20+ Restaurant Customer Statistics: What Foodies Are Looking for in 2025

Customers are the lifeblood of the restaurant industry. Without their continuous loyalty, most restaurants won’t survive. But what do customers want in a restaurant? How do they prefer to order and pay for their food?

Answers to these questions and more below, where we delve deep into 20+ restaurant customer statistics for 2025.

What are some of the most relevant restaurant customer service statistics? What is the average number of customers in a restaurant per day? Are there specific dining out statistics? We’ve gathered all this data and more into an easy-to-read infographic:

Check out the dining habit of restaurant customers:

• 55% of Americans prefer dining at restaurants. One of the main reasons for this is the atmosphere and socialization with others;
• The avg person dines out 4.6 times a month. Not only does the restaurant clientele prefer to eat out, but they also do it quite often.
• The avg monthly spend while dining at restaurants is $191. The same study also revealed that the monthly spend has increased from previous years. This could be attributed to inflation and changes in menu prices, not just a shift in the restaurant customer journey.
• Women spend 33% more a month than men. On average, women spent more than men when dining out in 2024. This is flipped from 2023, when men spent 19% more.
• When dining out, customers tip on average 18% of the bill.
• The most popular restaurant types for dining out: Casual dining – 69%; Fast food – 55%; Fast casual – 55%; Contemporary casual – 38%; Bar & grill – 30%; Cafes – 23%
• Diners are willing to wait up to 26 minutes without a table reservation

While some diners can patiently wait for a table at their favorite restaurant, others won’t.

PRO tip: If you’re wondering how to improve speed of service in your restaurant, enable customers to make a reservation online!

Accepting bookings by phone can lead to double bookings, misheard hours and other errors that will leave restaurant clientele unhappy with the experience at your establishment. Instead, allow clients to make a reservation directly on your website, in just a few clicks!

All you have to do is get the code GloriaFood provides and add it on your website. Simple and free! Moreover, to further speed up service, you can also allow guest to pre-order their food when booking a table.

If you are up to date with the most relevant customer statistics, you can optimize your business to better fulfill your clients’ needs. In the following infographic, you will find demographic research on foodies, restaurant website statistics, restaurant wait time statistics and much more.

• 45% of customers prefer ordering takeout or delivery vs dining at restaurants. The main reasons why customers prefer to order in are: It’s enjoyable to eat at home – 81%; It’s more convenient – 66%; You can watch TV or movies – 50%; You don’t have to cook – 41%; It’s faster – 40%’
• The avg person orders takeout or delivery 3 times a month. While less than dining out, plenty of customers still order in quite often. The average monthly spend when ordering in is $88.50;
• 84% of customers prefer to order delivery on a restaurant’s website;
• 65% of customers order takeout more often, while 35% prefer delivery.PRO tip: To ensure you capture 100% of customers who prefer to order in, offer both takeout and delivery directly on your restaurant website;
• A Forbes Advisor survey found that 65% of customers tip at least 11% more when tipping PRO tip: You can enable digital tipping when customers choose to pay online by card.
• The most popular restaurant types for takeout and delivery. When ordering in, customers prefer to order: Fast food – 63%; Fast casual – 47%; Casual dining – 34%; Contemporary casual – 12%; Food trucks – 11%; Ghost kitchen – 11%;
• Diners are willing to wait 22 min for takeout and 43 for delivery. When ordering in, people expect their food to be ready quickly, whether at the restaurant for them to pick up or at their doors.

To ensure you capture 100% of customers who prefer to order in, offer both takeout and delivery directly on your restaurant website. This will allow you to create the perfect restaurant customer journey and ensure you have complete control of the online ordering process.

Are you ready to start increasing sales by accepting food orders? Add the online ordering system from GloriaFood on your website! It will only take you 10 minutes to install, and it is also free!

When ordering in, people expect their food to be ready quickly, whether at the restaurant for them to pick up or at their doors.

PRO tip: To speed up the process, you can integrate online ordering into your POS system. That way, online orders are automatically accepted by the POS and sent straight to your kitchen printer for fulfillment.

To further optimize the process, you can also set up multiple kitchen stations for the grill area, pizza oven, dessert area, salad bar, etc., and assign a different printer to each.

This way, multiple chefs can start preparing the dishes they’re in charge of without imposing on one another or taking over an order that’s not theirs.

Moreover, if you would like to motivate your employees, you can enable digital tipping when customers choose to pay online by card. As the statistics show, the ease of use will determine clients to tip more when they use online payment methods.

Here’s how easy it is to get more tips online if you enable online payments into the GloriaFood online ordering system:

What do restaurant customer statistics reveal about payment preferences? And how can you use these restaurant stats to improve client experience and boost your profits? Find out below:

• 90% of customers are somewhat or very satisfied with mobile ordering & payment technology;
• 62% of full-service customers would use contactless or mobile payment options when dining out. Additionally, 57% would pay using a digital wallet such as Google Pay or Apple Pay.
• 79% of delivery customers said they’d like to use contactless or mobile payment options
• Additionally, 73% would like to pay using a digital wallet, such as Apple Pay or Google Pay.

PRO tip: By offering contactless dine-in ordering via a QR code menu, you can enable your customers to order and pay directly on their smartphones, whether that is by card or other digital wallets.

Here’s how you can enable on premise ordering and payment with GloriaFood:

Curious to see how on premise ordering works? Here is how customers can order and pay by scanning a QR code. You can also scan it yourself to go through the flow.

To make your food business successful, you must get acquainted with restaurant customer demographics. What are the latest food trends and what can persuade a client to come back to your establishment?

• 60% of consumers are willing to pay more for locally sourced ingredients;
• 77% of younger generations like restaurants that are clearer about their environmental impact. Additionally, a fifth of Gen Z and millennials said “environmental impact” is a vital factor for them when ordering food;
• 66% of customers say food presentation on social media influences their dining choices;
• 79% of diners would come back to a restaurant if their problem was solved to their satisfaction’
• 37% of dine-in guests said that more promotions & discounts would encourage them to return

PRO tip: If you’re looking for an easy way to drive up to 37% more repeat business, you can add discounts and special offers at the top of your dine-in and online menu with GloriaFood.

Check out how many promotion templates you can choose from:

Looking at the restaurant customer experience is vital for the longevity of your business. You need to understand who your customers are and what they’re looking for from a restaurant experience. Only that way will you convince them to keep coming back to your restaurant.

Keeping a close eye on the latest restaurant customer statistics will give you an edge over the competition and allow you to build a successful business.