Most Americans say restaurants are getting too expensive, and they’re not imagining things.

“Following seven consecutive months of solid gains,” the National Restaurant Association noted , prices rose slightly in September, and now “menu prices have risen 3.7% since September 2024.”

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At full-service, sit-down restaurants , the hike is even higher, up 4.2% year-over-year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That is much higher than the overall year-over-year inflation rate of 3.0%. Meanwhile, grocery store prices have risen only 2.7% in the same period.

This dynamic, restaurant prices increasing faster than the consumer price index or gro

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