NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The big-splurge dinner out has grown even costlier for New Yorkers and visitors, with the tab at top spots soaring 15 percent since last year, according to the 2007 Zagat dining survey released on Wednesday.

New York traditionally has had the nation's highest dining tab and this year it came in at just under $40 per person, up 5 percent. That was the biggest percentage hike in years and 20 percent higher than the national average.

Meals at the city's 20 priciest restaurants rose 14.5 percent to $130. Two years ago the figure was $91.

The city's top-priced restaurant was Masa, where sushi chef Masayoshi Takayama's prix fixe costs $450.

But overall, New York is still considerably cheaper than Tokyo at $75 per meal, London at $72 and Paris at $67, Zagat said.

New Yorkers continue dining out more every year, extending a trend in place since Tim and Nina Zagat began their restaurant and travel guide empire 28 years ago with a copied sheet of dining recommendations using input from their friends.

"It's hard to fathom how the dining scene in New York gets bigger and better every year but it does," Tim Zagat said in a news release.

More than 31,000 "reviewers" -- actual diners who fill out surveys that are edited into the Zagat guides -- said they ate more than half their meals outside the home. The 2007 guide covers 2,000 establishments representing 98 cuisines.

Among the trends this year in New York dining was the continuing steakhouse boom, with the number of cow palaces surveyed by Zagat more than tripling since 1993 to 93. Once again, Brooklyn's Peter Luger, cited as the carnivore's "Valhalla," topped the category.

While the barbecue boomlet cooled, Chinese food showed signs of a comeback with the debut of several upscale destinations -- and prices to match.

Hotel restaurants, once considered dowdy, have grown in stature by importing celebrity chefs, Zagat found. Grand, theatrically designed dining spaces have also taken hold.

There were few if any changes among the top-rated places. The seafood palace Le Bernadin with its $106 average tab crowned the list for the fourth straight year, followed by Daniel, which also got the top decor rating.

Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Cafe continued their eight-year streak of sharing the top spots for most popular, while Per Se was deemed to have the best service.

Brooklyn's humble Di Fara topped the pizzeria ratings, followed by Grimaldi's, in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Parker Meridien hotel's burger joint took the prize for best burgers, despite having no table service and a modest tab of about $6. Barney Greengrass was voted best deli, closely followed by Katz's.

Zagat surveyors deadlocked on the lowest-rated food, giving the nod to media-star hangout Elaine's and Times Square's ESPN Zone.

"You can't eat celebrity," the guide noted of Elaine's, citing "adequate" food and "indifferent" service. The sports-themed ESPN Zone was blasted for limited appeal to jocks, tourists and "10-year-old boys."