![Thomas Pash, left, of Urban Purveyor Group and Dimmi CEO Stevan Premutico at El Camino in The Rocks on Friday.](/content/dam/images/g/q/g/r/l/y/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gqg901.png/1469782382199.jpg)
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When it comes to eating out Sundays are becoming the new Fridays, with diners increasingly opting for home delivery Coq au Vin at the end of the work week rather than a white tablecloth restaurant setting.
Saturday remains the most popular day to dine out, according to data from restaurant booking website Dimmi. But it is on Sundays that restaurants are seeing the biggest increase in custom, driven largely by the growing popularity of brunches and long lunches. More people are dining out on Mondays, too.
Thomas Pash, the chief executive of Urban Purveyor Group which was acquired by Quadrant private equity for $175 million last year, said the his venues had seen an increase in bookings on Thursday nights and Sundays.
He said as diners became more educated they were looking for high quality food and many who were health conscious were happy to splurge on a restaurant dinner on a weeknight rather than saving it for a special occasion or a weekend.
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"People are willing to go out on Monday night and have a steak, so that's certainly changing," Mr Pash said.
"It's becoming quite normal and is especially common amongst the health conscious. They're after good food."
The restaurant group, which has 28 venues and brands such as Fratelli Fresh, Sake Restaurant and Bar and the Bavarian Bier Cafe, said the addition of delivery services have helped grow business.
Dimmi, which was founded in 2009 and has clients such as Rockpool, Catalina, Tetsuya's, Cutler & Co, Flower Drum and Esquire, found the average spend of customers across the country has increased from $60.71 in May 2015 to $64.28 in May 2016.
The booking service has seen a 33 per cent increase in online bookings, from the top 10 corporates, over the past 12 months, with PwC topping the number of bookings, followed by ANZ, National Australia Bank and Commonwealth Bank. Macquarie Bank, which is ranked ninth, saw a 48 per cent increase in the number of online bookings made in the last year.
Ordering in on Friday night
Founder and chief executive of Dimmi Stevan Premutico said the impact of delivery services was noticeable on Friday night trade. "People are definitely opting for a beer on the couch and food ordered in rather than beer in a bar after work and then dinner," Mr Premutico said.
He said the online booking service had increased by 4 per cent in the last year and diners were becoming more spontaneous, with 34 per cent of all bookings made within 24 hours of dining time.
"We're also seeing a shift in the times Australians are eating," he said.
"The 7.30pm phenomena has shifted with people more willing to eat out earlier and in off peak periods. But overall the restaurant industry is still booming, it's just a shift in times and days."
The data reflects a the growing take-up of online restaurant transactions that has extended to delivery services such as UberEATS, which began operating in Melbourne in May and has already doubled the area to which is delivers.
Although the company wouldn't reveal figures on the number of orders it's filled, it says restaurant-partners including On It Burgers have reported revenue increases of 20 to 25 per cent and 60 to 80 per cent of orders at Homeslice Pizza come from the App.
Dimmi's data also revealed the premium market, where diners spend more than $110 per head, saw a 5 per cent rise in the last year, with NSW fuelling the growth. Spending in Western Australia fell 7.7 per cent, while Victoria and NSW saw increases of 7.2 per cent and 6.2 per cent respectively.
Queenslanders are the biggest no-shows, with diners in NSW more likely to cancel bookings.
Male diners in the ACT spend on average the most, $87.67 a sitting, while women in Sydney spend the most in a sitting, at $72.82.