For the first time since the 2008-2009 recession, Americans have largely stopped going out to restaurants for dinner and are deciding to stay at home to eat instead, the OpenTable Restaurant Industry Index released this week suggests.

OpenTable is a publicly traded U.S. company that lets its 10 million customers make restaurant reservations online at 27,000 restaurants across the globe.

The company tracks activity across its network and monitors the level of reservations made in major U.S. cities and for the country as a whole. On a quarterly and annual basis, it releases that information.

Two chefs prepare a dish in a high-end restaurant. There are signs that U.S. diners are staying home lately. (Reuters)

This week, the data showed that in the final three months of 2012, fewer people went out for dinner than did so in the same period a year earlier.

Although the decline was a fairly small 0.5 per cent, it's the first time that's happened in more than three years, dating back to the third quarter of 2009 when America was just emerging out of recession.

"Restaurants in the New York and Washington, D.C., area were hit particularly hard during the quarter, while growth in other major metro areas and the U.S. overall was essentially flat year-over-year," OpenTable chief executive Matt Roberts said.

The company also cited the impact of Hurricane Sandy for playing a role in the data. But if the slowdown is the start of a larger trend, it would be a discouraging sign for an American economy that's still sputtering along, trying to spur itself back into growth territory after several moribund years.

A decline in restaurant meals would be bad news in the real economy, since it means fewer dollars being circulated in the retail service sector. But it can also be easily construed as a sign Americans aren't feeling confident about their own economic prospects.

The index works by tracking more than 9,000 restaurants. Every percentage point indicates an increase or decrease in the number of guests served in those restaurants, and it includes diners who made reservations or simply walked in and got a table.