OpenTable statistics show a dining marketplace that reaches beyond traditional dinner reservations. The platform reported more than 55,000 restaurants, bars, wineries, and other venues worldwide in 2023, while its company description said it connected more than 1.5 billion people with restaurants each year and filled 1.6 billion seats annually. Those figures provide useful scale for understanding the late-night, cocktail, event, and social-dining patterns below.
Contents
- Marketplace scale and the review base
- Late-night and midweek booking patterns
- Cocktails, bars, and beverage trends
- Solo diners, groups, and occasions
- Experiences and social dining
- Spending, discovery, and the 2026 outlook
- Outdoor, holiday, and regional demand
Marketplace scale and the review base
OpenTable’s published company descriptions put the platform’s global reach in the billions. In 2023, OpenTable said its network powered hospitality at more than 55,000 restaurants, bars, wineries, and other venues worldwide. The same 2023 description said the service connected more than 1.5 billion people with restaurants each year. In November 2023, OpenTable described its network as filling 1.6 billion seats a year. These are company-reported marketplace totals, not a count limited to nightlife venues. (New OpenTable Data Shows Late Night Dinner on the Rise; OpenTable Debuts Annual Top 100 Restaurants List Alongside 2023’s Biggest Dining Trends)
The review datasets behind OpenTable’s trend reporting are also large. Its 2024 Top 100 analysis used more than 14 million diner reviews, while its 2024 romantic-restaurant analysis used more than 12 million reviews from 2023, reported in 2024. The 2023 outdoor-dining list used more than 13 million diner reviews. For a newer comparison, OpenTable’s 2026 report analyzed more than 2 million U.S. diner reviews collected from January 1 through September 30, 2025, looking at year-over-year phrase and ingredient trends. (OpenTable Serves Up 2025 Dining Predictions; Diners Have Spoken: OpenTable Reveals America’s Top 100 Romantic Restaurants; Outdoor Dining Sees 19% Boost in Early June vs. 2022; OpenTable Reveals the Top Trends Set to Define Dining in 2026)
OpenTable’s State of the Restaurant Industry dashboard covered more than 70,000 restaurants globally in its 2026 dashboard reporting. Because the platform reports different totals for different products and periods, the 55,000-plus, 1.5-billion-person, 1.6-billion-seat, and 70,000-plus figures should be read as separate published descriptions rather than combined into one estimate. (State of the Restaurant Industry - OpenTable Data)
Late-night and midweek booking patterns
The late-night figures are especially relevant to bars, live-music rooms, and restaurants that extend service into the evening. In March 2023, Monday dining at 8 p.m. rose 9% month over month, while Monday dining at 9 p.m. rose 18%. Wednesday was stronger: 8 p.m. dining rose 15%, and 9 p.m. dining rose 23%. Thursday recorded an 18% increase at 8 p.m. and a 24% increase at 9 p.m. Each comparison was March 2023 versus February 2023, so these are month-over-month changes rather than year-over-year growth.
| March 2023 time slot | Increase versus February 2023 |
|---|---|
| Monday, 8 p.m. | 9% |
| Monday, 9 p.m. | 18% |
| Wednesday, 8 p.m. | 15% |
| Wednesday, 9 p.m. | 23% |
| Thursday, 8 p.m. | 18% |
| Thursday, 9 p.m. | 24% |
Source: New OpenTable Data Shows Late Night Dinner on the Rise.
The broader timing data also points to demand outside the conventional Friday-and-Saturday peak. OpenTable recorded a 27% increase in dining between 4:00 and 4:59 p.m. during January 1 through October 31, 2022, compared with the same period in 2019. That was the largest increase by time slot in the cited report. Wednesday dining then increased 11% year over year from January 1 through September 30, 2024, the largest day-of-week increase in that report. (Monday is the new weekend—and other dining trends from OpenTable’s 2022 data; OpenTable Serves Up 2025 Dining Predictions)
Cocktails, bars, and beverage trends
OpenTable review language gives a measurable view of beverage and venue interest. During January 1 through September 30, 2023, versus the same period in 2022, mentions of mocktails rose 48% and mentions of non-alcoholic drinks rose 8%. Mentions of speakeasies increased 25%, espresso martinis 39%, Aperol spritzes 27%, and negronis 4%. These figures measure changes in diner-review mentions; they do not represent beverage sales or the number of drinks served.
The pattern combines alcohol-free interest with recognizable cocktail and bar concepts. For nightlife readers, the distinction matters: a rise in review mentions can indicate what diners notice or discuss, but it is not proof that every venue experienced the same increase. (OpenTable Debuts Annual Top 100 Restaurants List Alongside 2023’s Biggest Dining Trends)
Cuisine discovery also shifted in the 2022 comparison. Bookings for Colombian cuisine rose 224% versus 2019, while bookings for contemporary Latin cuisine rose 68%. Both comparisons covered January 1 through October 31, 2022, against the same period in 2019. These are booking changes for cuisine categories, not a direct measurement of cocktail-bar demand, but they help show how food and nightlife discovery can overlap. (Monday is the new weekend—and other dining trends from OpenTable’s 2022 data)
Solo diners, groups, and occasions
Reservation behavior moved in both individual and group directions. Solo dining rose 10% year over year from January 1 through September 30, 2024, compared with the same period in 2023. Reservations for parties of six or more rose 8% in the same comparison. In the corresponding 2023 comparison, solo dining rose 4% year over year, the largest increase among party sizes in that report. (OpenTable Serves Up 2025 Dining Predictions; OpenTable Debuts Annual Top 100 Restaurants List Alongside 2023’s Biggest Dining Trends)
Holiday reservations show why venues need to plan for different party types. In OpenTable’s Valentine’s Day 2023 data, solo diners and parties of three or more together represented 32% of Valentine’s Day dining. Valentine’s Day dining grew 9% year over year in 2023, while Mother’s Day dining grew 6%. Spending on Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day was 15% higher than spending on non-holidays in the 2023 comparison. (Diners Have Spoken: OpenTable Reveals America’s Top 100 Romantic Restaurants; OpenTable Debuts Annual Top 100 Restaurants List Alongside 2023’s Biggest Dining Trends)
Large-party demand also had a seasonal concentration. Three of OpenTable’s five biggest dining days for parties of six or more in 2022 fell in mid-December. That finding does not specify the individual dates, but it identifies a useful planning window for restaurants and bars that host holiday gatherings. (OpenTable Debuts Annual Top 100 Restaurants List Alongside 2023’s Biggest Dining Trends)
Experiences and social dining
OpenTable’s experience category grew across several reported periods. OpenTable Experiences bookings rose 27% year over year from January 1 through September 30, 2024, compared with the same period in 2023. Experiential dining was up 46% year over year from January 1 through August 31, 2025, compared with the corresponding 2024 period. Restaurants offered 34% more pop-ups, collaborations, and chef’s tables in that 2025 comparison. (OpenTable Serves Up 2025 Dining Predictions; OpenTable Reveals the Top Trends Set to Define Dining in 2026)
OpenTable’s experience product reported average spend per guest 50% higher than standard reservations in its current comparison, accessed in 2026. That is a product-reported comparison and should not be treated as a general average for all restaurants. OpenTable also reported that 48% of Americans were more likely to book a restaurant when it offered something unique to experience, based on a September 3–9, 2025 survey used for its 2026 outlook. (Restaurant Event Management Software Solutions - OpenTable; OpenTable Reveals the Top Trends Set to Define Dining in 2026)
Other survey results point to occasion-based demand. OpenTable’s September 2024 consumer research found 42% of Americans more interested in experiential dining for 2025 than for 2024. Its January 2024 survey about Valentine’s Day 2024 found 28% wanted an experience, compared with 23% who wanted a tangible gift. Experience dining on Mother’s Day rose 29% year over year in 2024, compared with Mother’s Day 2023. (OpenTable Serves Up 2025 Dining Predictions; Diners Have Spoken: OpenTable Reveals America’s Top 100 Romantic Restaurants; What Moms Really Want For Mother’s Day: OpenTable Unveils 2025 Dining Insights)
Spending, discovery, and the 2026 outlook
OpenTable’s U.S. dining volume rose 8% year over year in 2025, compared with 2024. Its consumer research for 2026 projected that Americans would dine out 10 times per month on average. The same research found 55% expected to spend more on restaurants in 2026, while 61% expected dining out to feel more like a special occasion than an everyday activity. These are separate measures: one is a reported volume comparison, while the others are survey-based expectations and a forecast.
Discovery behavior is part of the outlook as well. OpenTable found 44% of Americans planned to use AI more to discover restaurants and book reservations in 2026. Among millennials, the projected average was 14 dining-out occasions per month, and 79% considered a restaurant’s Instagram or TikTok worthiness important when choosing where to dine. The research was conducted September 3–9, 2025 and used for the 2026 forecast. (OpenTable Reveals the Top Trends Set to Define Dining in 2026)
The 2022 price signal was also positive at the higher end: meals priced at $50 or more per person had an 8% increase in orders versus 2019, using OpenTable data from January 1 through October 31, 2022. The measure concerns orders, not total spending per diner. (Monday is the new weekend—and other dining trends from OpenTable’s 2022 data)
Outdoor, holiday, and regional demand
Outdoor dining continued to produce distinct demand signals. OpenTable reported a 20% increase in outdoor dining in May 2023 versus May 2022, followed by a 19% increase from June 1 through June 15, 2023, versus the same period in 2022. In New York City, outdoor dining rose 24% from April 1 through July 25, 2023, compared with the same period in 2022, while total dining was nearly flat. For New York City restaurants offering outdoor dining, outdoor covers represented 15% of total dining during that spring-and-summer period. (Outdoor Dining Sees 19% Boost in Early June vs. 2022; OpenTable calls on New York City Council to pass the permanent outdoor dining bill)
OpenTable’s lists provide another view of geographic spread. Its 2024 Top 100 Restaurants in America list represented 53 cities, with Chicago accounting for 10% of the restaurants. Austin had seven restaurants on that list. The 2024 Top 100 Romantic Restaurants list covered 34 states and Washington, D.C.; California contributed 12 restaurants and Florida contributed seven. These list counts describe list composition, not the total number of restaurants in each market. (OpenTable Serves Up 2025 Dining Predictions; Diners Have Spoken: OpenTable Reveals America’s Top 100 Romantic Restaurants)
Mother’s Day timing was concentrated around brunch and earlier service. Noon was the most popular Mother’s Day dining time in 2024, while 10 a.m. had the fastest growth, at 19% year over year versus Mother’s Day 2023. In a 2025 survey, 73% of surveyed mothers said they wanted a family brunch with their children. (What Moms Really Want For Mother’s Day: OpenTable Unveils 2025 Dining Insights)