 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The number of Americans dining out just hit a new low.
In the early days of the pandemic, restaurants went into survival mode to stay afloat. It may be safe to grab a bite to eat out of the house these days, but with fewer Americans able to afford the luxury of eating out, business is drying up again.
The percentage of Americans who say they dine out at least once a week slid almost 10% between 2022 and 2026, according to a new Gallup poll. In 2019, just prior to the pandemic, more than half of people surveyed reported eating out at a restaurant at least one time per week. By 2021, that percentage dipped 10%, to 43%, before perking up to 47% in 2022. In the 2026 version of the same poll, Gallup found that only 39% of people dine out weekly—fewer than in the first year following the COVID outbreak.
“Weekly dining out fell during the pandemic, partly recovered by 2022, and has since dropped to a new low, with the latest decline concentrated among middle- and upper-income Americans,” Gallup wrote in its new report. The analytics company cited the “cumulative effect of price increases over the past four years” as the main driver that’s keeping people at home.
They aren’t just staying in and ordering takeout, either. The number of Americans who say they get takeout weekly slipped to 31% in 2026, down from 26% in 2022 and 39% in 2021—a strong sign that the affordability crisis is behind the shifting trends. That percentage of Americans ordering takeout in 2026 is now even with what it was pre-pandemic in 2018.
Dining out across income levels
Unsurprisingly, people in different income brackets have different habits when it comes to eating out. Americans in upper-income households dine out much more often than those making less money, an intuitive finding given that higher costs don’t sting nearly as much when you’ve got more financial padding.
Just prior to the pandemic, Gallup found that 40% of people in a lower-income group dined out on a weekly basis, compared with 54% in a middle-income group and 65% in an upper-income group. By 2021, weekly dining rates had dropped across the board, but they began to rise again in 2022—but only for higher-income Americans. Now, weekly dining is sliding again, this time falling for middle- and upper-income adults, with 38% and 48% of people in those categories eating out at least once a week, respectively. For lower-income Americans, the percentage stayed stable at 32%.
“For restaurants, the challenge is less that Americans have stopped eating out than that they are doing so less often,” Gallup wrote in the report. “And with restaurant takeout falling from its pandemic-era high, weekly takeout or delivery does not appear to be making up the difference.”
Food safety worries
The current Gallup survey was conducted in July of this year, drawing on data from a random sample of 1,200 adults across all 50 states. The company does note that its polling coincided with the cyclosporiasis outbreak that had Americans skittish about lettuce this summer, as the food safety scare may have impacted eating habits, too.
The outbreak—traced to iceberg lettuce recalled by food supplier Taylor Farms—officially ended in September, but not before it sickened almost 13,000 people and sent 579 to the hospital. In a separate survey, Gallup found that Americans distrust the federal government on food more than ever, with only 47% feeling confident about food safety protocols.
With more people holed up at home with their groceries, restaurants have been forced to improvise. Some, like fast-casual pillars Noodles & Company and Chipotle, are getting creative with innovative menu items to bring diners back into the fold. Others, like McDonald’s, opted to make fast food feel cheap again with a $5 meal deal. But local restaurants and fine dining options don’t have as much breathing room as their corporate peers, with many folding to a lethal combination of higher ingredient prices and shrinking customer budgets—and little relief in sight.
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Oh, Noes! *Rolleyes*
Nice try, Gallop!
Oh, my bad. I thought this about showering and dental hygiene. I guess I’m ahead of the curve on that.
Trumps fault!
Have Mom run you through the car wash...and take your toothbrush along, LOL!
When I was a kid, we spent all summer at the lake at my Grandparent’s. At the end of the day Mom would give us a bar of Ivory soap (because it floats!) and tell us to wash up in the lake. ;)
Like many Americans, I live in a rural area in the vicinity of a small town. Dining out options are limited. So I’ve learned to cook a variety of cuisines to make up for what is not locally available. I suspect a lot of people have done similarly. The rise is the number of cooking shows, online resources, and publications attests to this. Frankly, I prefer cooking and eating at home to going out anyway. It’s a fun hobby.
This is good news if true and surprising. The article says “Unsurprisingly, people in different income brackets have different habits when it comes to eating out.” That is actually surprising because the story of the past five years is young, relatively poor people being addicted to Door Dash. The Caleb Hammer financial / budgeting podcast became famous for him berating young people for spending too much on takeout and Door Dash. I would think that the breakdown would be generational. Old people would be more likely to cook at home regardless of income and young people would be more likely to get takeout or Door Dash regardless of income. Maybe financial reality is finally hitting home.
But this also speaks to the failure of the older generation (my generation)_ to teach our kids to cook and teach them the importance of eating at home. It is a huge waste of money to eat out all the time but so many people do it. I never understood it. I rarely eat out although I could afford to do so more. Its a “special occasion” for me and my family. But I suspect I’m a relic of the past in this regard. This article gives me some hope that is changing.
I don't want a "Jessie Jackson" spitting in my food.
You may notice the recent white female with some disease, I forget what, convicted of doing the same.
It’s expensive, and the tipping culture is way out of hand.
A lot of mom and pop restaurants are closing as the older generations retire out. Many of them made fresh food daily.
The chain restaurants are offering prepacked food from one of three or four major food companies such as Sysco, Performance Food Group, McLane Company, and US Foods.
Door Dash maybe not considered “eating out?”
My wife and I have been retired for 7 years.
Our income comes from a 401k, ssa, and a pension, and until recently we had a mortgage to pay.
As well at takeout we eat out at restaurants all the time and we pretty much go wherever we want.
Drink water instead of some other beverage (especially alcohol) and it cuts the bill down considerably.
It’s because the quality of food in restaurants (especially chains) has taken a dramatic drop in quality, across the board.
As has chocolate, btw. They’ve dropped the percentage and quality of cocoa in most mass market chocolate. It tastes like plastic.
It’s part of the same trend as the recent sharp decline in retail sales, and points to Americans lacking disposable income for such purchases. It’s not a good omen for the midterm election results.
Dining out is expensive and even a few burgers at a fast food place quickly becomes a $30 meal. While I have always done most of the cooking in my family, there are new innovations that make cooking at home easier. An air fryer is an essential at our house. We have one of those multifunction air fryers that is also a small oven and it is perfect for two people. The old fashioned slow cooker like grandma used can make easy and inexpensive meals. It is too bad that kids aren’t taught basic cooking skills either by their parents or in a school class.
My wife and I dine out on average once every other week. I have to say that during the pandemic her cooking (which was always good) went way up in variety since she had time to experiment with new recipes and cuisines. (She got a lot of inspiration for the New York Times Cooking app, and the cookbooks of Yotam Ottolenghi.)
We are repelled by the demand (Yes, demand!) that we tip according to the owner’s desire to have patrons pay his employees through exorbitant tips so he doesn’t have to.
We are repelled by the demand (Yes, demand!) that we tip according to the owner’s desire to have patrons pay his employees through exorbitant tips so he doesn’t have to.
And I believe Door Dash isn't considered "take out". Or at least AI says it isn't considered eating out of take out, it's considered "delivery".
I am not poor, I am retired… But my wife and I simply do not go out to eat the way we used to.
We used to go out all the time. Sometimes several times a week because we enjoyed it. And we liked to go out with friends. It was fun, it was Social, and the food was good if we chose correctly.
Now, it is so ridiculously expensive to go out and eat now, for food that is not quite as good as we can cook at home… It’s just something we don’t want to do for that kind of money.
I took a friend out for Chinese food last Sunday. , And it cost almost $80 for two people at a swill Chinese restaurant, not a top end one And that was simply for two entrées, two appetizers, and two sodas.
And the bill came to nearly $80 with tip.
That’s insane. So do I understand why people don’t want to go out to eat… Absolutely I do.
I miss going out to eat, I liked having food served to me that somebody else has prepared… But at the prices today, I just cannot justify it.
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