Local customers lead nation in cutting dining tabs.

Patrons drastically reduced how much they forked out for meals at Southland restaurants during 1993, a result of customers' increased price-consciousness and restaurants' increased cut-rate deals.

Southlanders posted the biggest decline nationwide on the average amount they spent on a restaurant meal, cutting tabs by 12 percent to $23.76 this year from $27.10 in 1992, according to the 1994 Zagat Los Angeles/Southern California Restaurant Survey. New York-based Zagat Survey conducts this poll each year.

"I think people are shopping the menu," said Bob Spivak, chief executive of Brentwood-based Grill Concepts, which owns and operates the Daily Grill restaurants. "In 1993 there is a little more price awareness than there has been in the past."

"People want to spend less money. There's no question," added Michael Franks, owner of the Chez Melange in Redondo Beach and three other L.A.-area restaurants. "Even if they have the money, they want to be perceived as spending less."

Patrons are ordering less expensive entrees, and splitting appetizers and desserts, noted Karen Berk, co-editor of the Zagat survey. They are also ordering more pasta, which is less expensive than meat, Berk said.

Furthermore, consumers have drastically reduced their consumption of one item in particular that jacks up check totals -- alcohol.

At the Water Grill and the five other restaurants operated by Long Beach-based University Restaurant Group, the sale of hard liquor currently makes up only about 8 percent of the restaurants' total beverage sales -- down from about 10 or 11 percent in 1992, said Chairman Jeff King. This percentage has never been so low, he said.

And wine consumption has decreased in general, Berk said, with more patrons ordering by-the-glass instead of by-the-bottle.

To follow suit, restaurants are offering more of their quality reds and whites by-the-glass than they used to, she added.

Moreover, it doesn't always take a French champagne to satisfy a "high roller" these days. It often only takes a California sparkling wine, Franks said.

In general, consumers are steering away from high-priced, uptown, fine-dining eateries and sticking to their casual neighborhood favorites. "This is the era of the neighborhood bistro," King said.

There has been a disproportionate number of closures of high-end restaurants, noted Laurie Lively Smith, a restaurant analyst with Seidler Co., a downtown L.A.-based brokerage firm. Lower-priced, less-formal cafes have been popping up in their place.

Restaurants are also beefing up their promotions in an effort to solicit business, Berk said.

Both the Cheesecake Factory restaurant chain and Cinnabar in Glendale offer either reduced or half portions, she said.

Other restaurants have started "incentive clubs" or "dining clubs," which enable customers to accumulate points toward free meals or free parts of meals by eating there frequently, Berk said.

The Music Center in downtown L.A. sent its theater-goers coupons for discounts at several L.A.-area restaurants. One coupon entitles the holder to a 20 percent reduction on a dinner for two at the California Pizza Kitchen restaurant downtown. Another offers a 15 percent discount on dinner for two at Carroll O'Connor's Place in Beverly Hills.

Yet the level of promotions at L.A.-area restaurants still doesn't rival the pervasiveness of promotions offered at restaurants in New York City, Berk said.

Their eating habits may be changing, but Southland patrons still have not changed their minds about their favorite restaurants. The Zagat Survey showed that the five most popular restaurants in Los Angeles remained unchanged from 1992.

Patina on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles was the most popular, followed by Chinois on Main in Santa Monica and Citrus on Melrose in Los Angeles. Campanile on La Brea and Le Chardonnay on Melrose Avene, both in L.A., were rated No. 4 and No. 5, respectively.

Patina serves French-California cuisine, Chinois serves Wolfgang Puck's Oriental-French creations and Citrus on Melrose serves French-California cuisine. Campanile, meanwhile, serves grilled meats and fish, while Le Chardonnay has been referred to as "the best bistro this side of Paris."

Yet the restaurants patrons actually frequented the most during 1993 were lower priced and more mainstream than those they actually liked the best. These most-frequented chains were California Pizza Kitchen, Hamburger Hamlet and Cheesecake Factory, in that order, according to the survey.

The survey also reported the top restaurants that serve basic food, such as burgers, fries and breakfast.

The top three spots in this best "bang for the buck" category went to Santa Monica-based Benita's Frites, famous for its French fries, Los Angeles-based Tommy's, which sells hamburgers, and Jody Maroni's Sausage Kingdom in Venice and Universal City.