The girls\u2019 trip was perfect: Samantha Stobo and her best friend spent two weeks in Italy drinking wine, suntanning, driving a convertible down the coast of Puglia. But there was one part of la dolce vita the 32-year-old never warmed up to: long, late, lazy dinners that rarely began before 8pm and stretched well past 10.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am such an early eater,\u201d Stobo said. Back home in Miami, her \u201cideal dinner time\u201d is 5.30; she simply \u201ccan\u2019t wait\u201d much later.<\/p>\n
Stobo, who works in hotel marketing, does not care if that makes her sound uncool or uptight; she thinks a 5pm dinnertime is healthier. \u201cThat\u2019s the normal time people used to eat dinner when we, like, lived by the sun and the moon and the way of the world,\u201d she said. An idyllic way to put it \u2013 but studies<\/a> do show that eating two hours or less before bedtime can disrupt our circadian rhythm and be a risk factor for obesity.<\/p>\n Thought to be the stuff of early bird specials and old folks\u2019 homes, the five o\u2019clock dinnertime could be one of 2025\u2019s most surprising comebacks, as younger generations seem willing to finish meals before the sun goes down. According to data collected by the reservation app OpenTable, 53% of gen Z and 51% of millennials in the US are interested in snagging an early seat. OpenTable also found that 5pm dining was up 11% from January to August 2025, compared with 2024; 6pm, the most popular time to eat, was up 8%, while 8pm was up only 4%. In New York \u2013 now, apparently, a sleepy city? \u2013 5pm dining was up 20%.<\/p>\n The reservation app OpenTable found that 5pm dining was up 11% from January to August 2025, compared with 2024. Photograph: Maskot\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cOur data points to a clear trend in earlier dinner reservations this year, which could be influenced by factors like return to office, shifting health and wellness priorities, and\/or strategically booking in-demand tables at historically quieter times,\u201d Cheryl Paniagua, vice-president of restaurant sales and services at OpenTable, said in a statement.<\/p>\n Young people are drinking less<\/a> and working out more; 73% of gen Zers have gym memberships, according to a 2024 report<\/a>. Why stay out late when you have to rise and grind the next morning? Then there\u2019s the issue of making reservations, which has become a bit of a bloodsport<\/a>. Reservation scalpers are known to gobble up prime tables as soon as they become available, then sell them to the highest bidder. Want to eat at that TikTok-famous bistro or celebrity-favored Italian joint? Hope you\u2019re hungry at 4.30pm.<\/p>\n Late-evening reservations conjure images of European cities, bottles of wine consumed slowly among friends and Anthony Bourdain in a leather jacket. Spaniards eat<\/a> the latest, usually around 10pm, followed by Italians (9pm), the French (8pm), Germans (7pm), and Swedes, who are prompt 6pm diners.<\/p>\n According to a recent Yahoo\/YouGov survey<\/a> of 1,690 US adults, most (34%) liked to eat dinner at 6pm, 21% said they enjoyed it at 5pm, and only 14% said they sat down for the meal after 8pm. A 9pm dinner is nice if it is enjoyed with friends, but a late dinner alone, at home, perhaps involving a TV tray and Sex and the City reruns? Slightly sad. (Apologies to the late Mr Bourdain.)<\/p>\n Dinner is a really good example of how our cultural norms and rituals aren\u2019t set in stoneJulia C Skinner<\/p>\n Stobo recently shared her penchant for early dinner on TikTok, in a clip<\/a> liked more than 61,000 times. \u201cDinner by 6, in bed by 9,\u201d she captioned a video showing her munching at her kitchen table, basking in late-afternoon light. Many viewers agreed. \u201cAround 5:30-6 anything after that I\u2019m copping an attitude,\u201d one wrote. \u201c5:30 is goated,\u201d commented another.<\/p>\n Julia C Skinner, a food writer and historian, believes that earlier dinner times reflect America\u2019s post-Covid work-from-home attitudes. If people are not commuting, they can theoretically eat as soon as they close their laptops at 5pm on the dot. \u201cIt makes it easier for us to eat whenever we want,\u201d she said. \u201cMy last office job, I commuted two hours each way. That obviously impacted my dinnertime. Now, I work remotely, so I can get off work and be like, \u2018great, right to dinner\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Dinner did not always exist. According to Eater<\/a>, households ate in shifts until the 1700s. When families first started to gather, midday meals were considered the most important. \u201cDinner is a really good example of how our cultural norms and rituals aren\u2019t set in stone,\u201d Skinner said. \u201cBreakfast used to be a huge meal, because we used to work on farms and needed the energy. Now, most people don\u2019t eat a full steak and eggs for breakfast. Times change.\u201d<\/p>\n Early dinner evangelists are not that different from happy hour regulars. Chris Syed, a managing partner of New York\u2019s Highwater Rooftop, says his bar has recently become overrun with young people showing up right at 5pm to eat. \u201cThey\u2019re able to take advantage of happy hour specials, so dinner is cheaper for them, and they\u2019re only out from five to 7pm,\u201d Syed said. \u201cThen they can be in bed by eight watching Netflix.\u201d<\/p>\n Syed, 46, still feels the call of the 8pm reservation, but he has noticed that time looks more like senior hours than peak rush. \u201cThere is a big difference between the 8 o\u2019clock crowd and the five o\u2019clock crowd,\u201d he said. \u201c[Five o\u2019clock] is so young.\u201d He can imagine his bar staging a \u201creverse happy hour\u201d later in the night to counter the early onslaught.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t feed 200 people at the happy hour price,\u201d Syed said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to start to see a lot of [restaurant industry] folks trying to get more strategic, because we still have to cover our costs. Eventually, it\u2019s going to take a toll.\u201d<\/p>\n Giovanni Luciano, 24, a line cook who works at a Brooklyn bistro, eats dinner at 5pm, not necessarily by choice. That\u2019s just when he\u2019s served family dinner, a staff meal eaten before peak hours. He usually finds himself needing a second dinner after his shift.<\/p>\n Luciano, who is something of a sleaze-chic influencer (you may know him<\/a> as \u201cthe Bushwick<\/a> line cook\u201d) and starred in an Addison Rae music video<\/a> this summer, knows he is an anomaly. Among his cohort of TikTok glitterati, \u201cpeople just want to eat dinner and get it over with\u201d then go on to their next event or party. Sometimes, he will peek outside the kitchen and see a \u201clong, full line of people waiting to be seated right at 6pm\u201d.<\/p>\n To each their own, though Luciano believes that it diminishes dinner when you hustle things along. \u201cMeals should be an event,\u201d he said. \u201cI like a candle with my dinner, baby. I want it to be dark.\u201d<\/p>\n