Families are eating out LESS or choosing McDonalds?

I read an interesting article in the Financial Post this morning in which they examined the eating trends of Americans in the last year. In a survey of 7000 people, they found that in 2007 fewer Americans were eating out at Restaurants with nearly 1/3 of the respondents claiming that the high cost of gasoline would curtail their restaurant patronage. They also went on to say that if they had to eat out, they would choose cheaper alternatives like McDonalds once a month instead of twice a month at Chili's.

Let's take a comparison at two stocks:
McDonald's 2007 Stock:
http://finance.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1197984030000&chddm=1173&q=NYSE:MCD

Ruth's Chris Steak House 2007 Stock:
http://finance.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1197984086000&chddm=1173&q=NASDAQ:RUTH

To put things in perspective, despite the squeeze on restaurant operators, McDonald's stock is up about 33% from January 2007 lows. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Ruth's Chris Steak House's stock has declined by nearly 50%.

The tight credit market and low savings rates certainly doesn't help the situation much either.

Do you eat out at restaurants a lot? Which ones? Do you eat a lot of fast food? Feel free to let me know in the comments!