One of the ways people gauge when an economic recovery is occurring is when Americans start spending more on things like eating out in restaurants. People are dining out. Over three in five U.S. adults (63%) have dined at a fast food restaurant chain in the past month and about half have dined at a local casual dining establishment (53%) and a casual dining restaurant chain (50%). Fewer have dined at either a local fine dining establishment (18%) or a fine dining restaurant chain (9%) while 13% of Americans have not dined at any of these types of restaurants in the past month.

Changes in dining out behavior

While Americans are dining out, they are still cutting back in how often they do so. In looking at the past six months, about one-third say they are eating less frequently at fast food chains (36%), casual dining restaurant chains (34%), and local casual dining restaurants (34%). But one glimmer of economic hope is about one in ten Americans say they are eating at these three types of restaurants more frequently.

Interestingly, there is a gender difference as women are more likely than men to say they are dining out less frequently in these three types of restaurants over the past six months. For example, two in five women (41%) say they are dining less frequently at fast food restaurants compared to 31% of men.

Seven in ten Americans (71%) say they find themselves cooking more instead of going out in order to save more money, while over half (57%) say going out used to be a regular occurrence but it is now a luxury. On the flip side, three in five U.S. adults (60%) disagree with the notion that they will eat out as often but now usually at a lower priced restaurant. Only three in ten Americans (29%) say they will cut spending in other places in order to still be able to dine out.

Factors in Choosing a Restaurant

There are many different reasons for choosing a restaurant when deciding to go out to eat. For nine in ten Americans (90%) good prices are an important reason while for 84% the mood they are in (for either type of cuisine or type of food) is important. Other things that are important in choosing a restaurant are having a specific menu item people enjoy (81%), a convenient location (80%), broad variety of menu items (78%), special offers (59%), and healthy menu items that fit a dietary need (56%). Two things that three in five Americans say are not important when they choose a restaurant are choosing the same restaurant (59%) and a restaurant with a menu that usually has new items (61%)

So What?

"Consumer restaurant behavior continues to evolve as they manage their budgets in an ongoing tight economy.  At the beginning of the economic downturn we saw consumers saving money by changing their behavior in two ways: eating out less frequently and shifting their eating-out dollars away from Casual Dining towards Fast Food/Quick Service restaurants," according to Mary Bouchard, Vice President and Thought Leader at Harris Interactive.   "Now, with several years of experience with constrained budgets, they have shifted even further from the busy-lifestyle convenience of eating out on a regular basis to making time for cooking at home.  When they do eat out, not surprisingly, price is still a primary component of their decision making process."

"Interestingly, while consumers still are driven by a favorite type of food/favorite dish in restaurant selection, the industry overall has begun to see a positive shift towards healthy eating behavior," continues Ms. Bouchard.  "As our recent Harris Poll EquiTrend also shows, restaurants that offer a broad range of healthy options, such as Subway which is the highest rated quick service restaurant brand, have shown increased revenues and many restaurants of all genres have increased their offering/sales of low calorie/low fat dishes."

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,451 adults surveyed online between March 12 and 19, 2012 by Harris Interactive.