We eat out more, but spend less

Australians are eating out more frequently - boosting restaurant industry earnings - but choosing to devour slightly cheaper meals, data from a major web booking service shows.

The industry's national revenue grew by more than 3 per cent in the past year but average spending per person dropped from $61 to $54 in that time, according to Dimmi, which processes a million restaurant bookings a year.

The biggest year-on-year growth in spending occurred in the ACT at 10 per cent, followed by NSW at 6 per cent. Victoria, where 1500 food businesses have closed in the past year, was the only state to post a decrease.

NSW diners spent on average $61 per head between April and June this year, far behind ACT counterparts who were happy to splash $84 a head at local eateries.

Paddington residents were the most parochial, with 88 per cent of their bookings at restaurants nearby.

People are increasingly booking from their mobile phones, which now account for a third of all online Dimmi bookings. Overall, web restaurant bookings have quintupled since 2011.

And nearly half the bookings are now made just six hours prior to seating, while bookings made a fortnight prior dropped by 32 per cent. Unsurprisingly, the most popular window for eating out is on Saturdays at 7pm or 7.30pm. But lunchtime corporate bookings have fallen.

''Lunch remains the Achilles heel of the industry and goes to the heart of a restaurants ability to boost its profitability,'' said Dimmi chief executive Stevan Premutico.

''Restaurants can't be sustainable if they are empty at lunch. We need to fight together to get Australians back to lunch.''