Guests tip 5% more on average when dining in versus ordering take-out or delivery
Toast, the all-in-one digital platform built for restaurants, announced its Q1 Restaurant Trends Report, providing visibility into the overall state of the restaurant industry through aggregated sales data from restaurants on the Toast platform, which serves approximately 62,000 locations in the U.S.
In Q1, the operating environment continued to change rapidly for restaurant operators – pandemic restrictions lifted throughout the U.S., leading to a surge in guests dining in, all while the industry continued to face a sustained labor shortage alongside rising input prices due to supply chain disruption and accompanying inflation. However, with this backdrop, restaurant operators, employees and suppliers remained incredibly resilient.
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Dining in surges while takeout and delivery decline
Diners are ready for the warm weather and enjoying their favorite meals in person. On-premise dining sales were up 46% from Q1 2022 compared to Q1 2021, while takeout and delivery sales were down by 7% over the same period.
Restaurant sales saw strongest growth in the West and Northeast
While all regions in the U.S. saw impressive year-over-year sales growth, the Western region grew fastest with 38 percent growth, a rate almost twice as high as the South.
San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, New York and Los Angeles grew fastest in Q1
The restaurant recovery is real in major markets across the U.S. The top five performing cities in Q1 2022 were San Francisco (57%), San Diego (55%), Seattle (54%), New York (50%), and Los Angeles (46%) based on Q1 year-over-year gross merchandise value (GMV) or total sales growth on a same-store basis.
Tipping remains steady
On average across all tipped transactions, tipping across full-service and quick-service restaurants remained steady at an average of 19.9% for full service (slightly up from 19.8% in Q1 2021) and 17.0% for quick service (slightly up from 16.9% in Q1 2021).
Indiana is the highest tipping state and California is the lowest
Guests in the Midwest were slightly more generous this quarter, with Indiana coming in at the highest across all tipped transactions with an average tip percentage of 21.29%, followed by West Virginia at 21.23%, Delaware at 21.22%, Ohio at 21.14% and Kentucky at 21.07%. The lowest tipping states were Louisiana at 18.96%, Florida at 18.72%, New York at 18.64%, Washington at 18.41% and California at 17.56%.
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Guests tip more when they dine-in versus ordering take-out or delivery
Guests continue to appreciate great service when dining in. Across all tipped transactions they are tipping significantly more when they are on premise versus when ordering takeout or delivery.
Top performing cuisines
Asian-Inspired cuisine is the top performing cuisine among guests followed by breakfast and middle eastern.
