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. Just prior to the pandemic in 2019, more than half of people surveyed reported eating out at a restaurant at least one time in a week. By 2021, that percentage dipped 10% to 43%, before perking up to 47% into 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, citing the “cumulative effect of price increases over the past four years” as the main driver keeping people dining in. 

People aren’t just staying in and ordering takeout, either. The number of Americans who say they eat takeout weekly slipped to 31% in 2026, down from 26% in 2022 and 39% in 2021– a strong sign that the affordability crisis is driving the shifting trends. That percentage of Americans ordering takeout in 2026 is now even with what it was pre-pandemic in 2018.

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