The number of restaurant reservations can reveal a lot about how business is going and what people are spending.

News 12's Kristie Reeter talks with an expert about how people can get the best deals while dining out.

Caleb Silver, or Investopedia, says restaurants have seen an increase in people coming to dine unlike during the height of the pandemic.

"We have seen a slight to nice rebound in restaurant reservations across the state of New York, but we are still down 24.8% from 2019 levels so we still have a long way to go," says Silver. "When you look at NYC where we have so many restaurants, we are down 34.2% from 2019 levels."

Silver says if inflation keeps raging on, there might be another drop in restaurant activity because dining out is discretionary spending.

"It's the summer and you want to take the family out to eat, but businesses are dealing with high costs because of inflation," says Silver.

MORE: Ready to eat out? 6 tips for making restaurant reservations

Some items on restaurant menus are more expensive, like anything with protein.

Richard Berroa, owner of Claudy's Kitchen, says chicken that used to cost 89 cents a pound is now $1.89 a pound. "That's an incredible increase."

Berroa says he tries not to pass too much of the extra cost onto the customer.

One trick to saving money is to try dining family style. Also ask restaurants about specials they may have for dine-in only

"We also have other specials that we try to do to entice diners which are only for dine in customers, which is three empanadas for $9 or two empanadas and a beer for $12," says Berroa.