15% of Restaurant Customers Are Regulars, Visiting Three or More Times a Week

The greatest share of U.S. restaurant consumers visit restaurants once or twice a week. 

Thirty-eight percent visit restaurants that often, according to “The Digital Divide,” a PYMNTS and Paytronix collaboration based on a survey of 2,391 U.S. restaurant consumers. 

Get the report: The Digital Divide 

The next greatest share of restaurant consumers — 32% — visit restaurants once or twice a month, while 16% visit once a month or less and 15% visit three times a week or more. 

Customers who visit only chain restaurants tend to go there more frequently than the customers who visit only independent restaurants go to those businesses. 

Customers who visit chain restaurants are most likely to go there once or twice a week, while the greatest share of those who go to independent restaurants go there a couple times a month. 

Among those who visit only chain restaurants, 38% go once or twice a week, 30% go a couple times a month, 18% go three times a week or more and 14% go once a month or less. 

Among the consumers who visit only independent restaurants, 37% go a couple times a month, 33% go once or twice a week, 20% go once a month or less and 11% go three times a week or more. 

The types of dining experiences they prefer most are dining inside or outdoor seating or picking up from the restaurant, but the percentages vary between the customers of the two different kinds of restaurants. 

Among chain restaurant customers, 48% prefer dining inside or outdoor seating — and an almost equal share, 44%, prefer picking up from the restaurant. 

Among independent restaurant customers, 73% prefer dining inside or outdoor seating, far more than the 19% who prefer picking up from the restaurant.