At an estimated $64.3 billion, Hispanics’ expenditures on dining out currently have experienced a growth of 44% since 2009 and are projected to continue growing at a healthy pace over the next five years. Hispanics have a variety of places to choose from when deciding where to dine out and they tend to gravitate toward restaurants where they feel welcomed and where they can find a good value for their money.

When targeting this market, restaurants should be prepared to host children as 62% of Hispanics who dine out typically bring children with them to the restaurants; children may have a significant influence on the places that Hispanics choose to dine. Providing an ambience in which children can feel comfortable is important as their wellbeing will somewhat influence the overall experience that their parents and guests at other tables nearby get. Children’s approval will increase the likelihood that the rest of the family will also like the place.

Readers may find more information about dining out in the following reports produced by Mintel:

• Dining Out: A 2015 Look Ahead – US, January 2015

• Black Consumers and Dining Out – US, January 2015

• Families and Dining Out – US, September 2014

• Kids and Dining Out – US, July 2013

• The Dining Out Experience – US, April 2013

This report offers an overview of how Hispanics dine out. Its coverage includes: where Hispanic consumers dine out, Hispanics’ group size when dining, presence of children, and attributes that Hispanics associate with different restaurant types, as well as factors influencing restaurant choices. Moreover, the report also includes sections about Hispanics’ dining habits for ordering appetizers, entrées, and sides; Hispanics’ dining habits for ordering desserts and the beverages they order for themselves and for their children.

The report also includes a correspondence analysis to present a visual representation of which type of restaurants Hispanics gravitate toward depending on the type of meal (ie breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack). It also compares findings by key demographics including age, gender, household income, language spoken at home, level of acculturation, and region.

The expenditure estimates in this report cover full-service restaurants, limited-service restaurants, and other limited-service eating places. These are defined as follows:

Full-service restaurants: establishments with waiter/waitress service, in which customers order and are served while seated; may also sell alcoholic beverages and offer carryout services.

Limited-service restaurants include the following:

• Limited-service restaurants provide food services where customers usually select and order items and pay before dining. Food/drink may be consumed on-premise, offered as carryout, or delivered to the customer’s location. May also sell alcoholic beverages. Excludes snack and non-alcoholic beverage bars (see below).

• Cafeterias, buffets, and grill buffets sell food and beverages for immediate consumption using cafeteria-style or buffet serving equipment, such as steam tables, refrigerated areas, display grills, and self-service non-alcoholic beverage dispensing equipment, with patrons selecting items on display in a continuous cafeteria line or from buffet stations.

• Snack and non-alcoholic beverage bars primarily sell a specialty snack, such as ice cream or cookies, or primarily offer non-alcoholic beverages, such as coffee or juices, for consumption on or near the premises; may carry and sell a combination of snack, non-alcoholic beverage, and other related products (eg coffee beans, mugs, coffee makers) but generally promote and sell a unique snack or non-alcoholic beverage.

Estimates of expenditures by Hispanic consumers are derived from data in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CEX (Consumer Expenditure Survey). Shares of total expenditures accounted for Hispanic households were estimated, and these were applied to Mintel’s estimates of total dining out expenditures.

Value figures throughout this report are at rsp (retail selling prices) excluding sales tax unless otherwise stated.

• Market Size and Forecast and Segment Performance: based on US Census Bureau, Annual Retail Trade Survey; US Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates; National Restaurant Association “Restaurant Forecast 2014”; forecast developed by Mintel.

• Mintel uses two categories: Meals at full-service restaurants and “meals at fast food, takeout, delivery, concession stands, buffet, and cafeteria (other than employer and school cafeteria).” The latter is the closest equivalent to limited-service eating places. Mintel did not include meals at vending machines and mobile vendors.

• Aggregate expenditures for each were estimated by multiplying average expenditures by the number of consumer units.

• Mintel averaged three years of aggregate data to reduce the volatility that results from small sub-samples. These are “rolling averages” because the three years of data that are used shift up for each year. So 2009 is based on 2007-09, 2010 is based on 2008-10, etc.

• The CEX data covered Hispanic consumer units (basically equivalent to households) separately, so Mintel was able to estimate the share of total accounted for by Hispanic consumers. Mintel applied these shares (full-service, limited-service, total) to the total sales estimates in the Dining Out: A 2015 Look Ahead – US, January 2015 report.

Note: Mintel does not have any way of estimating what share of total spending on dining out is accounted for by business, organizations, etc, versus households and individuals. The CEX data covers households and individuals only, so applying shares from the CEX to totals from the Dining Out report (which are based largely on Annual Retail Trade Survey data) may result in estimates that are too high.

For the purposes of this report, Mintel commissioned exclusive consumer research through Lightspeed GMI in partnership with Offerwise to explore Hispanic consumers’ perceptions of and attitudes toward dining out. Mintel was responsible for the survey design, data analysis, and reporting. Fieldwork was conducted in November 2014 among a sample of 1,000 Hispanic adults aged 18+ with access to the internet.

Please note that our surveys are conducted online in the participant’s language of choice (ie English or Spanish). Hispanics who are not online are not included in our survey results.

Mintel has also analyzed data from Experian Marketing Services, using the Simmons NHCS (National Hispanic Consumer Study).

The Experian Marketing Services, Simmons NHCS was carried out during April 2013-June 2014, and the results are based on the sample of 24,073 adults aged 18+, including 7,448 Hispanics, with results weighted to represent the US adult population/US adult Hispanic population.

Note: When Experian Marketing Services, Simmons NHCS results are presented by language spoken at home, the sum of the subsegments may not add to the total, due to the fact that some respondents answered “some other language.”

While race and Hispanic origin are separate demographic characteristics, Mintel often compares them to each other. Please note that the responses for race (White, Black, Asian, Native American, or other race) will overlap those that also are Hispanic, because Hispanics can be of any race.

The following is a list of abbreviations used in this report:

Different types of restaurants are discussed within this report, and they are defined as:

Generations are discussed within this report, and they are defined as:

* also known as Generation Y or Echo Boomers

Consumer unit (CU): The US Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey measures spending by consumer units rather than households. A consumer unit is all related members of a household, or financially independent members of a household. A household may include more than one consumer unit. A consumer unit may comprise (1) all members of a household related by blood or by a legal arrangement such as marriage or adoption; (2) a financially independent individual living alone, sharing a house, as a roomer in a private home, or in living quarters of a hotel or motel; or (3) two or more individuals living together, pooling their income, and jointly making expenditure decisions. There are slightly more CUs than there are households in the US.

In order to provide an inflation-adjusted price value for markets, Mintel uses the CPI to deflate current prices. The CPI is defined as follows:

In this report Mintel includes analyses of the consumer data by level of acculturation. As defined by Merriam-Webster, acculturation is the cultural modification of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture. In other words, it is the process whereby Latinos learn about and embrace the mainstream culture while also maintaining their culture of origin. The acculturation algorithm developed by Mintel is based on 1) the language Hispanics speak at home and 2) the culture Hispanics consider that is most dominant in their lives – the American or the Hispanic culture. Results of the algorithm indicate that the bicultural segment is the largest segment, followed by the unacculturated segment. The smallest of all three is the acculturated segment. The following outlines some demographic information that helps put the acculturation groups into context.

• Unacculturated Hispanics (~30%) skew female and tend to have a lower household income. While they are distributed across all ages, they are more likely to be in the 25-34 age range. The majority are foreign-born. They tend to live in an urban setting.

• Bicultural Hispanics (~50%) skew male and tend to be younger. Bicultural Hispanics are distributed across all ages. They skew slightly US-born. They live primarily in urban settings. This is the segment that is projected to grow the most as the market as a whole becomes more bicultural.

• Acculturated Hispanics (~20%) tend to be young, over indexing among Hispanics aged 18-24. They tend to live in households with higher household incomes and are almost equally likely to be male or female. The majority are US-born. They are more likely than any of the other groups to live in the suburbs.

For further information about acculturation, please refer to the Acculturation section of this report.