Dining out going out of fashion

Restaurants are usually the first to feel the chill of recession as Beijing's high-end eateries that depend on group reservations and banquets for business will tell you.

"The number of diners has dropped by two-thirds from Monday to Thursday and by half on weekends," says Tianyi Li, deputy general manager of Yi Jin Yuan. It is a classy Muslim restaurant, where an average diner spends 150 yuan ($22). Those who venture into VIP rooms could be poorer by 500 yuan per person.

"The trend seems to be to cut down dinner budgets and reduce the number of visits to restaurants," Li says. "Diners who used to splurge more than 10,000 yuan on a banquet now spend much less, and those who preferred private rooms now dine in the general area."