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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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Also, the number of restaurant employees who wear masks. If I see one, I never go back to that restaurant. Either they employ sick folks who should stay home or nutjobs.
Nope.
” I thought this about showering and dental hygiene. “
I thought it would be about watching the NFL
I particularly dislike the practice of taking the card to the table and then turning the device around to you to select a tip.
That really burns me.
Door dash is only a delivery service.
There's my argument. Pizza instead of salads.
“It’s disappointing to go out to eat, spend a substantial amount of money, and receive a meal that is not as good as I could make at home.”
We live rural and don’t have a lot of choices. Our local Steak House is EXCELLENT, but it’s for special occasions and will set you back a good chunk of change. They serve Prime Rib for FREE to Veteran’s in November. Nice touch and I take advantage of it as often as I can. Beau picks up the bar tab and his meal, LOL!
I love to cook. And trust me, NO ONE in Wisconsin is missing their Friday Night Fish Fry, which is the one meal a week we all enjoy no matter what the cost - and it’s not gone up in price substantially. Restaurants know not to mess with that, LOL!
It is easy when you only eat beef/chicken and taters or rice (maybe some broccoli, carrots, or peas which need nothing as well but salt). I don’t put sauces on any meat and won’t eat anyplace that they do. I have a sister-in-law that every time I am over there she cooks some nasty crap she sees on tv and ruins every cut of meat she touches.
I wonder how much of that is caused by surly wait staff asking for 23% gratuities?
We go out once a week so I get a break from meal making...and so someone serves ME. Luckily our little farm/resort town has a few good restaurants...which we avoid on weekends. Last night the place we went was really busy...on a Thursday!
Agreed.
Price is part of it, but it would be helpful if reporters who wanted to write about higher prices took note of increases in the minimum wage and benefits, as well as increased taxes and lease costs.
The politicians habitually drive up costs and then the politicians and media blame profiteering corporations for the increases.
Where I live, Door Dash and similar services are huge with younger folk and are steadily gaining ground among people of mature years. A lot of restaurants are now doing more carryout and delivery orders than sit in dinners. The upscale “fine dining” restaurants don’t do that, but the broad midrange restaurants do, including virtually all the Chinese, Ethiopian, Italian, Middle Eastern, etc. restaurants. Couch potato nation is coming to view eating out the same way it views watching movies, as an activity best done on your own couch in front of the tv.
Bingo. The last 10 times I went out for dinner I was disappointed. Always say to myself I could have done a better job myself.
I don’t eat out as much as I used to. Not because of budget. I’m in Oklahoma. It seems the 3 basic food groups tend to be sugar, salt and grease.
bookmark
I worked as a cook in a nice Wash DC seafood restaurant for 4 years while going to college. Some of the things I saw were not very nice or clean. I don’t trust anyone to prepare my food except for my wife, myself or my family. Nor should you, frankly.
I still go out once a week, but used to go twice a week. The higher prices are the main reason. They went up during COVID and it’s aftermath and they aren’t coming down. I figure the restaurants are also paying their help more. I go to a diner and order off the senior menu. I get soup or salad, a good-sized entree with potatoes or rice and vegetables, dessert, and as many cups of coffee as I can drink, all for under $10. I feel like I am taking advantage of them for a change.
This is a silly hit piece that, as OB pointed out, left out the shift to delivery, among other omissions.
Hitmaker's farcical rewrite of a Gallop poll, is well repaid by Gallop outing her Little Lie by headlining their results thusly:
More Ordering Groceries Online; Fewer Dining Out
Furthermore, if you scroll down in that Gallop poll you find that if you combine the first two choices: weekly AND once/twice a month, that combo is essentially unchanged since the plandemic, neatly undoing bish's premise.
Finally, this poll fails on its face, as 'eating out' is not monolithic nationally, it is regional, it is local -- there are places in the US where people eat out multiple times a week (looking at you, Texas); and there are places where der shtruggle is real (and can almost be perfectly tracked by Red Lobster closures lol).
I buy dark chocolate from Aldi...melt and mix with pecans or coconut or whatever.
” the latest decline concentrated among middle- and upper-income Americans,”
Typical. The people who can’t afford to eat out, are eating out. Then they run to the grocery store with the EBT cards and spend OUR tax money on groceries for home. Nice “work” if you can get it.
I’m surprised it hasn’t dropped further.
Most restaurant now use giant food distribution companies so that the appetizers you get at Applebee’s are identical to the appetizers you get at Red Robin.
Restaurants tend to hire lower skill workers and those are trending Democrat and have been radicalized. Who wants to eat at place where the people preparing your food hate you?
Tipping culture is out of hand. It is now de rigueur to tip 20% as a base and go up from there. Tipping less may even get you a confrontation with the server or manager.
Gas prices are such that people are less likely to drive when it isn’t necessary.
Delivery services have priced themselves into irrelevance.
All that and you can cook better for yourself at home for less.
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